The Ottawa Senators have moved into the lead position prior to the NHL's trade deadline Monday.
They are serious about making moves with their key players, and they set those events in motion Thursday when they traded forward Matt Duchene to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Senators showed they are willing to build for the future as they moved Duchene and defenseman Julius Bergman to Columbus for forwards Vitaly Abramov and Jonathan Davidsson along with a 2019 first-round draft pick and a conditional first-round pick in 2020.
Duchene's former teammates Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel may be the next big-time scorers to leave Ottawa.