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The only positive thing to talk about with the Senators right now is their prospects and young players. The good news is that Ottawa has a lot of talented players between the ages of 18-24, and there are some building blocks for the future.
On Sunday night, @SensProspects on Twitter had a February report on the Senators website regarding some of their prospects development. If you haven’t checked it out, I recommend it, because he does great work with his coverage of the farm.
That got me thinking more about prospects, and I wanted to go over a few players who have seen their stock rise or drop the most this season relative to where they were in September. I will also include players who were eligible to be considered prospects at the beginning of the season. Here are some big movers this year:
Rising:
Brady Tkachuk
I wasn’t sure what kind of player he was going to be in the NHL even though he was the consensus #1 prospect coming into the season. I would have been happy with around 35 points, but he is already at 36 in 58 games. He is only going to get better as he matures physically, and he should turn into a very valuable player. I had my worries that he would be more of a middle-six winger, but now he is a second liner at worst, with clear potential for much more.
Drake Batherson
Batherson has gotten so much better in his two seasons since being drafted. I was optimistic about him after last season in the QMJHL, but I wanted to see what he could do in the AHL first before being all-in on him. I had tempered my expectations, and he has been absolutely extraordinary. With 55 points in 46 games in Belleville, he is first amongst rookies in points per game (1.20) and fifth amongst all skaters. For a 20-year-old, that is extremely impressive, and I honestly think he has first line potential now. What a difference less than two years makes.
Angus Crookshank
Crookshank was drafted in the 5th round last year, and NCAA players aren’t expected to do much in their rookie seasons, especially those taken in the later rounds. However, the former BCHL player has 22 points in 34 games with UNH, which is third on his team and just two back of the team leader. He was just over a point per game player last year at the Jr. A level (which isn’t exactly lighting it up), so to see him be one of the better performers in the NCAA as a freshman is impressive.
Joey Daccord
Mr. "Joey OK" hadn’t done too much since being drafted in 2015, but in his final season at ASU he has put it all together. Arizona was promoted to Division I this season, and Daccord is a big reason why they have a 21-12-1 record. In 34 GP, Daccord has as whopping .926 SV% and has recorded seven shutouts as well. He has to be signed by this summer, although with no clear starter in the future, I would be surprised if he opted to not sign in Ottawa. He’s a very exciting prospect all of a sudden.
Jacob Bernard-Docker
JBD was already a first rounder with pedigree, so perhaps he couldn’t have risen that much this season. Still though, he’s fifth on UND in scoring with 16 points in 34 games, and he has usually been given top-four minutes. He’ll get plenty of opportunities with the Senators because he’s a right-hand shot, and I think there’s a good chance that he will be in the NHL in 2020-21. He didn’t make Team Canada at the WJC, but I think he has the potential to be at worst a second pairing defenseman.
Honourable mentions: So many prospects have enjoyed solid seasons for Ottawa this year. Players like Colin White, Christian Wolanin, Marcus Hogberg, Logan Brown, Josh Norris, Nick Paul, and Jack Rodewald took good steps forward, although not as many as the main five listed.
Falling:
Filip Gustavsson
Gustavsson is still only 20 years old and has plenty of time left to turn it around, but he has struggled this season with just an .886 SV% in 30 AHL games. For now, Hogberg has passed him on the depth chart, although that can change rather quickly.
Jonny Tychonick
Perhaps he is right where people expected him to be, although for me personally, I had very high hopes for him after the Senators drafted him. I’m still optimistic about his future, but he wasn’t exactly trusted at UND this season, especially in comparison to his fellow Senators prospect JBD. He still has yet to score this season with just four assists in 26 games, although his offensive ability is in there somewhere.
Andreas Englund
He’s become a forgotten man in Belleville, and at 23 years of age, it’s hard to imagine him having much of a future with the Senators. I don’t think anyone expected much of him over the past year or two, but the fact that he hasn’t gotten called up this season shows me that he isn’t involved in future plans. He has played just 6 career games in the NHL, and at the AHL level he is extremely limited offensively with a career “high” of 14 points this season. His defense isn’t amazing either, and now Thomas Chabot, Erik Brannstrom, Christian Wolanin, Max Lajoie, and even Mark Borowiecki and Ben Harpur are ahead of him on the left-handed defensemen depth chart. I wouldn’t consider him much of a prospect at this point.
Aaron Luchuk
Some fans were probably too optimistic on him coming into the season after leading the OHL in scoring as an overager last year, and he hasn’t lived up to the hype so far. In 25 AHL games, he has 9 points, and in 26 ECHL games, he has 17 points. Because Belleville has actually been quite deep up-front this year, Luchuk hasn’t been given much of an opportunity, so it’s not as if he has been a complete bust. He’s almost 22 years old and I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for him to develop his game further, but he really needs to take a big step forward in 2019-20.
Markus Nurmi
The almost 21-year-old has taken a step back in his second professional season in Finland, racking up just 12 points (with one goal) in 58 games for TPS. It’s hard to expect a young player in that league to produce a ton, but he has nine fewer points in seven more games this season, so he hasn’t exactly improved. He isn’t signed to a contract yet, and there’s a good chance that he might not even be signed by the summer.
The farm system is in a good place right now, especially when realistically only two of their better prospects have had actual down seasons.
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