Zach Sanford gets a chance to see his old Ottawa teammates Thursday

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There will be a familiar face across the ice at the Canada Life Center on Thursday night.

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It won’t take Zach Sandford long to see his old Ottawa Senators teammates.

Dealt to the Winnipeg Jets for a fifth-round pick to try to help them make the post-season, he made his debut Tuesday and will skate against the Senators.

He was getting ready to head to the airport Monday to accompany the Senators to New York at 5 pm when Sanford got a call from general manager Pierre Dorion around 2:30 pm that he’d been dealt to the Jets.

“OK, maybe I’m staying here the rest of the year,” Sanford said he was thinking. “But… I wasn’t too surprised when I got the call.”

Acquired from the St. Louis Blues for center Logan Brown in training camp by Ottawa, the Senators are hopeful Sanford’s playoff experience and winning a Stanley Cup will help the club earn a spot in the NHL’s big dance.

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Sanford said he has experience in the Western Conference and is hopeful that it will help down the stretch.

“I spent a lot of time with St. Louis so that bigger, heavier (style), that definitely fits my game,” Sanford said. “Hanging onto pucks a lot more. Teams in the (East) are kind of run and gun, up and down the ice.

“I’m excited to see where I fit on this team and see what I can do to help the team win. It’s nice to be back to something you know.”

Sanford is looking forward to his role in Winnipeg. I have played 12 minutes in the club’s 4-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday at home.

“It’s good for me,” Sanford said. “It’s exciting, coming here and trying to make a playoff push at the end of the year with these guys, and get to see the guys today that we have here.”

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WILL HE STAY OR WILL HE GO?

Former Ottawa winger Yevgenii Dadonov won’t be leaving Las Vegas.

The NHL canceled the deal Wednesday that would have sent Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks at Monday’s NHL trade deadline.

“The trade could not be concluded because Dadonov’s contract includes a limited no-trade clause, which has not been complied with,” the NHL said.

Somehow the Knights believed Dadonov didn’t have a 10-team “no-move” clause or general manager Kelly McCrimmon it completely and went ahead with the deal ignored hoping that Dadonov would just accept it.

That didn’t happen so Dadonov is staying put and will suit up Thursday.

The NHL Players’ Association has been heavily involved in the process because this decision was a preceding setting. The union isn’t the least bit pleased this deal was allowed to take place at all and took this long to settle.

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Central Registry approved the deal, but Dadonov balked when informed because he had Anaheim on his 10-team “no-trade” list. He had to have his list of him to the Senators by July 1, 2021 and the club received that in a timely fashion.

Anyone wondering why Dadonov has a California-based team on his list need to look no further than the business side. The taxation rates are higher in California than they are in Nevada so the 33-year-old Dadonov has more take-home pay.

This falls on the Knights no matter where people try to lay the blame. Vegas had Dadonov under contract for nearly nine months and didn’t do the necessary due diligence. The respected site capfriendly.com lists his “no move” so how could the organization that signs his paycheques not know?

The Senators traded Dadonov to the Knights on July 28, 2021 in exchange for defenseman Nick Holden. The deal allowed the club to get his $5 million salary for the next two seasons off the books and made sense because he hadn’t lived up to expectations here in Ottawa.

Vegas wasn’t on his 10-team list so the organization was allowed to make the deal without permission.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch