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The big deal between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t happen over night. In fact, it had been in the works for awhile.

Senators general manager Pierre Dorion had no worries about dealing with the club’s rival in the Battle of Ontario and he’d been pursuing the players involved in Monday’s deal with the Leafs since last year’s trade deadline.

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Yes, newly-hired coach D.J. Smith, who spent the last four years as an assistant to Mike Babcock, played a role in all of this, but the Senators had identified defenceman Nikita Zaitsev and forward Connor Brown as players the club wanted to pursue.

Dorion talked to Toronto GM Kyle Dubas about both during the year.

“Our pro scouts and our hockey operations come up with ideas, but when you have a guy who has had them in the room for the last two years it’s just a bonus,” Dorion said Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre. “He knows their character and he knows he doesn’t want bad apples in the room.”