Pierre Dorion, Trent Mann and the rest of the scouting staff will wrap up their annual team scouting meetings later today.
They have been huddling all week to hammer out the details of their final prospect rankings heading into next month’s draft in June. When they all go their separate ways later today, they should have a pretty good idea of who they’ll be taking at 4th overall.
The Senators are in a fairly unique spot in this year’s draft in that they will in all likelihood be the first team that really has to make a decision.
Sure Buffalo, Carolina and Montreal all pick ahead of Ottawa but just about everyone agrees on the top three picks.
There is a 100% chance the Sabres take Rasmus Dahlin (even they can’t screw this one up). There is about a 95% chance the Hurricanes take Andrei Svechnikov (5% margin of error because of their wacky new Owner). And there’s about a 90% chance the Canadiens takes Filip Zadina (or someone else picks Zadina if the Habs move the pick to fill the void at centre, with another winger).
It’s at number four where the options start to open up a little bit.
By all accounts, there are two forwards that can make a legitimate claim for that spot.
Brady Tkachuk is the household name here. In Bob McKeznie’s end of season rankings, most General Managers seemed to agree on what they were calling The Big Four. Tkachuk has been by far the most heavily scrutinized player leading up to the Draft, with some legitimate questions being raised about his offensive ceiling but there’s no doubt he is one of the two best options up front.
As the draft inches closer, the talk around Oliver Wahlstrom seems to be escalating. He has been one of the fastest rising prospects in this year’s first round and his production with the USA U18 team is certainly enough to put him in the conversation.
So it’s pretty safe to say there are two forwards that the scouts debated on as possibility at number four. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is the next best forward option but he would be a reach at fourth overall.
And then there’s the defenceman.
Should the Senators decide that a blueliner is their best bet, there are three primary guys that enter the conversation.
Quinn Hughes has been turning heads with his performance at the World Championships on the heels of a strong season with the University of Michigan. He’s one of the best skaters in the draft and if he’s not ready to jump into an NHL line up right now, he’s damn close.
Adam Boqvist might have a little higher ceiling than Hughes and apparently has some of the best pure puck skills of any player in this year’s draft but there are lingering questions about his play in his own end of the rink. For what it’s worth, Boqvist was one of the first names I heard specifically as a player that the Senators like.
And the third option is Evan Bouchard. His numbers with the London Knights this year jump off the page and there’s a lot to like about his game. There seem to be lingering questions about his foot speed, although that may be primarily relative to the other two options.
So unless they move up or down, it really seems like there are five legitimate options for the Senators at 4th overall.
And you can bet that there was heavy debate among the scouts when it comes to those five players.
So, it’s time for the SensChirp community to finalize our draft list and put it to a vote. Assuming that Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov and Filip Zadina are off the board, who should the Senators take at 4th overall?
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