Jared Crozier: Senators avoid D on day 2 of draft

Formenton sounds good, high risk/high reward. Bowers is OK I guess, very safe choice. Next year we really need to fix the depth at D though

Sens defensive depth includes Chabot,Harpur,England and Jaros as 20-22 year olds . Add Claussen as a 24 year old and its a good young group .
The forward depth is much thinner and propbably prompted the focus on forwards ( 3) in this years Draft.

Sens defensive depth includes Chabot,Harpur,England and Jaros as 20-22 year olds . Add Claussen as a 24 year old and its a good young group .
The forward depth is much thinner and propbably prompted the focus on forwards ( 3) in this years Draft.
- Teal Bird

this.....ottawa had almost no forward prospects in the system. brown and white seemed like the only ones who were sure fire nhl players. needed to re-stock the shelves at forward. clearly not done yet, but a step in the right direction

I'm hoping ottawa can move Phaneuf.

Love to see Branden Smith here.

I'd gamble on Kulikov if he was a bargain.

Franson, Campbell or Oduya wouldn't be bad on a short term deal.

This was an incredibly weak draft overall. Highly doubt any player drafted this year will have much of an impact at all. Really very little point in overanalyzing it.

Sens have done an ok job drafting and developing the current group. Time to add some pieces to get this team over the hump via trade and free agency. When you look at the two Stanley Cup finalists this year, this is exactly what they have done. Drafted and developed well for several years and then make some moves via trade and free agency in an attempt to take another step forward.

There are several d-men available in free agency that could work very well with this squad. With Methot out of the picture, you have 5 mill to spend.

There are not many attractive forwards available in free agency, so I think a trade is your best move. Personally, I'd love to see Brassard or Turris packaged with other parts to get a true 1st line centre.

This was an incredibly weak draft overall. Highly doubt any player drafted this year will have much of an impact at all. Really very little point in overanalyzing it.

Sens have done an ok job drafting and developing the current group. Time to add some pieces to get this team over the hump via trade and free agency. When you look at the two Stanley Cup finalists this year, this is exactly what they have done. Drafted and developed well for several years and then make some moves via trade and free agency in an attempt to take another step forward.

There are several d-men available in free agency that could work very well with this squad. With Methot out of the picture, you have 5 mill to spend.

There are not many attractive forwards available in free agency, so I think a trade is your best move. Personally, I'd love to see Brassard or Turris packaged with other parts to get a true 1st line centre.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

Problem is that we can only sign them for 1 year, with resignings coming up.

Sens defensive depth includes Chabot,Harpur,England and Jaros as 20-22 year olds . Add Claussen as a 24 year old and its a good young group .
The forward depth is much thinner and propbably prompted the focus on forwards ( 3) in this years Draft.
- Teal Bird

I don't disagree with this interpretation, but taking players like Bowers or Formenton are something of a departure from the BPA drafting strategy. Given the premium that promising young defencemen tend to carry, the inevitable question is why not draft for the best talent available (eg. Hague, Timmins, or even a power forward like Ratcliffe), and then trade from that position of strength to address team needs as they arise?

On the other hand, the forward deployment that we saw during the playoffs really emphasized strength down the middle, and resulted in the need to trade for a number of supporting wingers. It's possible that Boucher was pushing for more organizational forward depth, especially at center - even if they project more to two-way checking roles, which Boucher seems to value more than most.

In order for the Sens to be successful , generally , it is dependant on draft and development .

Although this year's long run was well worth it , giving up 5 picks ( Phaneuf , Brassard in 2018 , Condon ,Wingels and Stalberg ) just won't work long term. In fact , the Sens need more than the regular 7 per year in order to create the number/quality of assets that support a winning formula.

Shane Bowers projects as a 3rd line centre and that is fine . No guarantees on the balance as the odds of playing a game in the NHL drops to about 20% after the third round ( according to Travis Yost of TSN ). Stone ,Hoffman and Dzingel tell us that there are late round gems out there - a team with multiple picks has a better chance of hitting on one.

In order for the Sens to be successful , generally , it is dependant on draft and development .

Although this year's long run was well worth it , giving up 5 picks ( Phaneuf , Brassard in 2018 , Condon ,Wingels and Stalberg ) just won't work long term. In fact , the Sens need more than the regular 7 per year in order to create the number/quality of assets that support a winning formula.

Shane Bowers projects as a 3rd line centre and that is fine . No guarantees on the balance as the odds of playing a game in the NHL drops to about 20% after the third round ( according to Travis Yost of TSN ). Stone ,Hoffman and Dzingel tell us that there are late round gems out there - a team with multiple picks has a better chance of hitting on one.
- Teal Bird

Sens loosing Methot was big - on flip side it made $5M cleared up. If they move Phaneuf that's 7M; also allows for Turris, Stone extensions - karlsson next summer (7 years @9.3m per - biggest contract in Sens history)

There's no way they go beyond 1 week from now and don't get ATLEAST 1Dman and 1Forward - one is a minimum and insult to fans if not acquired. Team is closer than people think if they do those two and they have assets and $.

This was an incredibly weak draft overall. Highly doubt any player drafted this year will have much of an impact at all. Really very little point in overanalyzing it.

Sens have done an ok job drafting and developing the current group. Time to add some pieces to get this team over the hump via trade and free agency. When you look at the two Stanley Cup finalists this year, this is exactly what they have done. Drafted and developed well for several years and then make some moves via trade and free agency in an attempt to take another step forward.

There are several d-men available in free agency that could work very well with this squad. With Methot out of the picture, you have 5 mill to spend.

There are not many attractive forwards available in free agency, so I think a trade is your best move. Personally, I'd love to see Brassard or Turris packaged with other parts to get a true 1st line centre.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

I agree with much of your opinion I just want to state again that top centres only come in top of the draft - especially first round. Odd guys like brad Richards, Bergeron, Datysuk come along but a lot of luck, good scouting and then right time contending will pay dividends otherwise it's the Crosby toews and .....Mathews of the world .... although big game brass needs a winger like landeskog or duchene

Trading Dion creates a lot of space, but then they have no top 4 toughness.

Harpur sat there and did nothing in NY when Glass punched Turris in the face. That's all you need to know about his toughness

Trading Dion creates a lot of space, but then they have no top 4 toughness.
- Ottawa Fan

I'm not really sure what the plan is if Phaneuf gets traded. It would basically put them down two top-4 LH defencemen, with a lot of money to spend in a year where the UFA talent is thin. Now maybe they think that both Claesson and Harpur are ready for top-4 roles, but that seems like a massive risk... as would just throwing a top-4 spot to Chabot without knowing if he can handle that role yet.

Presumably there are some kind of appealing trade options that Dorion believes would be available to him if Phaneuf was traded, but I have to think that if they're going to introduce a new partner to Karlsson it would be of significant benefit to have continuity in the Ceci-Phaneuf pairing.