Ex-Senator Hoffman has ‘no regrets’ after drama-filled summer
When the Senators traded Erik Karlsson to San Jose last week, one of the conditions of the agreement was that the Sharks couldn’t turn around and send him to a team in the Eastern Conference. If they do, Ottawa would receive an additional firstround pick.
The harsh — and somewhat unnecessary — penalty became known as the “Hoffman clause,” which made Mike Hoffman laugh.
After all, it was on June 19 when Ottawa traded Hoffman to San Jose. Two hours later, he was flipped to the Florida Panthers, which put him back in the Atlantic Division.
“Maybe they didn’t want the same thing to happen twice,” said Hoffman. “I guess they learned from the first mistake.”
Indeed, it’s bad enough the Senators had to part with their best defenceman and one of their best forwards in the same summer. But the fact Hoffman ended up in the same division is sure to serve as a daily reminder to Ottawa fans of what they lost.
“I think I would try to do the same thing if I were the general manager as well,” said Hoffman. “You don’t necessarily want to see some of your top guys come back to the division. (The Senators) tried to do the best they could, but stuff happens.
“That’s the hockey world. Things get flipped around pretty quickly, as you saw.”
And yet, the fact Hoffman was traded in the first place had nothing really to do with hockey. In a bizarre tale still being worked out in the courts, Karlsson’s wife Melinda filed an order of protection in May against Hoffman’s fiancee Monika Caryk for allegedly harassing the Karlssons through social-media accounts last season.
Caryk and Hoffman have denied the accusations and hired a lawyer to “conduct a third-party investigation,” but the damage inside the Senators’ dressing room was done. In the eyes of many, Hoffman was a bad teammate and a poison that needed to be removed. If he had any trade value, it was gone.
The Sharks acquired the top-line sniper from Ottawa for pennies on the dollar: Mikkel Boedker, Julius Bergman and a sixth-round pick in 2020 went to the Senators in exchange for Hoffman, Cody Donaghey and a fifth-round pick in 2020. Then San Jose flipped him and a seventh-round pick in 2018 to Florida for a fourth- and a fifthround pick in 2018, as well as a second-round pick in 2019.
“Some people might say stuff to cover themselves and make the trade look a little better than it was,” said Hoffman, who does not have any bitterness toward general manager Pierre Dorion or how things ended in Ottawa. “He was the one who drafted me and I had a great relationship my whole time there. So it was nothing that ended on a negative note. He told me when the trade happened and we said our thank you and our goodbye. We were very professional about it.
“I have no regrets with anything that went on there. You can ask guys in Ottawa if I was a bad dressing room guy and get the answer for yourself. If I was, I probably wouldn’t even be playing in the NHL at this point. I would be grinding through the American (Hockey) League. I don’t think I’d be able to be with an organization for nine years if I was a bad teammate.”
As for the Panthers, they did their research on Hoffman and came away happy.
“All that stuff that happened in Ottawa, I don’t believe half of it,” said head coach Bob Boughner. “And the other half, I knew it wasn’t going to be an issue. I went down with my wife to Waterloo (Ont.) and took him and his fiancee out for dinner. It was a good meeting. I said to my wife afterwards they’re good people. They’re really good people. You could tell instantly.”
Even if there was baggage, getting a potential 30-goal scorer was too much to pass up for a team that missed the playoffs by a point last season.
“Automatically, they said if he’s going to improve our team, then we’re going to open our doors,” said Boughner. “Nice to get a skilled guy like him.”
“I talked to him this summer and heard great things about the guy,” said Panthers centre Vincent Trocheck. “When it comes to Florida, we take him in like he’s one of us. He kind of solidifies our top six. We’re going to be a good team this year.”
Hoffman, 28, averaged 26 goals in his last four seasons in Ottawa. He’s expected to better those numbers in Florida, where he’s been put on a line with Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau that should get the easier matchups considering Selke Trophy finalist Aleksander Barkov is centring the top line.
“I expect a lot out of myself. Being on that line, I’d like to score 30 goals,” said Hoffman, who was a teammate of Huberdeau’s in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. “I think our line can be a game-changer. We’ve got Barkov on one line and us on the other. It’s a pretty solid top six. That’s what you need in this league to win.
“I couldn’t ask for more.”