19. Carolina Hurricanes
G: Cam Ward
D: Chris Pronger, Ulf Samuelsson
F: Geoff Sanderson, Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen
This Carolina lineup is actually more a Hartford Whalers lineup, considering all but Cam Ward were drafted well before the move to Carolina, so here’s an excuse to listen to Brass Bonanza, not that you ever need an excuse. Anyway, Ronnie Franchise was picked high but is the star of the show here, similar story with Chris Pronger on the back-end. Kevin Dineen, Geoff Sanderson, and Ulf Samuelsson are all household names from the days of Whale, and were all solid mid-round finds. Cam Ward is easily the best goalie in team history, which you’ll take at 25th any day.
A couple of Hall-of-Fame players here, and solid across the board otherwise. Not a bad lineup for the Canes.
18. Ottawa Senators
G: Brian Elliott
D: Sami Salo, Erik Karlsson
F: Pavol Demitra, Mike Fisher, Daniel Alfredsson
Ottawa comes in with one of the better late-round finds in franchise cornerstone Daniel Alfredsson. Alfie was picked 133rd overall in 1994 and retired the bar-none best player in the modern-era Senators’ franchise history. Pavol Demitra was picked 227th and had himself a very nice career.
Sami Salo dropped to 239th, and also was solid throughout his career. Brian Elliott made it all the way to 291st, which is one of the latest picks ever and has shown streaks of being a very good goalie.
The Sens have late-round value in this lineup and are fairly solid across the board. Nothing too overpowering, but they can definitely skate with a lot of teams.