Michael Stuart: GM Bracket Battle: Zito vs. Benning

Benning has had good picks in later rounds as well.

His latest big move was pretty good so far, getting Nate Schmidt, and before that JT Miller.

Fixing the defense has helped.

For those who miss Michael's Senators coverage, the silversevensens site is going through its annual Top-25 U25 rankings, and have finished going through #21-25.

Nothing too radical here, other than the fact that the team currently has 19 players in their system who are U25 that were 1st or 2nd round picks... plus Batherson, Abramov, Daccord, Balcers, and Davidsson who were later round picks. I'm guessing that will leave the likes of Tychonick, Sogaard, and Kleven off the list, which really just speaks to the depth of the prospect system at the moment. It's also an interesting side note that Sokolov billeted with the same family as Batherson in Cape Breton... someone in that scouting department has a borderline unhealthy infatuation with player connections.

21. D Christian Jaros
https://www.silversevense...istian-jaros-rankings-nhl

22. W Egor Sokolov
https://www.silversevense...22-egor-sokolov-qmjhl-nhl

23. G Kevin Mandolese
https://www.silversevense...der-25-23-kevin-mandolese

24. D Artem Zub
https://www.silversevense...-25-under-25-24-artem-zub

25. D Maxime Lajoie
https://www.silversevense...lajoie-nhl-sens-prospects

For those who miss Michael's Senators coverage, the silversevensens site is going through its annual Top-25 U25 rankings, and have finished going through #21-25.

Nothing too radical here, other than the fact that the team currently has 19 players in their system who are U25 that were 1st or 2nd round picks... plus Batherson, Abramov, Daccord, Balcers, and Davidsson who were later round picks. I'm guessing that will leave the likes of Tychonick, Sogaard, and Kleven off the list, which really just speaks to the depth of the prospect system at the moment. It's also an interesting side note that Sokolov billeted with the same family as Batherson in Cape Breton... someone in that scouting department has a borderline unhealthy infatuation with player connections.

21. D Christian Jaros
https://www.silversevense...istian-jaros-rankings-nhl

22. W Egor Sokolov
https://www.silversevense...22-egor-sokolov-qmjhl-nhl

23. G Kevin Mandolese
https://www.silversevense...der-25-23-kevin-mandolese

24. D Artem Zub
https://www.silversevense...-25-under-25-24-artem-zub

25. D Maxime Lajoie
https://www.silversevense...lajoie-nhl-sens-prospects
- khawk

Ya. Really. Lets get some Sens content back. Doesn't seem to be much engagement with this GM series...

Silver Sens seems to do a good job pumping out content regularly.

The infatuation with player connections doesn't get talked about enough. It's not necessarily bad but it's strange. I've never seen a team do this. To me it screams lack of scouts so just focusing on a few spots.

Zito’s trading Matheson for Hornqvist will pay dividends this season. Matheson became a black hole in the d-zone, replacing him with a better defender will help. Adding the hard-nosed Hornqvist should set an example for the margarine cats. Free agency brought no “big splashes”, but adding Verhaege from TB looks like a solid move. Gudas adds some snarl to the back end. Everything he has done so far is aimed at adding guys who, as Q always says, play the right way. More defensive awareness and commitment from the forwards will help Bob in goal. It looks like he improved the bottom 6 forwards. I think the Panthers made a very good hire in Zito.

The infatuation with player connections doesn't get talked about enough. It's not necessarily bad but it's strange. I've never seen a team do this. To me it screams lack of scouts so just focusing on a few spots.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

There are some pretty clear patterns emerging in their drafting behavior over the past 5 years or so.

Since 2016, 12/16 selections in the 1st/2nd rounds have either been:
- 2nd-Generation NHL Players (Tkachuk, Brown, Sanderson, Greig, Dahlen)
- UND-Recruited Players (Bernard-Docker, Tychonick, Pinto, Sanderson, Kleven)
- Late Birthday (Formenton, Bowers, Sanderson, Greig, Jarventie, Bernard-Docker)

Also, 14/17 selections in the 3rd-7th rounds have either been:
- Overage (Batherson, Novak, Lodin, Kastelic, Engstrand, Daoust, Reinhardt)
- Depth NCAA Winger (Crookshank, Gruden, Burgess, Loheit, Novak)
- Long-Shot Goaltender (Mandolese, Hollett, Merilainen)

In hindsight, the fact that Sanderson checked off all 3 of their primary 1st round pick tendencies should have been an indication of how likely they were to pick him at the #5 spot. From that perspective, he was quite literally the most "Senators" pick imaginable... whether you happen to regard that as good, bad, or ugly.

While everyone seems to be gushing about Roby Jarventie (not without reason), it's somehow been largely overlooked that Markus Nurmi has started the year on absolute fire... with 10G-5A in his first 17GP, which is good for the 4th most goals in the SM-Liiga.
https://www.eliteprospect...layer/158967/markus-nurmi

For a guy with WJC pedigree, but who was mostly classified as a two-way prospect, it's certainly good to see him show he can bury the puck when given the opportunity. Hard to say for sure, but there's quite possibly some bottom-6 potential there.

Also, everyone's favorite WTF goaltender pick - Leevi Merilainen - is off to quite a good start with Karpat in the U20 league, putting up an impressive 2.07GAA and .915sv% in his first 14GP (good for 2nd/4th best in the league respectively), in addition to a brief call-up to support the SM-Liiga team.
https://www.eliteprospect...r/499423/leevi-merilainen