Post NHL Draft: Top 10 Ottawa Senators Prospects
By Jack Leiper
Here’s the final part to the top 20 prospects list, post NHL draft. The top 10 is highlighted by a pair of 2015 1st rounders as Thomas Chabot and Colin White project to be fairly solid NHL players.
First, a note: I did my rankings before writing all the prospect profiles and went off of Hockey’s Future’s prospect criteria. When I originally ranked them, I included Curtis Lazar as a prospect, not realizing that his 67 games of NHL experience removed him from prospect critera and considered him “graduated”
So, although Lazar was originally supposed to be ranked #1, he’s removed from the list and #11 is bumped up to #10. Kicking off the list:
10. Gabriel Gagné
Forward – Victoriaville Tigres — 2015 2nd Round Pick
QMJHL 6foot5 187lbs
Gagné’s stats were rather impressive this season as he tallied 35 goals in the QMJHL as an 18-year-old. While the Senators don’t have a great history in drafting players from Victoriaville (cough cough Daigle cough), Gagné will look to turn that history around.
He was an off the board pick that the Senators traded up to select as the organization clearly assessed a target. He projects to be a scorer, and it won’t be known if he can play at the NHL level for a few more seasons, but he’s certainly trending that way.
He’s big, and at 6foot5, he has the frame. He’ll need to add more weight, but could be a very good and big winger in the NHL in just a few seasons.
Next: #9: Ottawa's Memorial Cup Winner