Matt Duchene Is Doing Everything He Can To Up His Trade Value So He Can Get Out Of Ottawa
Oh my god that was absolute filth. Now do yourselves a favor real quick and make sure you catch your breath before watching the alternate angle because it somehow manages to get even dirtier.
And that right there, my friends, is how you dangle during a contract year. Personally, I think that playing on a contract year should be considered a PED. You don’t need to take steroids or anything of the like. All you need to do is keep signing 1-year deal after 1-year deal in the NHL and you’ll be out there breaking records and/or ankles on the regular. And Matt Duchene is that guy right now.
Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but there’s a good chance that the Matt Duchene trade may go down as one of the worst trades ever. It’s not necessarily because Duchene wasn’t worth a 1st round pick or that giving up Kyle Turris in the process was too much to part with for Duchene. Because at the time of the trade, it made perfect sense. The Sens were one win away from the Stanley Cup Final and they were looking to add a little more scoring. And at the time, people thought that 1st round pick was going to be somewhere in the late 20’s at least. But again, that’s hindsight. Because what really happened is that copious amounts of shit starting hitting the fan and the Ottawa Senators are in free fall mode. After all the drama this offseason and trading Mike Hoffman and trading Erik Karlsson, there is a very real chance that the 2019 1st round pick the Senators gave up in the Matt Duchene trade could end up being used to take 1st overall pick Jack Hughes.
[cue Price is Right sad horn]
Now Matt Duchene is in a pretty tough situation here. He got traded to this team that had all this potential, and now everybody expects them to finish in 31st place this season. So why in the actual heck would he want to stick around any longer? Dude wants to get traded out of there faster than you can say “Bobby Ryan is from Cherry Hill, NJ”. But I doubt the Senators are in any rush to trade the guy unless they can get a 1st round pick back for this year to try to cut their losses. So what does Matt Duchene go out there and do? [NSFW ALERT because I’m posting the GIF again]
He goes out there and pulls some moves off in the corner like this. What a sah-vahge. At the very best, he’s expediting the process of getting out of Ottawa while he still can. At the very worst, he’s adding a few more dollars to that next contract he’ll sign on July 1st. Get ready for Contract Year Matt Duchene, folks. It’s gonna be a ride.