The 31-year-old forward, who was an unrestricted free agent, scored 47 points (25 goals, 22 assists) in 69 games with the Florida Panthers last season and had one assist in four games in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
"Senators general manager Pierre Dorion and coach D.J. Smith] told me the plan for the team, the structure for the team, and let me know that this is going to be a good opportunity for me," Dadonov said Monday. "I know a lot of guys on the team, you know, a lot of young guns in their prospects. Very good. So we made the decision this going to be good for me.
"There are not a lot of veterans on the team. It's kind of a step up for me as well, to be one of the experienced guys, one of the most experienced guys on the team."
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Dadonov has scored at least 25 goals in each of the past three seasons and had an NHL career-high 70 points (28 goals, 42 assists) in 82 games with the Panthers in 2018-19. He also scored an NHL career-high 11 power-play goals last season, tied with six players for 11th in the League.
"He's someone that you know scores legit goals," Dorion said. "He can really shoot it and he's smart offensively. For us, he's someone that competes offensively to score goals.
"Also, when we did our background check, he's not a guy that is a really vocal guy, but he practices hard. He leads by example. Not every one of your leaders will be someone who's vocal, but we like the leadership qualities in him. He might not be the loudest person, but he will be someone that will definitely lead by example for our players."
Selected by Florida in the third round (No. 71) of the 2007 NHL Draft, Dadonov played three seasons with the Panthers before playing in the Kontinental Hockey League for five seasons. He signed with the Panthers prior to the 2017-18 season and has 202 points (91 goals, 111 assists) in 280 regular-season games with them.
"I'm really excited to play for [Ottawa]," Dadonov said. "It wasn't a decision made just because of the contract or anything. I hope this team's going to have some success and really think we're going to race for the Cup the next few years."
NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report
