Will the Senators receive some grace on forfeited first-round pick?

It’s been a difficult stretch of hockey for the Ottawa Senators, who since Dec. 21 have lost nine of 13 games and have fallen back in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference.

What may hurt the franchise even more in the long term is that they don’t have a first-round pick in this summer’s NHL Entry Draft, after the NHL stripped them of it for mishandling a trade negotiation with Evgenii Dadonov and the Vegas Golden Knights.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by The Sheet’s Jeff Marek to discuss the Senators’ struggles in the new year, their forfeited first-round pick, and if the league will show the Senators mercy and give them back their first rounder.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Sens don’t have a first-round pick in 2026, and they’re likely to miss the playoffs this season. This has been a disaster.

Jeff Marek: The thing that makes it more infuriating for Sens owner Michael Andlauer and GM Steve Staios: this infraction wasn’t their doing. This was nothing that they did to cost them a first-round pick.

I remember with the Ilya Kovalchuk contract situation with the New Jersey Devils, and they had to forfeit the first-round pick … that ended up getting covered over and went away.

I am wondering/hoping, considering there is precedent with Kovalchuk, that this goes away. I didn’t like it when it first happened, I didn’t think it was fair for Andlauer and the Senators, I still feel the exact same way about it, and I don’t think anything is going to change my mind.

I hope the same grace the NHL gave the Devils with the first-round pick is the same grace they show the Senators.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…