In an alternate universe, the Ottawa Senators could have had a chance to land star defenseman Bowen Byram.
That’s not a statement meant to fetch clicks. It’s part of an alternate reality that struck me as I was doing research for another piece.
In the 2019 NHL Draft, the Colorado Avalanche landed Byram with the fourth-overall selection. The issue isn’t necessarily that Colorado got Byram. The issue is how they got the pick that led to Byram.
That pick landed on the Avalanche’s lap as a consequence of the Matt Duchene trade.
In 2017, the Senators landed Duchene, while sending Kyle Turris to Nashville, and a haul landing on Colorado’s lap.
Among the pieces in the haul was a conditional 2019 first-round pick from Ottawa to Colorado. And that pick just happened to be the fourth-overall pick, hence leading to Byram.
Now, let’s assume for a minute the Duchene trade never happened. The ensuing drama would not have happened, either.
Let’s further assume that the Senators did finish the way they did in the 2018-19 season, leading to the fourth-overall pick.
At that point, the Senators could have taken Byram.
Byram, for his part, would have been a mainstay for the Senators. He could have blossomed into a high-end NHL defenseman, avoiding the unfair “bust” tag he got in Colorado.
Most importantly, the Senators’ blue line could have looked massively different. After all, can you imagine a defense corps that included Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, and Byram?
But that situation leads to another interesting question.
If Senators had Byram, would they have drafted Sanderson?
The Senators took Sanderson in 2020, effectively landing their franchise defenseman. Now, the Sens landed Tim Stutzle third overall. So, by the time they picked fifth, would Ottawa have been compelled to take Sanderson if they already had Byram in the fold?
The short answer would be yes. Take the best player available and let that be that.
But would the Senators have been tempted to take another forward, someone like Alexander Holtz, who went seventh, or Jack Quinn, who followed at eight?
That’s an intriguing question to ponder.
The long answer is that the Senators might have taken another forward at no. 5 and then used their third first-rounder on a defenseman.
Who knows?
Incidentally, the Sens took Ridly Greig with the 28th pick in 2020. When looking back, the Senators did just fine in 2020.
But you can’t help but wonder just how different the Sens’ blue line, and the entire team as a whole, would have looked like if they hadn’t made that Duchene trade.
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