The 2025 NHL Draft is under three weeks away at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. It's there that the Ottawa Senators will be looking to improve their roster.
The Senators have one first-round selection in the draft with holding the 21st overall pick in the draft. The Senators have had the 21st overall pick three different times with their biggest hit was defenseman Anton Volchenkov in 2000.
Drafting history is important to look at as the draft produces more misses than hits. In the 2010s, the Senators had their worst draft happen in 2014. Now, it's time to look back in the 2000s.
Worst draft in Senators history from 2000s is 2007's draft class
In 2007, the Senators fell in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Anaheim Ducks in five games, but their draft weeks later was the worst of all the drafts they had in the 2000s decade.
In the 2007 NHL Draft, the Senators made four selections. Jim O'Brien was their first-round selection at 29th overall, but his play as a first-round draft pick was a major struggle.
O'Brien played in 77 career NHL games and finished with 13 points. Seventy-three of those games were with the Senators, but not one time in a single season did O'Brien play more than 30 games. O'Brien recorded six points in the 2011-12 season and 2012-13 season. O'Brien play in four other NHL games for the New Jersey Devils and went pointless in all four gamegames in the 2015-16 season.
The next three selections after O'Brien by the Senators never played in an NHL game:
Ruslan Bashkirov (60th overall)
Louie Caporusso (90th overall)
Ben Blood (120th overall)
Some could've expected the 2005 draft class to be named, which is remembered for the Senators drafting Brian Lee ninth overall. In retrospect, Lee finished with more points in his NHL career than O'Brien did.
Along with that, two Senators that were drafted in the same class went on to play at least one game in the NHL unlike the three other selections after O'Brien in 2007.
Of all the draft classes in the 2000s decade, the 2007 one in Senators history will go down as the worst for the decade.