Recapping the Ottawa Senators Picks on Day 2 of the NHL Draft

Holding 9 selections entering day 2, the Senators had the opportunity to add to their deep prospect pool

Coming into the day with 9 selections in rounds 2-7, the Ottawa Senators started off the season with a bang, acquiring goaltender Matt Murray and in turn relinquishing the 52nd Overall pick.

So now with 8 picks left in the draft, the Senators still had plenty of draft capital to make their picks count on day 2 and they did for the most part. Prior to the draft, many were worried about Pierre Dorion being too safe with his picks, but he was risky for the majority of the day.

With picks like Roby Jarventie, Egor Sokolov and Leevi Merilainen, the Senators took some swings and we will see in the coming years if these players were worth the risk. Predictably, Dorion dipped his toe into the North Dakota when he selected Tyler Kleven the North Dakota freshman, who is Jake Sanderson’s roommate. The connections never seem to stop, Roby Jarventie plays on the same team as Lassi Thomson, Egor Sokolov was Drake Batherson’s billet brother and with their last pick of the draft, they selected Ridly Greig’s teammate Cole Reinhardt.

Chemistry and character are obviously parts of this Senators rebuild and Pierre Dorion made that quite evident again with this year’s draft class.

33rd Overall: Roby Jarventie (LW), Ilves (Liiga)

With the second-pick of the 2nd round, the Senators selected the talented-winger out of Ilves in the Finnish Liiga. One of my favourite picks in the draft, Jarventie is a raw, offensively gifted forward who has plenty of upside. Maybe viewed as a bit of a reach by draft analysts, I viewed Jarventie as a great value pick, he was ranked 19th in my pre-draft rankings.

Jarventie stands at 6’2″ combining good skating with a powerful shot, he projects as a pure goal-scoring winger, he scored 23 goals in 38 games in Finlands second-tier men’s league (Mestis). Likely the best draft-eligible player to ever come out of Mestis, the evaluation is a bit tricky as there is a small sample of high draft picks from that league. In fact, the Senators were more impressed by what they saw over the summer with Jarventie and his solid start in Finland’s top league with Ilves, he has 2 points in 2 games so far this season.

44th Overall: Tyler Kleven (D), USNTDP

Ottawa made a trade to move up and select the North Dakota defenceman:

Admittingly I wasn’t a fan of this trade-up to get Kleven, especially the fact that they gave up two very valuable picks in the process. Kleven is a 6’4″ defenceman who was a member of the USNTDP over the last two seasons and like mentioned before is really close to 5th overall pick Jake Sanderson.

A defensive defenceman in every sense of the word, Kleven won’t be expected to produce offence, his physical, shut-down game will be his calling card if he becomes an NHL player. Kleven produced just 2 points in 17 games in the USHL last season and 12 points in 45 games with the development program. Kleven shows a lack of awareness on the ice and can be a ticking time bomb when he has the puck in his possession, he will have to refine his game to become an effective defenceman.

61st Overall: Egor Sokolov (LW), Cape Breton (QMJHL)

Ottawa takes another swing here on the 20-year-old towering forward from Cape Breton who led the QMJHL in goal-scoring last season. Passed over in two drafts already, Sokolov made it certain it wouldn’t happen again scoring 46 goals in 52 games last season also finishing third in the CHL in goals/game, trailing only Nicholas Robertson and Connor McMichael. Standing at 6’4″ Sokolov with his great goal-scoring ability is a very enticing pick and one of my favourite os the Senators draft class.

Sokolov stayed in Cape Breton during the pandemic and trained all summer with Drake Batherson and apparently had lost around 20 pounds over the summer and now sits at under 220 pounds.

When the NHL season comes back around Sokolov should start the season with Belleville and potentially getting some games in the NHL.