This team's better

This really does show and prove how bad Ottawa's drafting has been... Besides Stützle falling in their lap at #3 and taking Brady at #4... pretty much everything else has been a miss.

That's a hot take for a team that's gotten numerous NHLer's in the latter rounds and has some promising recent prospects that were drafted in the latter rounds with names such as:
Daoust (6th round),

Mandolese (6th round),

Meralainen (who was unranked but drafted in the third round)

Kleven (2nd round),

Pinto (2nd round),

Guenette (7th round),

Kastelic (5th round),

Formenton (2nd round),

Batherson (4th round),

Donovan (5th round),

plus so many more NHLer's. If you're not convinced look through their drafting history and look at all the names that you recognize. Btw, all these names were drafted after 2016. Also in the 2015 draft they got Chabot, White, Wolanin, Jaros, Chaplik, and Daccord who all played NHL games.

Also Sanderson........

Please look at more information next time when talking about drafts.

You named a bunch of nobodies, the only reason most of these guys played NHL games is because we have been a bottom 5 team for the last 7 years lol. Besides Batherson, and maybe Formenton none of them are steals or good. Sanderson was a good pick but he was Top 5, hard to miss on that and they could have had Drysdale instead who is also an elite D.

Of these, the only notable players are Chabot, Batherson, and Pinto.
Everyone else is replacement level lmao.

It's almost as if some teams miss on their draft picks or some prospects don't pan out like they're supposed to. Like every other team... it wasn't so long ago that Ottawa drafted some pretty notable players in the later round such as Elliot, Stone, Hoffman, Pageau...

The 2021 draft will go down as one of the worst drafts in team history. Boucher has promise but can't stay healthy for the life of him. Ben Roger was a reach and I have no idea what they were thinking with that pick... (COVID related data gathering). The only ones who have a little promise are Zach Ostapchuk and Oliver Johansson... but they haven't wowed anyone yet.

The one that I'll never forgive is JJP in the 2020 draft. He was there for the taking and is Stutzle's bff and they went with Jarventie. Now, there is still hope that Jarventie will turn out to be something, but it really hurts when JJP is taking off and is already pencilled in as a top 6 player.

I’m not quite sure you know how development works. These guys all need development but are all viewed as great prospects and we’re very good draft picks for their position.

I think that Jarvetie ends up being a Burakovksy. Amazing for stretches but lacking consistency.

Sanderson was never viewed as top 5, more of a rising player that a team could take a shot on. He did not start the year very highly at all. He was defenders not a lock.

Also you must not be a big Sens fan to know the others cause they’re all either top prospects or solid NHLers.

It’s also quite astounding that you called Pinto a nobody as a Sens fan. 20 goal 21 year old is a nobody now.

Kleven would also be an Ottawa defensemen if he didn’t need to not go on waivers.

Going back to your original point, Ottawas drafting has been great over the past few years. They may have had the best draft of any individual team in 2020 of all time.

Plus at the end of the day, the draft is a crapshoot. Teams like Boston and New York both have really struggled at drafting. And you could go back in history and do this for every team and say that their drafting is really bad.

Forgot to add this when I initially responded to you but:

while the 2021 draft might be one of the worst drafts in team history

it was followed by one of the best drafts in NHL history by the Sens, because in the draft they could have realistically gotten their Franchise forward, their Franchise defensemen, their Franchise Goalie (Meralainen), three quality middle six options (Grieg, Jarventie, Sokolov) a top four defensemen (Kleven), and a wildcard in Daoust who could be a middle six option in time.

That probably, along with Covid, heavily influenced their 2021 draft strategy where they reached more on tools and potential with really low floors, rather than medium potential, pretty high floor players. Granted not many teams did well in that class.

Huh??? Sens have one of the worst prospect pools in the league lol. Some of your projections are insane. I've seen Athrin have more sense than you.

Which period are you talking about precisely? Because there's a lot of various stretches


Rectification : Sens were in the ECF game 7 double OT 7 years ago. You meant the last 6 years and also they haven't been botttom-5 in the last 3 seasons

Not that I want to find excuses for Dorion as I am probably his biggest critic but facts need to be exact.\


I would have presented the argument differently but Kleven is not going to be replacement level at all.

Kastelic also is and will be a pretty good 4th line Center. Merilainen is young and has good potential as a goalie. Guenette is interesting too and could end up playing a bunch of NHL games. Donovan also looks like a good prospect so it's too early in several cases.

Formenton would have been quite the middle-six 2-way speedster but it looks like he ruined his own career by being a poor human being (speculation only as we can't talk in absolute on that subject)

Anyway, I can't really add on this as I don't even know which period was targeted by that Echlz statement


It's not one of the worst yet but it's also not entirely on drafting, more because Pierre Dorion is really bad at his job. Most great prospects already graduated in the last few years and Dorion has spent A LOT of capital to acquire some players and also repair a lot of mistakes. Plus, the Boucher and Roger blunders in 2021 (Dorion makes the call when it's a top-10 pick)

I could develop on this but gotta go for now