NHL Team Prospect Pool Strength Rankings (July 2024)

[Panthaz89]

How anyone can think the senators are in a good position going into the season baffles me

They played so terribly last season, and they are in the best division in the NHL.

Who are they going to be better than in the next 3 seasons at least?

Boston?
Toronto?
Florida?
Tampa?

Senators are better off throwing in the towel and starting a 5 year rebuild and hope to hit their stride as the cream of the Atlantic starts slowing down

Other than Florida why the heck would anyone be scared of improving over the other 3....Tampa was struggling to make the postseason last year even though they were pretty healthy.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

No, the Senators are a promising young team that's right on the edge of taking the next step forward. Tkachuk (25), Stützle (22), Sanderson (22), Pinto (23), Batherson (26), and Greig (21) all have promising talent and are still young with lots of room to grow. There's a solid foundation in place, they really just need to make the right moves to progress into a playoff team. Trading for Ullmark was a great start that should inspire hope for this upcoming season.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

No.

 

[wasunder]

As a flames fan, I’d probably trade my teams position with Ottawa’s. It’s a low bar though.

Ottawa has a few good pieces to build around like tkachuk Sanderson and stutzle. Not sure that’s a cup winning core but I’d still take it over Calgarys position.

 

[PaulD]

Not at all. " worst" ..... please.
One of many teams that go years without making play offs.
Or under achieve , or never go on a play off run, or blow / waste high draft picks.
Eventually they break through and move into the top half ......while a few other teams revert too the bottom half and become cellar dwellers.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

The majority of the core is young and cost controlled for 3-7 years, but they have virtually no prospects pool or draft picks.

I'd like to think that they have a bright future because either this core proves they are capable or winning, and they slowly fix the prospect situation to fill in the blanks, or the core fails this season and the top pieces get sold off to start another rebuild. If they sell off the top pieces who will no doubt want out of a rebuild (Tkachuk, Giroux, etc), the cupboards will be restocked.

They are in a very tricky situation to navigate, but they do have some very solid young core pieces.

 

[JimmyApples]

A lot of people on here don’t realize if the Sens got average goaltending last season, they make the playoffs. And guess what? They traded for a top 10 goalie in the league for peanuts.

 

[Moist ReadOnly]

They have some really good players that are 22 years of age or younger on the roster already (Stutzle, Sanderson, Greig). Prospect pool rankings don’t determine who has the best future lol.

When they should have a top prospect pool from being poor for many years - it most certainly is concerning

 

[norrisnick]

The Ottawa Senators had a proactive off season last year and many believed they would do well, but they finished the third worst team in the East raising a question of whether the current core is capable of making play offs.

At the same time the Senators prospect pool is one of the worst in the league:

View attachment 893653

So, is it fair to say the Senators are one of the worst ran franchises that has a bleak present and questionable future ?

Are there any definitions for just WTF these columns actually represent? What's the difference between a top 5 Star and top 5 NHLer? WTF is a Depth Star, besides not being a moon?

 

[Devonator]

The Flames are worse off then the Sens.....

 

[WarriorofTime]

An honest look at their group that they were too quick to hand long extensions to would probably say offload everyone other than Stutzle and Sanderson before more no-trade protections kick in. You can keep Greig as well since he's on an ELC. With the value back for some of them, it could be a pretty quick re-tool. If they keep trying to ride it out and don't get a big step forward this year, it's likely looking like another lengthy rebuild will be on the horizon.

 

[Akrapovince]

We are very okay.

Okay top six.

Okay to good top four.

We have a good goalie.

Cautiously not upset.

An honest look at their group that they were too quick to hand long extensions to would probably say offload everyone other than Stutzle and Sanderson before more no-trade protections kick in. You can keep Greig as well since he's on an ELC. With the value back for some of them, it could be a pretty quick re-tool. If they keep trying to ride it out and don't get a big step forward this year, it's likely looking like another lengthy rebuild will be on the horizon.

No one is taking Norris.

We are not getting what we trade away from Tkachuk.

No team is looking for a one dimensional soft LHD in Chabot.

We have what we have and have to roll with it unfortunately.

This team looks very differently if we don’t draft Boucher, trade our picks for Chychrun and DeBrincat.

Could potentially with those three first rounders have at least 1-2 impact players on ELCs + another 2 years on bridges, which would have opened our window for 5 years. Go out and sign FAs even for an overpay during that time.

 

[conFABulator]

A lot of people on here don’t realize if the Sens got average goaltending last season, they make the playoffs. And guess what? They traded for a top 10 goalie in the league for peanuts.

They were 13 points out of a playoff spot. How does the math work to show us that average goaltending would have made that difference?

 

[BaileyFan]

Kings look to be marginally better in the present with a much worse future.

 

[Boud]

I think the Sens had extremely high expectations after the addition of Debrincat and Chychrun but the reality is those were two extremely bad trades, very shortsighted, that will cost this team in the future.

I think the Sens are not out of the woods.

Giroux is getting older and so is Perron. Ullmark has a year left, I think the future of this team highly depends on if they can re-sign him. Norris is always injured. His health will play a major role here too.

The foundation is there. There is not much coming in the pipeline though.

This will be a defining year. If they fail to make the playoffs this season it will have implications on Tkachuk. If they make the playoffs and start to compete it will drastically change things. Teams that compete have an easier time to attract players and the young core has a lot of room to grow.

All in all ... Are they in the worst position? Absolutely not. They have a 1C, 2C and 3C who are incredibly young and talented. They have a #1 D who's still incredibly young. A very unique and valuable player in Tkachuk. All those pieces under team control for the foreseable future. They have a starting goalie, for now.

Even if they fail they still have incredible pieces to move around to shake things up.

Dorion really set this team back by trading 2 early 1st rounders + and then losing another 1st rounder in the Dadonov debacle. Infuriating as a Sens fan.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I think the Sens had extremely high expectations after the addition of Debrincat and Chychrun but the reality is those were two extremely bad trades, very shortsighted, that will cost this team in the future.

I think the Sens are not out of the woods.

Giroux is getting older and so is Perron. Ullmark has a year left, I think the future of this team highly depends on if they can re-sign him. Norris is always injured. His health will play a major role here too.

The foundation is there. There is not much coming in the pipeline though.

This will be a defining year. If they fail to make the playoffs this season it will have implications on Tkachuk. If they make the playoffs and start to compete it will drastically change things. Teams that compete have an easier time to attract players and the young core has a lot of room to grow.

All in all ... Are they in the worst position? Absolutely not. They have a 1C, 2C and 3C who are incredibly young and talented. They have a #1 D who's still incredibly young. A very unique and valuable player in Tkachuk. All those pieces under team control for the foreseable future. They have a starting goalie, for now.

Even if they fail they still have incredible pieces to move around to shake things up.

Dorion really set this team back by trading 2 early 1st rounders + and then losing another 1st rounder in the Dadonov debacle. Infuriating as a Sens fan.

Boucher was an awful pick but I don't even consider 2021 an awful draft year especially if Ostapchuk turns out well. For not having a 1st or high 2nd round pick in 2022 I'm still happy with that draft overall since we got Halliday.

They were 13 points out of a playoff spot. How does the math work to show us that average goaltending would have made that difference?

League average goalie would have saved like an additional 20-25 goals. That makes a massive difference.

Edit: Sens allowed 281 goals on 2433 shots. Having just a 90 save percentage would have meant saving 38 goals lmao.

 

[conFABulator]

League average goalie would have saved like an additional 20-25 goals. That makes a massive difference.

Edit: Sens allowed 281 goals on 2433 shots. Having just a 90 save percentage would have meant saving 38 goals lmao.

Thanks. 38 goals fewer against, if nothing else changed for them would have put them a +12 goal differential which is better than the bottom playoff teams.

It feels like a lot riding on Ullmark being good and healthy this year. He has the pedigree for sure.

 

[Green]

Islanders for sure, for the next 3-4 seasons they are going to be fighting to try and get an 8th seed while in all likely falling short and than they will be forced to re-build with no real good prospects and an aging core that will have little trade value by the time they trade them, Islanders are going to be a weak team for at least the next decade

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Islanders for sure, for the next 3-4 seasons they are going to be fighting to try and get an 8th seed while in all likely falling short and than they will be forced to re-build with no real good prospects and an aging core that will have little trade value by the time they trade them, Islanders are going to be a weak team for at least the next decade

How did Wahlstrom bust so badly?

 

[majormajor]

Senators have one of the better collections of U25 talent in the league. It might be worth more than Chicago or San Jose's, we just don't talk about it as much on HF when guys are over the age of 21. The lack of a prospect pool under 21 (aside from Yakemchuk, who is great) is unfortunate but not a big deal when you have the guys slightly older than that.

Adding Ullmark could change everything for them. They would have been in the playoff chase with average goaltending.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Senators have one of the better collections of U25 talent in the league. It might be worth more than Chicago or San Jose's, we just don't talk about it as much on HF when guys are over the age of 21. The lack of a prospect pool under 21 (aside from Yakemchuk, who is great) is unfortunate but not a big deal when you have the guys slightly older than that.

Adding Ullmark could change everything for them. They would have been in the playoff chase with average goaltending.

Ostapchuk and Halliday are also very underrated prospects imho. As bad as the 2021 draft was overall, Ostapchuk still looks to be one of the better prospects taken in the 2nd round (FFS why didn't we pick Stankoven with the first 2nd round pick and Ostapchuk with the later one). I actually liked the Sens 2022 draft despite the lack of high picks thanks to the Debrincat trade.

 

[Peasy]

It's gunna be funny to watch them use assets for a 3rd year in a row on a player that will just leave after a single season.

Another bad season which is likely and Brady is probably picking up that phone and wanting out too.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Probably not, but if they don't make the playoffs or are close to it next season they're in danger of going through a rebuild upon a rebuild like the Sabres.

 

[BillDineen]

Step 1: move to lebreton flats

 

[LudwigVonKarlsson]

been a while since we had a shit on ottawa thread eh