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This and That: Moving Up, Leadership, and the Draft Board |
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It’s time for a little bit of this and that on a fine Friday afternoon:
Moving Up in the Draft
The Ottawa Senators are moving up in the draft! Ordinarily, that would mean that a trade of some kind has happened, but that’s not the case here. Instead, it’s because the Arizona Coyotes have been punished for testing junior-aged players against league policy. They will be required to forfeit their 2020 second-round pick, and their 2021 first-round pick. For the Senators, that means all of those 2020 second-round picks that were to take place after Arizona’s have now been effectively bumped up one spot. It’s not an earthshattering change for Ottawa, but it’s better than a move in the opposite direction.
On a related note, it’s hard to describe what a mess John Chayka has left for the next Coyotes General Manager. That’s now a capped-out budget team (oxymoron?) with a lack of draft capital. Best of luck to the next officeholder.
Duclair Demonstrating Leadership
The last few days have seen athletes across a wide spectrum of sports use their platform to raise awareness and demand change on vitally important issues. As a member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, even from outside the bubble, Anthony Duclair has used his platform for good:
It's kind of shocking to contrast Duclair’s pre-Ottawa reputation with the player and leader he’s demonstrated himself to be since arriving. There was talk about him not being invested enough, not being a “character” player, not being the kind of driven individual who can succeed at this level. Beyond the great on-ice campaign he put together this year, Duclair has clearly proven all of those insults to be nonsense in the last few days. At a time in sport that is arguably the most important and impactful in the last handful of years, Duclair stepped up and showed what kind of person and leader he is. And that’s a person the Ottawa Senators should be incredibly proud to have in their organization.
Narrowing Down the Draft Board?
The Stutzle or Byfield choice is quite clear for Ottawa at third overall, but what happens at fifth overall remains a mystery. Even Bruce Garrioch noted in his column yesterday that things remain a “guessing game.”
With that said, Garrioch’s column only mentioned three names in reference to that fifth overall pick: Jamie Drysdale, Jake Sanderson, and Lucas Raymond. He didn’t explicitly eliminate other possibilities, but it does seem noteworthy that those are the three that actually made it to print.
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As always, thanks for reading.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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