On September 11, 2018, the Senators released a video online in which Melnyk outlined the franchise's plans for a rebuild. The video received considerable criticism from fans and media for its awkward presentation and for the owner's own characterization of his team as being "in the dumpster". The relationship between Melnyk and Senators' fans further deteriorated at the 2019 trade deadline when the Senators traded away their leading scorers and remaining core players, Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Mark Stone, all of whom were well liked in the community. Despite earlier promising to make every effort to re-sign the star players, Melnyk later contradicted himself when he was quoted as saying that trading away Mark Stone had been "for some time" as part of the rebuild.