After trading away all their top draft picks for Alex DeBrincat and Jakub Chychrun and graduating most of their top prospects, the Ottawa Senators have been left with one of the worst farm systems in the NHL. Few players project to be more than a middle-six contributor if they make the NHL at all. With a core of Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, and Brady Tkachuk, that’s less of a concern than it could be, but it’s still far from ideal, especially with how the 2023-24 season has gone.
However, not all projections become reality. Jesper Bratt was too small to succeed in the NHL, Carter Verhaghe wasn’t dynamic enough to be a top-six scorer, and Zach Hyman wasn’t even listed on Central Scouting’s year-end list in 2010. While not every low-round pick will end up like them, every team has a handful of prospects that could be considered “interesting” – not the highest potential, but possessing skills that could be highly effective if they make it. The Senators are no exception to the rule, so here are five prospects I think are the most interesting.
Zack Ostapchuk
On paper, Zack Ostapchuk projects to be a middle-six forward who is good with the puck, but more valued for his physicality which will likely put him closer to the third line than the second. He’s never been the most productive player on the ice, even at the height of his junior career, but his ability to use his size to his advantage by posting up in front of the net, as well as his leadership qualities, made him one of the best junior players in Canada. It’s why he ended up on both the 2022 and 2023 Canadian World Junior teams, where he played limited minutes as a depth forward, but did so very effectively.
Then came his NHL debut. Ostapchuk’s first foray into professional hockey this season hasn’t been the smoothest, but after 56 games, his 22 points rank eighth on the Belleville Senators while his 13 goals sit fourth – not bad for an American Hockey League (AHL) rookie. But when he got the call-up to join the Senators on Mar 12 to fill in for the injured Rourke Chartier, it was impossible not to cheer for him. His mom, who raised him alone after his father passed away in 2017, made the trip from Vancouver to see him play. It was a great moment made better by the fact that he looked pretty good out there, playing 12:44 minutes and winning two of his four faceoffs.
While Ostapchuk still likely ends up a third-line player, he’s proven in his six NHL games so far that he could be a perfect fit for this team in the same way Ridly Greig slid into a prominent role in his rookie season. Both are heart-and-soul players, who have a physical edge, but are also good with the puck, quick on their skates, and have great patience and intelligence in any situation. That’s a good prospect to have in your system.
Leevi Merilainen
The Senators have several goalies in their system who could become fantastic players in the future, but the most interesting to me is Leevi Merilainen. When he was drafted in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft, virtually no one knew who he was. He didn’t show up on the NHL’s Central Scouting register, nor was he ranked by any major scouting service. His Elite Prospects page showed that he played 19 games at the U18 level in Finland and 16 more at the U20 level, and while stints both had good save percentages, that was the only information provided. Yet the Senators used a third-round pick on him, which felt ill-advised.
It certainly doesn’t feel ill-advised now. Merilainen came over to North America for the 2021-22 season, joining the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Kingston Frontenacs, where he started the fourth-most games of any goalie and faced the fifth-most shots, all while posting the second-highest win total in the league with 31. His save percentage (SV%) wasn’t as strong, finishing the season with a 0.891, but that was still higher than more well-known (and higher-ranked) prospects like Benjamin Gaudreau, Will Cranley, and Tristan Lennox.
Merilainen returned to Finland for 2022-23, where he was one of the best overall goalies in the Liiga despite being just 20 years old, then came back to North America to join Belleville. In four games, he put up a 0.933 SV% and a shutout over four games, earning him a two-game call-up to the Senators. This season, due to the overabundance of talented goalies, he’s split time between the AHL and ECHL, but in both leagues, he’s been consistent. While it’s practically impossible to project how a goalie will develop – Adin Hill is a perfect example – Merilainen just can’t stop winning no matter where he plays. Hopefully, that turns into a starting job at the NHL level.
Djibril Toure
Djibril Toure may not strike you as an interesting prospect. He was ranked 178th by Central Scouting in 2023, but he was already an overage prospect by then and no one took a flyer on him. It’s hardly surprising – in 2022-23, the defenceman had just 16 points in 57 games, which is not what you want to see from a 20-year-old. This season, he is on pace to hit 18 points in 47 games. An improvement, sure, but still not ideal.
Related: Meet the New Senators – Djibril Toure
But when Toure showed up at the Senators’ Rookie Camp as an undrafted invitee, he didn’t look like a kid who had been passed over twice in the draft, but like a seasoned pro. He skated incredibly well for someone standing 6-foot-7, showing off an agility that few other players have, and boasted a good sense for offensive play. Yet he made a name for himself with a scrap against the Montreal Canadiens during the rookie tournament in Buffalo, which made him look like Zdeno Chara. Toure is the definition of a late-bloomer, which means fans likely haven’t seen his best yet. All we can do is wait for him to turn pro next season.
Stephen Halliday
Speaking of overage prospects, Stephen Halliday was passed over twice before the Senators picked him in the fourth round of the 2022 Draft. When he was selected, not much was expected; sure, the 20-year-old looked good in the United States Hockey League (USHL), but it’s tough not to when you stand 6-foot-4 and can’t be pushed off the puck by players two to three years younger than you. Furthermore, he didn’t use his size well and didn’t engage physically very often, which created some doubts about how he would fare in the NCAA.
Those doubts have all but evaporated. In his two seasons with Ohio State University, Halliday has put up 19 goals and 77 points in 78 games, plus another three points en route to upsetting the second-seeded Wisconsin Badgers at this season’s Big 10 Tournament. With the NCAA season over for Ohio, he could sign a pro contract in the coming weeks. Although he’s far from the best, he’s one of the most fun players in college right now, which is the definition of an interesting prospect. There are still flaws to his game, but there’s just so much to like.
Jamieson Rees
Recently acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the AHL Trade Deadline, Jamieson Rees doesn’t look like a great addition to the Senators. In 37 games this season, he has just four assists and zero goals, putting him on par with Tyler Boucher, who is looking more and more like a draft bust. However, his stats don’t tell the full story. The Hurricanes don’t have an AHL affiliate, meaning that their top prospects had to be loaned out to other teams. For Rees, that meant playing for both the Charlotte Checkers (affiliated with the Florida Panthers) and Springfield Thunderbirds (affiliated with the St. Lous Blues), neither of which placed him on their top line. That was reserved for their top prospects, who they had more of a vested interest in.
Without playing time, Rees floundered, which was uncharacteristic of the skilled center. Last season with the Chicago Wolves, he finished fourth with 42 points in 65 games while also adding 92 penalty minutes, which surpassed the next-highest total by 34 minutes. Going back even further, he was considered a fringe first-round pick by Bob McKenzie for the 2019 NHL Draft thanks to his incredibly high compete level and hockey sense. Craig Button compared him to Anthony Cirelli, writing, “a player who can play throughout the lineup and make a difference everywhere.” If the Senators decide to keep him around after this season, he would likely fit incredibly well with the style of play the Senators have been developing recently.
A Shallow Pool, but Still Plenty of Intrigue
If there’s anything that fans can glean from the first few moves in the Steve Staios era, it’s that he’s willing to give underrated prospects a chance. Rees was acquired for the low cost of a sixth-round pick, which is a fantastic gamble that won’t hurt the team if it fails, unlike many of Pierre Dorion’s moves. That means that even though the current prospect pool isn’t anything to write home about, the Senators will make sure that everyone gets a fair chance. After all, you never know how a prospect is going to turn out.
