Trevor Shackles: Top 25 Senators Prospects, Part 4: 6-10 6th-10th best Senators prospects

Overall, pretty good, with a small caveat in regard to a complete misunderstanding of the Formenton shine. This kid is the youngest prospect ever drafted by the Sens. One day younger and he would have been in the next draft. Most important this kid has the potentential to be an elite defensive forward. He is super responsible with the puck and will be able to match up against any top winger in the league because of his speed and his defensive awareness. He is going to be a top penalty killer.

There are all kinds of players who light it up in junior and in the minors. But, they never make it in the NHL because they cannot master their defensive game. I will be disappointed if Formenton is not in the line up on opening night. I thought it was a huge mistake to send him back down to London last year.

5. JBD
4. Brown
3. Norris
2. Batherson
1. Brannstrom

Just taking a guess at the order, the 5 guys in there were pretty obvious all along.

Overall, pretty good, with a small caveat in regard to a complete misunderstanding of the Formenton shine. This kid is the youngest prospect ever drafted by the Sens. One day younger and he would have been in the next draft. Most important this kid has the potentential to be an elite defensive forward. He is super responsible with the puck and will be able to match up against any top winger in the league because of his speed and his defensive awareness. He is going to be a top penalty killer.

There are all kinds of players who light it up in junior and in the minors. But, they never make it in the NHL because they cannot master their defensive game. I will be disappointed if Formenton is not in the line up on opening night. I thought it was a huge mistake to send him back down to London last year.

My feelings echo Trevor's. I always thought he would get more points since his speed seemed to give him tons of chances even in the NHL.

Although, he put up a ton of points in the playoffs last year. Small sample size, but perhaps it was him starting to find it after some injuries.

An exciting prospect nonetheless. And I do think even if he doesn't find his offensive game, his speed alone should all but guarantee him a 3rd line spot.

The Sens do have a nice talent pool of young players. The problem is once they mature and become NHLers the Senators ownership won’t pay the going rate to keep them.
I would think Chabot will be a target of an offer sheet next summer. It must be frustrating to be a Sens fan

I like this series. I know I come across as a downer on the prospects, but considering we are trying to rebuild and replace the likes of Stone, Duchene, Karlsson, Hoffman, even an Alfredsson, etc. it’s hard to see huge potential with the current group. Lots of good talent coming, I just don’t really see elite talent. However, the next drafts will be the big ones. I love learning about the new names. Hard to keep track of everyone during a rebuild.

I think Filip Chalpik gets lost in the shuffle. Honestly thought he was closer to 25 years of ago. During his time in the NHL last year, he just looked like an NHL player. Skating looked natural and wasn’t fighting the puck as many new NHLers do. Don’t think he is going to be a super star but be an effective 2nd/3rd liner.

Abramov – Not sure there is much there. As you say, either going be a legit NHLer or KHL star. I feel he is sort of similar to Filatov back in the day with the obvious Columbus connection.

Hogberg – I have been pretty persistent that this guy isn’t going to be an NHL goalie for the long term, if at all. Even a little perplexed he’s considered a prospect with his 25th birthday 4 month away. Not sure he should be ranked with prospects who are 18, 19, 20, etc. Obviously maturity and experience are unmatched.

Formenton – Screams Mason Raymond to me. Tons of speed that will be useful but may not have much finishing ability to be a mainstay.

Thomas – Not sure on him either. Assume he gets a few years to marinate. To me there were other options to go at the draft, but it was really a crapshoot at 21.

The Sens do have a nice talent pool of young players. The problem is once they mature and become NHLers the Senators ownership won’t pay the going rate to keep them.
I would think Chabot will be a target of an offer sheet next summer. It must be frustrating to be a Sens fan
- BernardShakey

Back at the trade deadline 2018 when Karlsson's name was first floated I predicted that Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Dzingle et. al. would all be traded for picks and prospects.

I said then and I will say it again the Sens have opted for text book rebuild and the strategy is straight out of an MBA case study. By slashing fixed expenses, especially player salaries, they have cleaned their books and will look remarkably attractive to any investor or buyer.

Going forward I do not expect the Sens to lose any players to offer sheets and I think they may become highly competitive far faster than I expected. But, I hope they get a couple of top lottery picks before that happens.

Interesting list on this one... and I'd agree that this is about as high as I would be able to go with prospects like Formenton, Chlapik, and Abramov - even though I think all 3 have solid NHL potential.

Conversely to a 'top-25' list format, I tend to think of the prospects in terms of what appears to be their most likely role potential, and the sort them according to which I think are the strongest candidates within each of the groups.

1st-2nd Line Forward (eg. Tkachuk)
Batherson, Brown, Norris

2nd-3rd Line Forward (eg. White)
Formenton, Abramov, Chlapik, Davidsson, Balcers, Pinto, Crookshank, Gruden, Veronneau

3rd-4th Line Forward (eg. Pageau)
Paul, Kastelic, Lodin, Kelly, Nurmi


1st-2nd Pairing D-Man (eg. Chabot)
Bernard-Docker, Brannstrom, Thomson

2nd-3rd Pairing D-Man (eg. DeMelo)
Wolanin, Lajoie, Tychonick

3rd-4th Pairing D-Man (eg. Borowiecki)
Jaros, Alsing, Englund


1st-2nd Goalie (eg. Anderson)
Sogaard

2nd-3rd Goalie (eg. Nilsson)
Hogberg, Gustavsson, Daccord, Mandolese


The glut of potential 2nd/3rd line forwards is really the biggest problem in the current prospect pool... far too many prospects who might hit the 40pts-50pts level, and not enough exceptional ones capable of pushing the 70pts-80pts level you need to have a competitive top scoring unit.