Dorion must show Sens are serious about winning Ottawa GM needs to send a message to key players Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson about the franchise’s commitment to getting better now, Ian Mendes writes

I rarely open up the phone lines when I’m hosting the afternoon drive show on TSN 1200, but I made an exception on Monday afternoon.

As news broke of the Senators trade for Alex Burrows, we were bombarded with emails, texts and tweets into the station from passionate Ottawa fans. Sensing this raw emotion could translate into good radio, I gave out our studio number and we were immediately flooded with callers.

The majority of them were absolutely livid with the acquisition of the 35-year-old Burrows in exchange for teenage prospect Jonathan Dahlen.

“My blood has been boiling. I’m sick of this average team,” said one caller. “What are we trying to do? Why are we acquiring a 36-year-old depth forward for a top second-round prospect?”

One fan complained, “I can’t believe this would even be a thought in Pierre Dorion’s mind.”

“I’m sick and tired of seeing trades for players who used to be great,” moaned another.

If the Senators were hoping to score a public relations victory with this move, it certainly didn’t feel that way in the initial aftermath of the deal.

Even though the Senators are vying for a division title, there is a sense with a number of fans that the team is still stuck in hockey’s equivalent of purgatory. Not good enough to hang with Washington and Pittsburgh, but certainly not as weak as New Jersey and Detroit.

So on a day when the Washington Capitals pushed all their chips into the middle of the table to land Kevin Shattenkirk, Dorion played a much more conservative hand to acquire Burrows.

Does this trade make the Ottawa Senators better for this season?

Absolutely.

But does it make them a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?

Of course not.

And that is the problem facing the Senators right now. While the Capitals and Penguins are playing high-level chess, the entire Atlantic Division seems to be tangled up in a messy toddler version of Hungry Hungry Hippo.

In many ways, Dorion is facing the same challenges that Toronto Raptors president and former GM Masai Ujiri has dealt with in recent years. The Raptors are a team with talent and upside, but they aren’t in the same stratosphere as the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. So what’s a general manager supposed to do in that situation?

Tear down and start building for the future because you can’t hang with the elite teams? Or make some improvements to your team and hopefully have a lengthy playoff run that can help energize your fan base?

There’s no denying the Raptors’ run to the conference final last year helped build new fans and took their brand to a completely different level. The Senators have to look at the Atlantic Division right now and see a clear opportunity to at least win two rounds and advance to the Eastern Conference final.

Maybe if the Capitals and Penguins beat each other up enough in the second round, the winner of that series will limp into the third round as a vulnerable opponent. That is about all any Atlantic Division team can hang their hat on right now.

And just like the Raptors need to signal to their pending free agent Kyle Lowry that they are serious about winning, the Senators need to do the same with a pair of their most important players. Kyle Turris is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, while Erik Karlsson hits UFA status in the summer of 2019.

Dorion has to show these players that he’s willing to trade future assets to improve the team right now; otherwise they might be willing to head elsewhere. And while landing Burrows and Tommy Wingels around the deadline may not appear to be much, Dorion says Monday’s move went over very well inside the dressing room.

“The best sign for me was I had five key veterans in our locker room came up and one wanted to hug me and the others shook my hand and felt like this was a great move for our organization today,” Dorion told reporters on Monday after the Burrows deal was completed.

Sens fans are upset that the club gave up on 19-year-old prospect Dahlen, who has been a YouTube sensation with some of his highlight-reel goals. But Oilers fans will tell you that Linus Omark is a cautionary tale about getting too caught up with internet highlights.

There’s no guarantee that Dahlen becomes a regular NHLer, so Dorion is willing to gamble now. Maybe Dahlen becomes this organization’s next Pavol Demitra or maybe he’s the next Jakub Klepis. The point is nobody knows that answer right now.

All we know is that Dorion is trying to win a division title and thinking he may as well strike while the iron is hot.

The only problem is, there’s a good chance that iron in Ottawa is only lukewarm.