Ottawa Senators: Pierre Dorion’s 2020 NHL draft prototypes
By Kyle Pereira
The Ottawa Senators have played their cards perfectly ever since their disastrous 2017-18 NHL season. Even though they’re the second-worst team currently in the league, they have bright young players and 2 top-10 picks in this year’s draft.
The Ottawa Senators aren’t necessarily a great team. They have built up quite the prospect pool, however, after moving key players in Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, and most recently Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Because of all that, they have three first-round picks in the upcoming 2020 NHL draft, including their own, San Jose’s, and, finally, the Islanders’.
The Sharks pick is beginning to look like a top-10 selection, currently sitting at 4th, according to Tankathon. Currently, the Senators pick is slotted in at number 2, with a 13.5% chance for the top pick. The Islanders pick currently sits outside the top 15, but the Islanders are struggling and could fall outside the playoff race, which would give the Senators an additional top 15 pick.
They have top prospects in Josh Norris, Logan Brown, Vitaly Abramov, Lassi Thompson, Erik Brannstrom, and, finally, Filip Gustavsson. With the potential towards three top 15 picks and two top 10 picks in one of the strongest drafts in recent memory, and that pool is going to be very, very scary.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion has been in office since 2016. He hasn’t been in office for a very long time, so relative to other GMs, his sample size for draft “prototypes” is relatively small. He wasn’t a GM anywhere else or with any other team, so we only have a group of draft picks that he has made since 2016. In total, he made 23 draft picks, with 15 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 3 goalies.
I went back to all of these selections, separated them by position and then looked at each individual’s height, weight, and nationality to see if Dorion has any established preferences in what he looks for in a player.
Based on these findings, I found, I had 6 prototypes that the Senators could take with their 2 top-10 picks and 4 options they could look at with the Islanders pick. First, let’s start with those top-10 options.