Five Thoughts for a Friday - Ottawa Senators Prospect Garfunkels

A few weeks ago when I sent out the ballot for our annual prospect awards (albeit to limited fanfare) I had mentioned that we would probably do some iteration of our writer's choice awards piece. And while I don't think anyone really missed that piece, it didn't really sit right with me that I just never held up my end of the bargain. Obviously with so much going on both at our site and with the Ottawa Senators around the draft and free agency, this fell through the cracks pretty easily and again I don't know that anyone else on earth would have missed it but I'll take this opportunity to fill the void and give my version of the writer's choice award with some quick hits on a few players whom I think deserved some sort of recognition for their performances this past season. Let's go in alphabetical order because why not.

Jorian Donovan

Last year Donovan took the honour of top newcomer and this year had a good shot at best defender (Tyler Kleven), best late-round pick (Angus Crookshank), or most improved prospect (Stephen Halliday). Donovan didn't take home any of those accolades (which in fairness went to older, more established players) but that doesn't detract from Donovan's strong season. The former fifth-rounder (136^th overall 2022) won the Memorial cup with Saginaw this past season and had an impressive four points in five Memorial Cup games after a decent 46 points in 66 regular season games. Donovan's 13 goals ranked in the top ten among U20 defenders in the OHL this past season. His 24 goals all-time as a Bulldog also give him the franchise lead among U20 defenders. As we've said about Donovan and a few of his peers before, Ottawa's depth chart on left defence creates all kinds of problems even for established NHLers so who knows how Donovan fits into the plans long-term but that's a problem for another day.

Among other things, Donovan holds an interesting place as a conduit from the old Senators regime to the new one. Donovan has family connections to the team and could hold up as one of Dorion's last solid draft picks. He also played for the Hamilton Bulldogs and thus has familiarity with the new regime that should benefit the blueliner down the road (the Sens did after all recently acquire and extend former Bulldog Jan Jenik). Donovan will in all likelihood report to Belleville for his rookie pro season this fall at age-20.

Maxence Guenette

I would imagine that Tyler Kleven graduates from prospect status this coming season and while that should theoretically open the door for Guenette to win this award next season, Guenette also kind of needs to graduate from prospect status this coming year. The 23-year-old blueliner (seventh-round 187^th overall in 2019) would need to clear waivers should the Sens assign him to the AHL out of camp and while I doubt too many other NHL teams have a roster spot open for an unknown, we do know the value of right-shooting defenders around these parts. Obviously Artem Zub and Nick Jensen have their places carved out with Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic vying for that third pairing assignment on the right side. I would absolutely love to see Guenette get the seventh roster spot ahead of Hamonic but I won't hold my breath.

Anyway, getting to why I wanted to write about Guenette, he represented Belleville in the AHL all-star game this past season alongside Crookshank and had better than 0.5 points-per-game as a reliable defender. Guenette ranked in the top ten in the AHL among U23 defenders in scoring this past season and he now holds Belleville's franchise title for defender scoring with 93 points in 178 games. Yeah I know it stinks that Lassi Thomson didn't pan out, but the Sens got a pretty good consolation prize in the seventh-round.

Roby Järventie

I still haven't recovered from seeing Roby's name on some folks' ballots for biggest disappointment. Roby missed a lot of time with injury and he had the type of trepidatious NHL debut I would expect from a lot of 21-year-olds, but I wouldn't chalk any of it up as a disappointment. Järventie and Ridly Greig (fraternal twins separated at birth) had nearly identical stat lines in the AHL going nearly a point-per-game when healthy. Järventie ranked in the top-ten among U21 skaters in the AHL when healthy and he now leads Belleville all-time in U21 scoring with 66 points. As a former second-round pick (33^rd overall in 2020) Jarventie could really only qualify for the MVP or most improved awards and I have no qualms with those awards going to Crookshank and Stephen Halliday respectively. I think under different circumstances, though, Järventie makes the race a lot closer than it ended up. I have total confidence that a healthy Järventie can compete with the likes of Crookshank, Halliday, and Jenik for an NHL roster spot out of camp. Järventie possesses the type of scoring touch this team desperately lacks outside of the top-six.

Zack Ostapchuk

As much as I appreciated the feel-good vibes provided by long-shot players like Mark Kastelic and Parker Kelly, depth players have their shelf lives in professional sports and sometimes teams just have to stir the pot. Just like you don't extend relievers in baseball, you shouldn't blow the budget on your bottom six. And every prospect pool needs a healthy complement of players like Ostapchuk who make league-minimum, can play passably in multiple phases of the game and rotate in and out of the lineup as needed. Ostapchuk's ceiling seems a little underwhelming for a high second-rounder (39th overall in 2021) but you could virtually lock him in as a bottom-six NHLer from his draft plus one season. I expect pretty much the same thing from the 21-year-old this fall that I did a couple of years ago. He'll never blow us away with his offence but the fanbase has always appreciated Ostapchuk in and of himself, probably thanks in no small part to his contributions to a couple of gold medal-winning world juniors teams, and 17 goals on the season certainly makes for a decent rookie AHL campaign. Along with the aforementioned skaters plus Cole Reinhardt and some of Steve Staois' offseason acquisitions, Ostapchuk will have a lot of competition at camp but I mean this guy did make the national team more than once.

Kevin Reidler

Considering the Senators' decades-long struggle to develop and retain viable goaltending, I hate to get too invested in any goaltending prospect. That being said, I still think Reidler deserves some praise for a very impressive first season in North America after some mixed results playing his junior hockey in Sweden. the former fifth-rounder (151st overall 2022) had a breakout season with the USHL's Dubuque Fighting Saints where he came painfully close to winning the Clark Cup in his rookie campaign. In the regular season, Reidler had a decent save percentage of 90.2 and an impressive 27 wins good for second-team all-star considerations. In the playoffs, though, he found another gear and finished the postseason with a 93.4 save percentage and seven wins against the best teams in the league (not to mention three shutouts). In pretty much every statistical category, regular season and postseason, Reidler finished second to the Kings' top prospect Hampton Slukynsky whose Fargo team defeated Dubuque in the Clark Cup finals. Reidler will turn 20 in the fall and report to Omaha to commence his NCAA career. For now Reidler sits comfortably behind Mads Søgaard (who won our top goaltender title) and Leevi Meriläinen waiting in the wings. The Sens organizational depth chart could look completely different in the crease by the time Reidler signs his ELC (assuming he does) so I'll just enjoy this trivia now for what it's worth.