Since their January 23rd practice in which DJ Smith consulted with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux on how to generate more offence, the Senators arrived at the All-Star break riding a four-game win streak.
Depends on what happens with DeBrincat, obviously. If his preference is to move elsewhere, using two top-10 picks in back-to-back years on him and Tyler Boucher will be large blemishes on Dorion's record -- especially during a rebuild. It's not that there are bad prospects in the system, however. The organizational draft ranking is simply a product of using a large volume of picks on safe floor/character guys. They're great to have in the organization, but, there was a lot of draft value left on the cutting room floor when a number of their selections were made. Pundits like Wheeler took a lot of heat for pointing it out at the time.
Depends on what happens with DeBrincat, obviously. If his preference is to move elsewhere, using two top-10 picks in back-to-back years on him and Tyler Boucher will be large blemishes on Dorion's record -- especially during a rebuild. It's not that there are bad prospects in the system, however. The organizational draft ranking is simply a product of using a large volume of picks on safe floor/character guys. They're great to have in the organization, but, there was a lot of draft value left on the cutting room floor when a number of their selections were made. Pundits like Wheeler took a lot of heat for pointing it out at the time.