OK, so the draft is now less than a month away and the combine kicked off yesterday in Bufalo with player interviews and we will get the fun but in the end really inconsequential medical poking and prodding coming up on Saturday.

Starting today, I will look at some of the players that would be in the range for the Senators to take with the 12th pick. I looked at a few different rankings, mock drafts etc. and the concensus is that the top 6 will be Auston Matthews, Patrick Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matthew Tkachuck and Alex Nylander, not necessarily in that order. The next group consists of about 7 or 8 names that appear consistently in the top 15, and that is where my focus will lie, because if the Senators do decide to move up at all, I don't foresee them ponying up the assets to get into the top 6 so I won't get any false hope up for snagging one of those elite half-dozen.

So today, I will look at Windsor Spitfires center Logan Brown.

Brown is 6'6", 220+ lbs and just turned 18 in March. He is the son of former NHLer and current Ottawa 67's head coach Jeff Brown.

RANKINGS

Central Scouting - 7th NA
ISS - 7th overall
Bob McKenzie - 13th
myNHLdraft.com - 9th

While the chances that Brown will still be on the board at #12 are probably less than even, he is certainly a player worth targeting and if he is there the Senators should probably just go ahead and scoop him up.

With the uncertainty of exactly what Mika Zibanejad and Curtis Lazar are going to become, the Senators need a big option down the middle, someone who isn't afraid to play the body and can excel in both ends of the ice. Brown has the potential to be a really solid #2 center who might even become a #1 in the right situation.

Size is obviously his biggest asset and something that cannot be taught. He moves pretty well for a big man but won't be beating out Dylan Larkin in a foot race any time soon.

Brown got off to a pretty solid start this season and was at #14 on central scouting's mid-season rankings among North American skaters, but came into his own in the second half and had the biggest jump of anyone on the rankings (Pierre-Luc Dubois went from 7 to 1 between the mid-term and final ranking.

Brown is described as a playmaker first, but a player who can also get his own shot, not a bad combination and a little bit reminiscent of a certain former Sens centre who is now plying his trade for the Stars. Not that Brown has quite that level of pure skill & talent, but he also brings a physical dimension that Spezza didn't bring.

He does have to work on his skating - most notably his first couple of step acceleration, but that can be worked on and if that is the biggest knock on him, you have a pretty good prospect.

Brown had 21 goals, 53 assists for 74 points in 59 OHL games this past season and played in both the CHL/NHL Top prospects game as well as the CCM All-American prospects game last September.

Could he be the power player down the middle (or power forward in general) that the Senators have lacked for so long?

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