The team’s deadline acquisitions of Curtis Leschyshyn and Mike Sillinger combined for a goal in their first game as Senators. Leschyshyn, acquired from Minnesota for a third-round pick, was a depth defenceman at that point in his career, brought along to help bolster the blueline for the playoffs.
Sillinger, meanwhile, infamously holds the record of being traded the most times in NHL history. The return in this one may have been the most unique. The Senators had sent Vinny Prospal to Florida just two months prior for a conditional 2001 fourth round pick or 2002 third round pick. The pick would be returned back to Florida in exchange for the two-way centre.
“Florida offered me a contract right at the deadline,” Sillinger recounted to The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman in 2019. “They said, ‘If you don’t sign this contract, we’re gonna trade ya.’ We were in contract negotiations for about a month or three weeks before the deadline. It was hardball contract (talks). I get pulled off the ice in the pregame skate. I’m sitting in the room with the GM and the coach. They’re explaining, ‘If you don’t sign this contract, this is it.’
Sillinger, the ultimate Puckdoku answer, would record three of his 240 career NHL goals with Ottawa and seven of his 548 career points. The Senators were ultimately swept by the Leafs in the first round of the playoffs.
Leschyshyn signed a three-year, $6 million contract with Ottawa in the offseason and appeared in an even 200 regular-season games and 36 playoff games in total with the club.