The NHL Entry Draft is now less than two weeks away.
And as we saw during yesterday’s mock draft, anything can happen. There will be surprises. There will be off-the-board selections. General Managers may completely disappear and have to be replaced on the fly. Hell, there may even be some instances where the same player is selected multiple times.
Okay, those last two things probably won’t happen but on Draft Day, nobody knows for sure.
And as the Ottawa Senators creep towards that monumental moment in the history of their franchise, last minute preparations are underway.
While lists are mostly locked in at this point, there are some prospects that have already started their season and are trying to force their way up rankings.
For example, Lucas Raymond.
And Yaroslav Askarov.
Today, we’ll get to learn a bit more about where the GM is at heading into the Draft. As in we’ll finally find out where he has been physically located for the last few months.
Pierre Dorion will speak to the media later today, around 11:00 AM, through a live zoom conference. While he will almost certainly sit too close to the camera, speak too loudly/quietly, frequently forget to unmute himself and possibly have some new and unexplained facial hair, he will also likely say some things of interest ahead of the October 6th draft.
What is he thinking at 3rd overall? Does he have a preference at 5th? Is “best player available” an over-simplification and lazy way of describing what actually goes into a draft selection? Has he been getting paid? Could the 28th overall pick be in play? Has he talked to agents for his UFAs? Any progress on making Mark Borowiecki a “Senator for Life”? Does he realize he has 146 RFAs left to sign? How is Anders Nilsson doing? How has to global pandemic impacted the team’s financial situation and is professional hockey still viable in Ottawa in this new reality? Read any good books lately?
We have questions and today, Pierre Dorion will have answers.
Maybe. But probably not.
