Ottawa Senators 2015 season preview

The Ottawa Senators are preparing for the New Season, and expectations are high! Ottawa’s GM, Jameson Fletcher, is excited for to see what fortunes that the team he just assembled will bring. When asked what his strategy was when going into the Inaugural Draft, GM Fletcher’s answer was simple. “Draft the best player available, and let the draft fall to you!” His draft definitely reflected that strategy.

GM Fletcher drew the #9 overall pick in the snake draft, and found himself in position to draft a player he didn’t think there was any chance of dropping to him, Evgeni Malkin! “I honestly was blown away that Malkin fell to me! I honestly believe that he is a top 3 player in the game, a real franchise player, and he is right in his prime at 28 years of age” says Fletcher.

In the 2nd round, somehow Rick Nash fell to him at 52. GM Fletcher was able to take another top end player in his prime, yet again. Nash is only 30, and still has a few more extremely productive years in him. He can be one of the very best goal scorers when he wants to be.

In the following rounds, the Senators picked up their #1 goalie in Corey Crawford, their #1 dman in Keith Yandle, and really solidified the top of their roster with Patric Hornqvist, Jordan Staal, Juri Hudler, Danny Dekeyser and Cody Ceci. To round out their top 10, they selected their goalie of the future, Zachary Fucale. It was clear that Mr. Fletcher was making a statement that he was making his team competitive right away and for a long time.

Before the season even started, Mr. Fletcher made some moves, varying from minor to quite the major trade. Enforcer Justin Johnson was brought in for Zack Fitzgerald, to fill in an area totally lacking in the roster. Goalie Mike Lee was traded for a late pick, and defensive veteran forward Tomas Kopecky accompanied by a 7th rounder was brought in for a 4th rounder. But a major splash was made when the Senators traded away the towering and promising defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, and a prized 1st rounder for the 2015 EHE SuperDraft for perennial all-star with a few more years to go, Henrik Zetterberg! The Senators immediately made him Captain, to be accompanied by Rick Nash and Brad Stuart as assistants. Every team in the Eastern Conference was definitely put on notice with this trade.

Expected Line-up for the 2015 Ottawa Senators:

1st line: Zetterberg-Malkin-Hornqvist

2nd line: Nash-Staal-Hudler

3rd line: Erat-Sutter-Frolik

4th line: Miller-Fiddler-Kopecky

1st pairing: Methot-Yandle

2nd pairing: Dekeyser-Stuart

3rd pairing: Scuderi-Scandella

Goalies: Corey Crawford and Devan Dubnyk.

The Senators were even able to stock an excellent prospect pool! (Ratings from Hockey’s Future)

1. Nathan Beaulieu, D, 8.0 C

2. Zachary Fucale, G, 8.0 D

3. Cody Ceci, D, 7.0 B

4. Jordan Binningon, G, 8.0 D

5. Valentin Zykov, RW, 7.5 C

6. Sven Andrighetto, RW, 7.5 C

7. Zane McIntyre, G, 7.5 C

8. Nikolai Prokhorkin, LW, 7.0 C

9. Dan O’Regan, C, 7.5 D

10. Andrey Makarov, G, 7.0 C

There are big expectations for these Ottawa Senators, and they believe they have a shot at the Cup starting this year.