Ottawa Senators Finally the Team that Trades for Jakob Chychrun NHL Trade Talk.
After a long holdout for Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun that started on Feb. 11 when he was made a healthy scratch for trade-related reasons, the Coyotes have finally traded him to the Ottawa Senators for a 2023 conditional first-round pick, a 2024 conditional second-round pick, and a 2026 second-round pick. The conditions of the picks state, “The 2023 first-round pick is top-five protected, and if met, becomes a 2024 unprotected first-round pick. Also, the second-round pick in 2024 will become a 2024 first-round pick top-10 protected if the Senators make the 2023 Eastern Conference finals.”
Going into the 2022-23 season, Chychrun was considered the hottest trade commodity at the trade deadline, especially because he confirmed that he asked for a trade before the year started. It seemed like a feverish race between the Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, and Los Angeles Kings to start, but Ottawa has been a team consistently linked to him since the start of the season.
Related: Jakob Chychrun Confirms He Has Asked to Be Traded by Coyotes
Chychrun has been the Coyotes’ best defenseman since making his NHL debut in 2016. He has 170 points in 373 career games and is known for his skating ability and two-way offensive/defensive play, making him an instant threat on the blue line. The other factor is that he is 24 years old with two more years left on his six-year, $27.6 million contract. This was a win-win scenario for Arizona because Chychrun’s contract carries a modified no-trade clause (10-team no-trade list) that doesn’t kick in until next season. The fact that he asked for a trade, there are no contractual roadblocks, and that he still has two years left on his contract meant that the Coyotes could weaponize his value, knowing teams would not want him as a rental but rather to build around him.
Arizona’s reported asking price was high: two first-round picks and a prospect. The Coyotes did the right thing by asking high, as Chychrun was their best trade chip, and they needed the assets for their rebuild. However, it might have taken too long as most contending teams looked elsewhere for defensemen: Edmonton (Mattias Ekholm), Boston (Dmitry Orlov), and Los Angeles (Vladislav Gavrikov), which means they likely had to settle for a lesser package from the Senators since other options were off the table, and that was music to Ottawa’s ears.
There were some concerns with Chychrun because he missed a portion of last season and the start of the season with an ankle injury and wrist injury, which caused some apprehension that his game would not hold up, but he proved everyone wrong. He has 28 points in 36 games this season since returning and is a plus-8. That is a 64-point pace, which would shatter his career-best 41 points back in 2020-21. Although the Senators struggled to start the season, they now sit five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. If they want to make a genuine playoff push, Chychrun is the type of player they need, as the team has struggled on defense.
Most hockey fans were waiting for a conclusion to this saga, and now everyone can breathe a sigh of relief knowing there is a conclusion and that Chychrun will be part of the Sens for the foreseeable future.
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Ottawa Senators Finally the Team that Trades for Jakob Chychrun NHL Trade Talk.
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