Nobody wanted to see fan-favourite Nick Paul leave the Ottawa Senators, as he was a key fixture for them in the bottom-six over the past few seasons. It was unfortunate that he couldn’t be retained, yet Pierre Dorion was luckily able to make the most of the situation by acquiring Mathieu Joseph (and a 4th rounder) for Paul before the trade deadline. And the extremely early returns are looking like the Senators did quite well, which begs the question: is Mathieu Joseph’s ceiling higher than we initially thought?
When the trade was first made, I think fans were both disappointed that Paul was gone but also optimistic that Joseph could be an adequate replacement in the bottom-6.