OTTAWA – In 2017 the Ottawa Senators not only made the NHL playoffs as a two seed in the Atlantic Division, they scared the pants out of their opponents and made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals. Despite the optimism, Ottawa fell on hard times in 2018 and things might not be looking up anytime soon. There is one bit of good news for the Senators these days in that the team will have the fourth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. 
There are four prospects that are considered to be the cream of the crop this year and three of them are all scoring wingers. The bad news for Ottawa is that Erik Karlsson is a free agent at the end of the season and rumors have already swirled about his potentially moving on and might be traded.
The top prospect in the draft is a defenseman, Rasmus Dahlin, and he will surely go first overall to Buffalo. That leaves the “The 3” of Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk, and Filip Zadina left on the board. Unless someone picking above them (Carolina and Montreal) change their minds, two of them will be off the board leaving whoever is left to be had by Ottawa.
The rumor mill is said to think that Andrei Svechnikov will be taken by Carolina at #2. Montreal needs centers badly and rumors are that some of their talent at wing will be used as trade bait. Still, we don’t see the Habs passing up a chance to take either Tkachuk or Zadina.
The Sens could also use the opportunity to trade their pick at #4 in part as a vehicle to move Karlsson as part of a bigger trade. Since PHN does not take trades or potential trades under account, the Senators will have to make a pick,
Seeing that Karlsson could be moved Ottawa could look be looking ahead and draft a defenseman like Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson, or Adam Boqvist. The gut feeling in the PHN war room is that the Sens won’t draft for defense, but will stick to the script of taking the best player available, so with that said we expect Ottawa to make the announcement come draft day.
“With the 4th overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft, the Ottawa Senators select from Boston University, Brady Tkachuk.”
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