Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion believes his club is trending in the right direction entering the 2020-21 campaign.
And despite being in just the third year of a rebuild, he's ready to see some progress.
"As an organization we’re climbing the charts," Dorion told the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch. "A lot of the hard work has been done. For us, now, it’s time to perform. We’re at a place where everyone’s on the same page for our immediate success and our future success."
The Senators have finished 30th, 31st, and 30th in the league's standings over the last three seasons. Dorion is now aiming to build a team that can be a perennial contender.
"... We want to have a team, when they drop the puck on the first day of the year, that we know we’re going to be in the playoffs and we know can progress to win Cups," Dorion said. "These things don’t get done overnight. It was always part of the plan, and how we structured the plan, with the way the game has evolved, that we continued this evolution.
"We’re following the right path to have a Cup-contending team year-after-year-after-year as we move along in the rebuild."
Making significant progress this season could be difficult. The NHL is widely expected to adopt an all-Canadian division for one year due to the country's border restrictions, an alignment that would place the Senators in a tough spot.
The six other Canadian teams all qualified for the league's expanded postseason this summer. In a poll The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun conducted of NHL executives, scouts, and coaches from American teams, all 15 of them predicted the Sens would finish last in the all-Canadian division.
Even Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said last month he doesn't like his team's chances in such a format, adding that "this is not our year."
While he seems pessimistic about this season, Melnyk is confident about the future. In October, he said his team will be a "Stanley Cup winner within four years." That may seem bold, but the Sens are set up nicely for the future.
Thomas Chabot and Brady Tkachuk are two key under-24 building blocks who have already proven themselves. The club's farm system is stocked with promising prospects who have received a taste of NHL action, such as Josh Norris, Alex Formenton, Drake Batherson, and Erik Brannstrom. Ottawa also added a trio of 2020 first-rounders to its pipeline in Tim Stuetzle, Jake Sanderson, and Ridly Greig.
Dorion has assembled a stable of veterans for this upcoming season, too, including Matt Murray, Evgenii Dadonov, Austin Watson, Alex Galchenyuk, Erik Gudbranson, and Josh Brown.
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