Senators Draft Confidential

Busy draft days and the Ottawa Senators have become synonymous in recent years. 

The Sens selected 9 players on draft day, including 4 in the 1st round.

Below is a list of their respective selections:

MTL1st #2 Ivan Demidov 

LAK 1st #9 Becket Sennecke 

MIN 1st #18 Trevor Connelly 

NYR 1st #23 Cole Hutson 

CBJ 3rd #79 Melvin Fernstrom 

CGY 3rd  #81 Tomas Suchanek 

WPG 3rd #83 Mac Swanson 

CBJ 5th  #153 Joona Saarelainen 

STL 5th #156 Miroslav Holinka 

Ottawa Senators GM Cole Bates gave an exclusive all access interview where he provided insights on Ottawa's objectives behind two trades the Senators executed leading up to the draft:

 Ottawa Receives:

2024 MTL 1st #2 (Ivan Demidov)

2024 NYI 2nd #46 (Leo Sahlin Wallenius)

 Montreal Receives:

Will Smith

 Ottawa Receives:

2024 LAK 1st #9  (Becket Sennecke)

2024 NYR 1st #23 (Cole Hutson)

 Los Angeles Receives:

2024 OTT 1st #5 (Zeev Buium)

2024 NYI 2nd #46 (Leo Sahlin Wallenius)

Bates on how the two trades were connected:

“These two deals absolutely coincided. Interestingly, the common objective in both trades was to get to a range in the early 20's where we could get Cole Hutson, who we coveted highly." 

Bates on the deal with Montreal:

"I'm as high on Will Smith as anyone. Ivan Demidov is someone we’re equally or more high on long term. Having guys like Fantilli, Dvorsky, Bourque, etc already up the middle maked him a good fit positionally with our forward group long term. There’s obviously less certainty and more wait-time with Demidov, so getting pick 46 was necessary. Knowing we had an abundance of other picks, we were confident we could turn pick 46 into a pick in the 20-23 range to ensure we could get Cole Hutson." 

Bates on the trade with Los Angeles:

"Outside of our desire to turn pick #46 into Cole Hutson, we were deliberating over 4 players at 5th overall. Moving back to 9th gave us a good shot at one of those players and anticipated Sennecke would be the one left. The other 3 players all went in the 5-9 range as expected. We had been leaning to Berkly Catton or Zeev Buium at 5th overall, but felt an argument could be made for Parekh or Sennecke to be in that same tier. At the end of the day we felt getting Beckett #9 is exceptional value when considering moving back secured getting Cole Hutson at #23."

Bates on passing up quality defenders considering defense is an area of need.

"It was difficult knowing there were blue chip Defense prospects on the board who we passed up. At the end of the day, it comes down to always believing that you have to take the best player available, regardless of position."

Bates on where Ottawa had guys like Ivan Demidov, Beckett Sennecke, Trevor Connelly and Cole Hutson ranked coming into the draft:

"Demidov was our clear cut #2, we think he has superstar upside. Sennecke fell to us in an area we were really comfortable with; we had 5 players all closely ranked from #3-#8 and he was one of them. Connelly was someone we had as a top 10 talent, and frankly, someone we would of considered taking as high as #10. Cole Hutson is someone we would of taken as high as 11-15 but I was really confident he would still be available at 23."

Bates on players picked by other teams who Ottawa coveted highly:

"I mentioned earlier that we were very high on Zeev Buium and Berkly Catton. Jet Luchanko, Michael Hage, and Stian Solberg were all guys we had inside our top 15. Emil Hemming who was one of the last picks in the 1st was a player we had much higher. Dean Letourneau and Dominik Badinka were two prospects we saw as 1st round talents that went just prior to pick #46; which we were pleased to see. Matvei Gridin, John Mustard, Jeremy Poirier, Brodie Ziemer, Carter George, and Timur Kol were all high value picks in my view that went later than where we had them slotted."