from Ian Mendes of TSN,
So far this season, the Senators have gone out of their way to acknowledge players who were traded away as part of the rebuilding process that started around the trade deadline last season. When the Los Angeles Kings visited town last month, both Dion Phaneuf and Nate Thompson were saluted with a ‘Welcome Back’ message on the big screen.
But on Monday night, the Senators might have a conundrum on their hands as Mike Hoffman makes his first appearance at the Canadian Tire Centre wearing the colours of the Florida Panthers.
The Hoffman-Senators divorce was one of the most awkward and messy departures between an athlete and NHL team in recent memory. Hoffman was caught in a situation that saw his long-time girlfriend, Monika Caryk, accused of orchestrating a cyberbullying attack on captain Erik Karlsson and his wife Melinda.
It was a salacious storyline, more fitting of a soap opera than an NHL dressing room. It became obvious the Senators needed to move on from either Hoffman and/or Karlsson – and in the end, both players were traded away. But there was a three-month window where Karlsson was still a member of the Senators after Hoffman was traded and it became clear the organization felt like Hoffman was the one who had to leave.
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