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NHL Draft: Ottawa Senators May Want To Make A Deal

By Patrick Helper

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The NHL Draft is only two days away, and there has been a lot of talk about this year’s draft being full of trades and moves. Frankly it’s about time, all too often drafts are stale and boring. The Ottawa Senators are looking to shake things up, and have reached out to the Arizona Coyotes about obtaining the third overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft. It would be bad business not to inquire about a move, but still it’s unlikely that the Coyotes unload the pick. Ottawa is attempting to unload goaltenders, and will most likely be active, but moving up to a top five pick is unlikely.

For Ottawa this is more about drawing interest from other teams, and it’s purely strategic in my opinion. Arizona needs better goaltending so asking about what would be needed to move to three is a smart call for Bryan Murray to make. The issue could be that the Coyotes have a reported $16,094,444 million in cap space just to hit the floor, and they have a strong need to land a top young talent. A trade for Robin Lehner and his two-year $2.225 million contract is not the right move right now.

The Senators are entering the NHL Draft with a lot of fire power to play with. Moving up is possible but it doesn’t seem to be a priority for Ottawa. “I always ask the question, but I don’t think that pick in particular is in play at this point for us,” Murray said. “I think where we’re picking back at 18, that would be hard for him to move that far no matter what price I paid, but we have to ask the question anyway.”

That quote from Pro Hockey Talk would be the same from almost every NHL team as reaching the top five would cost way too much, but shifting from 18 to 10 or so is very

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possible. It’s just a matter of worth. This year’s NHL Draft crop does not warrant a jump however. There is talent in the top 20, but the separation between the top 10 and 18 is not enough to make a move.

A few possible player that could be a first found pick for the Senators are Thomas Chabot, Jakub Zboril, or Nick Merkley. Ottawa like every NHL teams is in need of a big strong top four defensemen. With the exception of Merkley who is a center both Chabot and Zboril could fill that role within a few years. If the Senators stick with the 18th overall pick securing that defenseman could be more important than adding a possible top 9 forward.

The Senators ranked 9th last season with 2.83 goals per game and their defense came in allowing 2.54 ranking 13th overall. There is a big need to develop of defenseman that can be the quarterback on the power play. Ottawa was way behind the league leaders coming in 22nd in the NHL. This is a case were scoring is sexy, but the smart play is to grab a young talented blue-liner.

Calling the Coyotes about their third pick is just doing due diligence. The only reason to make that kind of move is if Ottawa is targeting Noah Hanifin or maybe even Ivan Provorov who I’ve seen ranked as high as 6th over all. There will be moves in this year’s NHL Draft, but I’m thinking it will be more players shifting around and less about big draft order changes. I hope I’m wrong; it would be nice to see some action.

Next: 2015 NHL Mock Draft

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