For the first time since 2010, the Ottawa Senators do not have a first or second-round pick heading into the NHL Entry Draft. It’s a big change in direction for the franchise, which is now focused primarily on winning games and getting into the playoffs as opposed to developing high-end talent for the future. While there are talks that the team could be looking at adding a first-round pick, they currently won’t select until the 108th pick in the fourth round, the lowest initial selection the franchise has ever had.
However, just because the Senators don’t currently have a top pick doesn’t mean development has to be ignored. Some of the most successful teams in the league are those that capitalize on low picks, finding high value in unknown prospects. It’s something Ottawa has excelled at in the past, too. Since their inaugural draft in 1992, they’ve shown that they can find value in the depths of the draft. So, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the five best selections the team has made in the fourth round.
Drake Batherson
The Senators entered the 2017 Draft with just four draft picks and a lot of confidence; they had just made it to the Eastern Conference Final for the third time in franchise history, after all. Unfortunately, much of that confidence was misplaced, as the team would completely fall apart the following season. The silver lining, however, is that Drake Batherson, a 6-foot-1 winger with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s (QMJHL) Cape Breton Screaming Eagles selected 121st overall, would become a major part of the team’s bright future.
Ranked 117th by NHL Central Scouting, Batherson was described as a late bloomer; he didn’t make his QMJHL debut until he was 18 years old, then as a 19-year-old rookie in the league, he scored 22 goals and 58 points in 61 games, plus another 12 points in 11 playoff games. Previously, he played with the Maritime Junior A Hockey League (MJAHL), where he grew four inches in just two years. He also had some Senators’ connections, as his uncle, Dennis Vial, played five seasons with the team in the 1990s. So Ottawa took the risk in the fourth round on the overaged prospect, a strategy they’ve become known for.
Maybe Batherson is the reason that the Senators keep selecting overage prospects in the middle rounds of the draft, as he took over the QMJHL in 2017-18, helping the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada reach the league Final with 33 points in 22 games, and leading the gold-medal-winning 2018 Canadian World Junior team with seven goals. He was then invited to the American Hockey League’s (AHL) All-Rookie Team and All-Star Game in 2018-19, was an AHL Second Team All-Star in 2019-20, and was selected to the NHL All-Star Game in 2021-22, although an injury prevented him from playing. This season, he recorded career-highs in goals and points while bouncing between the first and second lines. Dorion could not have found a better player with a fourth-round pick.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau
2010-11 was the complete opposite of the 2016-17 season for Ottawa, as the team had loaded up on draft picks, making 10 selections by the end of the day, including three first-rounders. While Mika Zibanejad, selected sixth overall, has become an NHL All-Star, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was Ottawa’s 96th overall pick, became a highly valuable member of the Senators for several seasons.
Unranked by Central Scouting, scouts were unsure where the 5-foot-9 Ottawa native would end up, with some seeing him going as high as the third round. Pageau put up decent numbers with the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques, leading the team with 32 goals and 79 points, then erupted in the playoffs, scoring the third-most points in the league and propelling a weaker roster to the QMJHL Final, where they lost to Jonathan Huberdeau and the Saint John Sea Dogs.
Despite his size, Pageau proved that he could do it all. A year later, he signed his entry-level deal, and a year after that, he was playing with the Senators. By 2015-16, he was one of Ottawa’s top forwards, scoring 43 points in 82 games, and two seasons later, he was wearing an ‘A’ on his sweater. Unfortunately, his time with the Senators came to an end in 2019-20, as the team continued to struggle to recover from the unexpected collapse experienced after the 2017-18 season, and he was traded to the New York Islanders for a first-round pick and a second-round pick.
Pageau’s time on Long Island has been solid with his highlight coming in the 2021 Playoffs, and his goal-scoring is certainly missed from the middle of the lineup. But the picks acquired turned into Ridly Greig and Tyler Kleven, which look to be future core members of the team. For a fourth-round pick, that’s a beautiful return for a franchise.
Ray Emery
The 2001 Draft was one of the best for the Senators. In total, the team made 12 selections, six of whom became NHL regulars. All eyes were on the second-overall pick Jason Spezza, but the team found plenty of value in the later rounds, most notably in Ray Emery, who was drafted 99th overall. Ranked 10th among North American goalies by Central Scouting, he was named the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds’ MVP after he put up a .912 save percentage (SV%) despite losing 29 of his 52 starts. No other goalie in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) that season had both a higher SV% and more losses. He had drive, and the Senators gambled that it would translate well to tougher competition.
Related: Senators’ 2001 Draft Review – Winning the Lottery
The gamble proved right on the money, as Emery nearly doubled his win total in 2001-02 while also boosting his SV% to .919, earning him the Canadian Hockey League (CHL)’s Goaltender of the Year award. Even though Ottawa was flush with goalies, they assigned him to the AHL’s Binghamton Senators in 2002-03, where he became the team’s starting goalie and led the league in shutouts, which earned him a spot on both the All-Rookie Team and All-Star Team. He repeated as an All-Star before the Senators finally gave him a shot in the NHL, and he responded with a 12-2-2 record and won the Defensive Player of the Month in March.
Emery is most fondly remembered for his 2007 Playoff run, where he and the Senators wound their way to their first Stanley Cup Final but cracked under the pressure and fell to the Anaheim Ducks in five games. However, his time with the franchise ended poorly. After months of rising tensions between him and his teammates, some of which stemmed from his penchant for fighting, he was bought out of his contract. He went to Russia for a season, then returned to the NHL, playing for the Philadelphia Flyers and Ducks before joining the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he won the Jennings Trophy and a Stanley Cup in 2013. He tragically passed away in 2018 in a drowning accident.
Christoph Schubert
Not only did the Senators find a starting goalie in the fourth round in 2001, but they also found a gritty, shutdown defender that helped solidify the team’s blue line on their 2007 Cup run. Christoph Schubert went undrafted in his first year of eligibility, which was not surprising; the German defender spent most of the 1999-00 season in Germany’s third-tier league, although he did captain the nation’s U18 team, putting up four points to lead the team. However, his specialty was in the defensive zone, which made him one of the better up-and-coming German prospects.
But even after Schubert made his Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) debut with the München Barons in 2000-01, played in the Olympic Qualifiers, made his World Championship debut at 19 years old, and played with the German U20 team, he received little attention from North America and was unranked by Central Scouting. That was until the Senators stepped up to the podium and announced his name with the 127th selection, adding him to a growing corps of tough-as-nails defencemen. The only question was whether his tenacity would translate to the North American ice surface.
Schubert remained in Germany for one more season, where he led all players aged 22 or younger with 125 penalty minutes and finished 18th league-wide, and joined the Germans at the Salt Lake City Olympics. He then joined the Binghamton Senators for the 2002-03 season and established himself as a reliable defensive presence, finishing third in team penalty minutes as a rookie. In his third season with the team, he started to show off a bit of offensive flair, sitting third in defensive scoring with 32 points in 76 games while still sitting top five in penalty minutes.
The Senators had finally seen enough of him to know Schubert would be perfect for their team, so they added him to their roster for the 2005-06 season. His rookie season went alright, but his sophomore season was arguably his best. He finished the historic 2006-07 season with eight goals, 25 points, and a plus-30, the fourth-highest total on the team. He also played in every one of Ottawa’s playoff games and was a valuable depth player as the team went all the way to the Final. He remained with the team for two more seasons before being claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Thrashers, where he played just one season before returning to Europe in 2010-11.
Ben Harpur
Barring any trades or last-minute adjustments, the Senators will pick 108th overall at the 2023 Draft, a spot they’ve only been in once before. Back in 2013, they selected the towering 6-foot-6 defender Ben Harpur, hoping that his size would translate well to the NHL. His draft season with the OHL’s Guelph Storm wasn’t all that spectacular, but two years later, he emerged as a dominant force from the blue line, putting up 20 points in 28 games before a trade sent him to the Barrie Colts, where he scored another 11 points in 29 games.
After a successful junior career, Harpur managed to crack Ottawa’s roster in 2015-16 and play four seasons for the team that drafted him, putting up a goal and seven points in that time. Injuries limited his impact at the NHL level, however, and with the Senators starting to become more competitive, they decided to trade him to the Toronto Maple Leafs along with defensive partner Cody Ceci and AHLer Aaron Luchuk and a third-round pick for Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown, and Michael Carcone. He never ended up dressing with the team, though, spending a season with the Toronto Marlies before joining the Nashville Predators. He finally found his niche with the New York Rangers this season and plans to be a part of their defensive depth until 2024-25.
Expectations for the Fourth Round
There is still plenty of talent hidden in the later rounds of the draft. While the Senators have found a few hidden gems, they are far from the only ones. Hall-of-Famers Sergei Fedorov, Mark Recchi, Rob Blake, and Jari Kurri were both selected in the fourth round, as were Bernie Nicholls and Tony Amonte. A more recent selection is Johnny Gaudreau, taken 104th overall by the Calgary Flames in 2011. Keith Yandle, Shawn Horcoff, and Gustav Nyquist were also fourth-round picks, as was Devon Toews, who now has a Stanley Cup ring with the Colorado Avalanche.
But what’s clear is that, if the Senators are serious about competing, they need to hit on their later picks. Any team can find talent with a first-round pick, but it’s much more difficult to do so when all the easy choices are gone. Look at where the Tampa Bay Lightnings’ stars have come from, as well as the Avalanche. Ottawa, under Dorion, has found several players that have contributed to the current success of the team. A few more of those, and the Senators will be well on their way to their first Stanley Cup.
