Where The Ottawa Senators Will Be Picking At The NHL Draft & Other Notes
Sunday is the day that all the kilometers of highway drive, frequent flyer miles accumulated and used, hours of debate over the potential of a group of 18 year olds culminates when the names of 211 young men will be called at the Prudential Centre in New Jersey.
The Ottawa Senators and their current leadership group has fared very well at the draft in recent years, with Erik Karlsson, Robin Lehner, Patrick Wiercioch, Mika Zibanejad, Mark Stone among other added to the organization.
So, what will be up their sleeve this time around? Moving up from their current 17th slot will be costly, but the Senators are confident one of 4 players they have their eye on will be there at that time. Here is where the Senators will be picking in the draft:
| ROUND | Pick |
| 1 | 17th |
| 2 | 47th – traded to St. Louis (for Ben Bishop) |
| 3 | 78th |
| 4 | 102nd* & 108th |
| 5 | 138th |
| 6 | 161st** & 168th |
| 7 | 198th – traded to Chicago (for Rob Klinkhammer) |
*acquired from Tampa in the Ben Bishop deal (originally belonged to Philadelphia
**acquired from Dallas in the Sergei Gonchar trade and subsequent signing
So the Senators are scheduled to pick 7 times on Sunday. After the 17th spot they will have to sit and wait for some time barring a trade. In many years the third round pick might be enough to move up 2 or three spots but probably not this year. They could trade down a few spots and probably still get one of those players and another tangible asset, depending on how the draft progresses. I am sure they will also be keeping the lines of communication open in case any of the bounty of available players or some surprises might be offered up for a pick and a prospect, of which the Senators have a ton.
The Senators have said they have 4 players in mind and they think at least one of them will be available at 17, so if they can snag one of those players they will be happy.
Some of the names around that area include Anthony Mantha, Mirco Mueller, Hunter Shinkaruk, Samuel Morin, Nikita Zadorov, Bo Horvat, Alexander Wennburg, and Josh Morrisey.
If you have been following along with the SenShot mock draft, I had the Senators going a little off the board for Swedish defenseman Robert Hagg. Many mock drafts I have seen have him ranked later in the first round or early in the second round.
It will be a very interesting weekend ahead!