Senators Throwback: Revisiting the JG Pageau Trade

With JG Pageau and the New York Islanders in town to play the Ottawa Senators tonight, now makes a great time to revisit the trade that sent Pageau to the Islanders back in February of 2020. A year prior at the deadline, Pierre Dorion traded away Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. In the lead-up to the 2020 deadline, Pageau was the only high value trade piece the Senators had. This was a trade the Senators needed to make. They had their hopes on finishing as low in the standing as possible that season. Plus, Pageau’s contract was expiring, and wanted to go play for a winner. Without further ado, let’s dive into the details of the JG Pageau trade.

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The Trade

To Ottawa: 2020 first-round pick, 2020 second-round pick

To New York: JG Pageau

There was also a conditional 2022 third-round pick going to the Senators, if the Islanders won the Stanley Cup. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Pageau signed a six year, $30 million contract with the Islanders right away as well.

Initial Thoughts

The return for the Senators seemed like solid value at the time. It worked out perfectly that Pageau was having a career year that season. He had scored a career high 24 goals through just 60 games with the Senators. His 40 points led the team up to that point. The Islanders were having a strong season, but not a lot of people looked at them as true Cup contenders, so Sens fans were hopeful that the first round pick could end up in the 15-20 range.

The Return

What’s crazy is that the Islanders did not win a single regular season game after this trade that year. They lost seven in a row, and then Covid came about to abruptly end the season. They went on to play great in the Bubble, losing to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals. That left the Senators with the 28th and the 59th overall picks.

Here’s what the Senators did with those two picks: They selected Ridly Greig 28th overall, and then they used the late second from the Islanders, plus an early third round pick to trade up in the draft with the Toronto Maple Leafs. They then selected Tyler Kleven 44th overall.

By the Numbers

JG Pageau: 315 games, 63 goals, 152 points

Ridly Greig: 115 games, 17 goals, 42 points

Tyler Kleven: 43 games, 1 goal, 5 points

Pageau has also scored 12 goals and 27 points in 51 playoff games, helping the Islanders get to the Eastern Conference Finals twice. He has averaged 0.49 points per game as an Islander. That’s slightly higher than the 0.43 points per game he averaged as a Senator. Essentially, who he was as Senator is who he’s been as an Islander. He’s physical, hard working, defensively reliable, and tough as nails. Lou Lamoriello wanting Pageau to be a long-term New York Islander just made perfect sense.

Analyzing the Trade

Greig remains an important young piece for the Senators going forward. This season, though, he’s scored just 7 points in 23 games (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

This trade has worked out nicely for both sides. Pageau’s up over 300 games played for the Islanders, and the Senators gained two young pieces that are still in the early stages of their NHL careers. Greig has been quieter than you’d hope this season, both as an offensive player and as a pest. Seeing him go off the ice smiling after being punched in the face by Michael McCarron last night, leading to a Senators power play, is what Sens fans would like to see a little more often. A few more goals would be nice, too- he’s stuck on just two this season. At just 22 years old, he still has plenty of room for growth.

The Kleven part of the deal comes with a bit of an asterisk, seeing as the Senators did have to give up an additional pick, not involved in the Pageau trade, to move up to select Kleven. Let’s not get lost in the details. Kleven’s a promising physical defenseman. There have been stretches where Kleven looks like he could become a top four d-man. There have also been stretches where I’m not if he needs more time in the AHL. That’s the life of a young d-man I suppose.

It needs to be mentioned that one pick after Kleven, Brock Faber was selected. They both played on the United States Development team, too. So this pick was a bit of a miss. We know how Pierre Dorion and Trent Mann liked to draft, though. Kleven’s size/physicality/skating ability probably had them drooling. To be fair, if it was another scouting department in charge, maybe the Senators do select Faber, but perhaps they also go for the flashier defenseman in the first round, taking Jamie Drysdale over Jake Sanderson. For now, let’s appreciate Kleven as a 22 year old who’s figuring things out at the start of his NHL career.