The surging Ottawa Senators have won the Jakob Chychrun sweepstakes.

The Senators landed the star defenseman by parting with three conditional high draft picks: a conditional first-round draft pick in 2023, a conditional second-round selection in 2024 (previously acquired from the Capitals), and a second-round pick in 2026.

News: We have acquired a 2023 first-round draft pick, 2024 second-round draft pick (conditional), and a 2026 second-round draft pick from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for defenseman Jakob Chychrun. pic.twitter.com/wqzyQQNiW0

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) March 1, 2023

The conditions, per the Senators, are:

The ’23 1st-round pick is top-5 protected. If met, pick becomes ’24 1st-round unprotected. Additionally, should #Sens reach ’23 ECF, the 2nd-round pick becomes ’24 1st-round top 10-protected. If that condition is met, the pick becomes ’25 1st-round unprotected.

According to The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn, the move improved the 11th-place Senators’ chances to make the playoffs by three percent points, from 5.6 to 8.8 percent.

The Capitals were heavily rumored to be one of around a half dozen team looking to acquire Chychrun as the team tries to re-tool on the fly.

According to Elliotte Friedman, the Capitals were weighing trading some of their best prospects like Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre to land Chychrun.

Instead, the Capitals traded for Swedish rearguard Rasmus Sandin, parting only with Erik Gustafsson and the first-round pick they acquired from the Boston Bruins in the Dmitry Orlov/Garnet Hathaway deal.

In an interview with the press, Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong said that eight teams were in conversations with the team to land Chychrun.

“More important in this deal is an opportunity to get a pick somewhere between 6 & 18. Those are hard to get to in the draft so that has a lot of value for us,” Armstrong said. “We had a couple of deals where there were two firsts but they were really late firsts. This has the possibility of being a pretty good pick.”

According to David Pagnotta, the Capitals and Hurricanes found the price too high for Chychrun and moved on thus giving an opening for the Senators to acquire the defenseman.

To say the Coyotes waited too long might be an understatement. But it was clear they did not want to retain money beyond this season and that factored into talks. Kudos to the Sens for pouncing.

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 1, 2023

Here’s the full press release from the Arizona Coyotes:

Coyotes Acquire three Draft Choices From Ottawa in Exchange for Chychrun

As announced by General Manager Bill Armstrong

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA — Arizona Coyotes General Manager Bill Armstrong announced today that the Coyotes have acquired a 2023 first-round draft choice, a 2024 conditional second-round draft choice (Washington Capitals), and a 2026 second-round draft choice from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for defenseman Jakob Chychrun.

“On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Jakob for everything he did for the Coyotes on and off the ice the past seven seasons,” said Armstrong. “Jakob is a tremendous person, a true pro, and a class act, and we wish him all the best in the future.”

The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Chychrun was drafted by the Coyotes in the first round (16th overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft. In seven seasons with the Coyotes, the 24-year-old native of Boca Raton, FL appeared in 373 games for the Coyotes, registering 60-110-170 and 240 PIM.