2024 NHL Draft: Day 2
After selecting right-shot defenceman Carter Yakemchuk with the seventh overall pick last night in Vegas, the Senators began day two of the 2024 NHL Draft owning five selections and having rumours continue to swirl around Jakob Chychrun’s future.
A Chychrun trade never materialized and Ottawa never added or moved any picks, but the day did guarantee a few things: 1) everyone would not stop talking about the Sphere venue; and 2) the Senators kept drafting incredibly large prospects.
It started early in morning with Ottawa’s second-round pick. The Senators used the 39th overall selection to draft Gabriel Eliasson. The left-shot defenceman stands at a massive 6’7” and 207 lbs. The HV71 J20 product scored a goal and added five assists while recording a ridiculous 103 PIM in 36 games last season. He is headed to the University of Michigan this fall to start his collegiate career.
Eliteprospects’ 2024 NHL Draft Guide described Eliassson as “a towering defenceman with decent skating ability and an endless lust for violence.”
I talked to one SHL executive who shared his thoughts on Eliasson.
“Clumsy, no sense, and bad with puck. Plays very mean and is huge so I guess he has a shot but in my opinion, he’s more likely to play semi-pro in five years than the NHL.”
That is not high praise, but it is a small snapshot into an evaluation of a player that most publications did not rank very highly. Most prospect annuals pegged him as a third-round selection or later, but there has been a pattern with this amateur staff.
The Senators replaced Pierre Dorion as the general manager, but his amateur scouting staff has remained in place. Except for Trent Mann, who left to join Pittsburgh, the rest of the amateur staff has largely remained the same.
Historically, the Senators have reached on other big or physical defencemen. Tyler Kleven was taken with the 44th overall pick in 2020. Ben Roger was drafted in the second round the following year and failed to earn a professional contract. Filip Nordberg was drafted with a 2022 second-round pick and he has struggled to move the needle after one season in the USHL. Scott Wheeler recently rated him as Ottawa’s 15th-best prospect in his 2024 NHL Prospect Pool Rankings this past January.
Only Kleven looks like he has a real future within the organization and ironically, with his presence as someone who projects as a physical third-pairing guy, Eliasson may be redundant. The organization has Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson locked up, so with Kleven, the aforementioned Nordberg, Tomas Hamara and Jorian Donovan — who project as depth defencemen — the Senators are covered. Left defence boasts probably some of the organization’s best depth within the system.
Eliasson’s selection raised eyebrows because he is a project player without much offensive upside. Considering many talented alternatives were available on the board like Andrew Basha, Ryder Ritchie, Cole Hutson, Nikita Artamonov and Teddy Stiga, Eliasson projects as a potential third-pairing defenceman. There is value in that, but it is a positional area of strength and I don’t know, maybe with a second-round selection, it is reasonable to argue that the Senators should have been aiming for more upside with that selection.
The organization made significant changes to their pro staff at the end of the 2023-24 campaign after a year of evaluation by Steve Staios. This weekend represented the first opportunity for the amateur staff to showcase their ability on a public stage. Now that the draft has concluded, maybe this represents an opportunity to move on and bring in new voices.
Without a pick in the third round, that sentiment certainly started to swell online. It could have been worse, however. Nobody in Ottawa was saying that the pick could have been flipped for Beck Malenstyn, but most concerns about the Senators not looking for upside were shelved in the fourth round.
The Senators took Lucas Ellinas with the 104th pick, Javon Moore with the 112th pick and Blake Montgomery with the 117th.
Ellinas is a product of the Kitchener Rangers and he contributed 16 goals and 33 points in 67 games. The left winger had a strong showing in the OHL playoffs where he recorded five goals and eight points in 10 games.
EliteProspects’ Mitch Brown had glowing things to say about Ellinas after his selection.
Brown’s write-up is reminiscent of how some prospect analysts discussed Alex Formenton’s second-round selection in 2017. Formenton was a depth player on a deep London Knights team and the belief was that, with his ascension up the lineup as others moved on, there would be another level to his game. In Kitchener, Ellinas may be able to take his game to another level if he is provided more opportunities and more skilled linemates.
“His shot and work rate are Ellinas’ standout elements. He adjusts to tricky passes to fire instantly and fires powerful quick-release wristers off the rush. Then, he collides with opponents and sprints back into the play to regain possession. He’s also a confident puckhandler, most visible when he’s pulling pucks off the wall to escape the cycle.” -EliteProspects 2024 NHL Draft Guide
Perhaps as importantly, this upside play represented a departure from the Eliasson pick. Ellinas’ selection was an upside-play and that trend continued throughout the fourth round.
Javon Moore was the Senators’ second pick of the fourth round. The left winger stands at a massive 6’5” and 203 lbs. The Minnesota high school product is committed to the University of Minnesota and has a late birthday (Dec. 7, 2005). As one of the younger players in the draft, there may be a lot of untapped upside to dream on. In 28 high school games, Moore tallied 26 goals and 53 points.
“Transitionally, Moore’s game is full of large-area handling and separation as he stretches his stride out to create power. This is a crafty player who utilizes delay elements to open room and disrupt gaps, blending slip-passing and saucer feeds through layers. He hunts for give-and-goes across his line, allowing him to drive dangerous areas of the ice with his size and find soft areas of the ice to get into a position to shoot off the pass.” -EliteProspects 2024 NHL Draft Guide"
The selection of Blake Montgomery was interesting because he was an overager. The 19-year-old is another huge left winger who clocks in at 6’4”, 181 lbs. He is committed to the University of Wisconsin for the upcoming season.
Daniel Gee, a crossover scout for EliteProspects, waxed poetic about Montgomery’s talent.
Theor draft guide had even more positive things to say about his play:
“Blake Montgomery is a play-driving power winger with speed to burn, shooting skill, vision, and defensive ability. Montgomery’s powerful crossover burst, high pace, and creative handling enable him to get defenders moving in the wrong direction and instantly punish them. He cuts inside, powers behind them on his way to the net, and always goes out of his way to win body positioning.” -EliteProspects 2024 NHL Draft Guide
Three upside plays in the middle rounds were an excellent way to restore some of the faith in this scouting staff’s ability.
With their final selection of the day, the Senators drafted Eerik Wallenius out of Finland. Wallenius is another huge left-shot defenceman. He is listed at 6’4” and 212 lbs, but reportedly can play with the puck.
“At 6-foot-4, he has the coveted size for a defenceman, combined with a desire to move the puck with control and control the game from the backend while occasionally chipping in offensively, too.” -EliteProspects 2024 NHL Draft Guide
That was Ottawa’s draft. Three left wingers, two left defenceman and one right defenceman in Carter Yakemchuk. The organization never diversified their pool from a positional perspective, but it made a concerted effort to draft big.
The average weight and size of their 2024 class was 6’4” and 200 lbs. These kids are only going to continue to grow.
It will take time for the results to manifest, but I would not be surprised to see the organization make some changes or continue to grow its staff. As Staios’ first amateur draft at the helm, he has had time to evaluate his group and as the draft’s results play out, he will have the opportunity to make changes.
Another interesting wrinkle is that for the 19th consecutive year, the Senators did not draft a Russian-born player out of Russia. The organization has drafted Eastern European-born players, but all of them have been picked from North American organizations. The geopolitical and KHL factors have loomed large, but two decades’ worth of Russian inactivity is crazy.