Expansion Draft Preview: Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators have matched their longest playoff drought in franchise history.

They haven’t made the playoffs since reaching Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2017. That’s four seasons out of the playoffs, which is their longest drought since 1993 to 1996, their first four seasons in the NHL as an expansion team.

Over the past few years, Ottawa has been dismantling their old core, trading away names like @Erik Karlsson and @Mark Stone in order to stockpile draft picks. The Sens are set up for the Expansion Draft fairly well, as so many of their key players are exempt due to being on entry-level deals.

But Ottawa will still need to make a couple of decisions when it comes to Seattle. Who is the goalie of the future? Should they explode some struggling former top draft picks instead of quality veterans?

Eligible Forwards

@Derek Stepan, @Evgenii Dadonov, @Colin White, @Artem Anisimov, @Connor Brown, @Chris Tierney, @Ryan Dzingel, @Austin Watson, @Nicholas Paul, @Brady Tkachuk, @Logan Brown, Jonathan Davidsson, Zachary Magwood, Drake Batherson, Vitaly Abramov

Eligible Defencemen

@Thomas Chabot, @Nikita Zaitsev, @Josh Brown, @Victor Mete, @Cody Goloubef

Eligible Goaltenders

@Matt Murray, @Filip Gustavsson, @Joey Daccord, @Anton Forsberg, @Marcus Hogberg

Exempt Players

@Shane Pinto, @Josh Norris, @Tim Stutzle, @Ridly Greig, @Egor Sokolov, @Alex Formenton, @Artem Zub, @Parker Kelly, @Roby Jarventie, @Erik Brannstrom

What should they do?

Defence is the easiest position to predict for the Sens as there are only five players eligible for selection. Chabot is a no-brainer as he’s the team’s No. 1 defenceman and Zaitsev and Mete are the only other NHL regulars on the list.

Moving along, the Sens need to decide if Murray is still their guy in net. They spent a second-round pick and a prospect to acquire him and then gave him a hefty contract worth $6,250,000 annually. In his first season in Ottawa, Murray posted a paltry .893 save percentage. The 22-year-old Filip Gustavsson put up a .933 save percentage in his first nine NHL games and might be the better option to protect.

Ottawa also has some tough decisions to make when it comes to forwards. Tkachuk, Connor Brown, and Drake Batherson are the obvious three to protect, while the rest are up in the air. Abramov and Logan Brown are young and have upside, while Dadonov and Tierney are quality veterans.

That would leave Ottawa exposing Colin White, a former first-round draft pick to Seattle. White had a breakout season in 2018-19, scoring 41 points in 71 games, and inked a six-year, $28,500,000 deal. Since then, he has just 41 points over 106 games. If Seattle isn’t interested in this contract, they could select Nick Paul, a cheap middle-six winger coming off of back-to-back 20-point seasons.