Ottawa Senators Top 25 Under 25 2024, #15: Maxence Guenette

Last Year: 17

Reader Rank: 13

With five years of development under his belt since joining the Ottawa Senators organization as a 7th-round selection in 2019, Maxence Guenette is looking to secure a full-time NHL job in 2024-25, a scenario for which both he and the team should be desperate. With Erik Brännström leaving for Colorado, new faces will need to step up to perform on the team's third defence pairing, and Guenette, a 6'3 right-shot defenceman and AHL All-Star, is in my opinion the best candidate to fill that third spot on the right side.

A former fifth-overall pick in the QMJHL Draft, his Val d'Or Fourers greatly struggled in his first two seasons, which hindered Guenette's counting stats. Even then, with 32 points 68 games in his draft year, his drop to the beginning of the seventh round was bigger than one would expect. He topped out at 40 points in 62 games in 2019-20, which was 4th-best on the roster that year.

He's improved his production every year he's played in the AHL, with 34 points in 58 games last season and a career-high 0.59 PPG. He led the Belleville Senators blueline in scoring, was 4th on the team overall, and defended whilst only taking nine minor penalties in the process. With Jake Sanderson and Nick Jensen in Ottawa's top four, adding Guenette into the mix would likely allow Ottawa's defense corps to be one of the most disciplined in the league. This could allow him to form a decent partnership with Tyler Kleven, in what would be a good cop/bad cop sort of deal.

His 8 NHL games were fairly uneventful, though he did nearly score his first career goal in his NHL debut against Buffalo at the end of the 2023 season:

His lack of experience means it's tough to predict just how effective of an NHLer he'd be this upcoming season – it all hinges on his development in the offseason. That said, it's good that the Senators have been patient, rather than force him into NHL play (despite there arguably being nobody better last season). And it's not like it's Guenette or bust for the Sens.

Jacob Bernard-Docker still has a bit of room for improvement, but I'm more so keeping an eye on Nikolas Matinpalo. The 25-year-old undrafted free agent signed last year out of Finland, and despite 4 serviceable NHL games, Pierre Dorion's salary masterclass literally made it impossible to fit his $950k under the cap for a consistent spot. Unlike Czech forward Jiri Smejkal, Matinpalo re-signed with the organization as opposed to returning to Europe, which tells me he sees NHL games as a realistic goal. So there will be at least *some* competition, especially if we see a PTO or two in camp.

There hasn't been a ton written about Guenette this past season but B-Sens head coach David Bell spoke highly of his progression at both ends of the ice, and on special teams in 2022-23, and by all observable metrics he's taken another step forward since then.

In GM Steve Staios' recent appearance on the Coming in Hot Podcast (30:47 in this video), he mentioned that he considers him to be a candidate for a full-time roster spot, presumably alongside Kleven. As Steve Warne noted in a recent article, it's encouraging for Guenette that Staios brought him up unprompted, in response to a projection of Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic as the 6th and 7th defensemen on the NHL roster.

He will require waivers to be sent down to Belleville this season, which makes this upcoming training camp a crucial one – a tipping point between this potentially being his last contract with the Senators, or a path to multiple one-way deals down the road. With Lassi Thomson out of North America, Guenette is the last hope for some value on the blueline out of that 2019 draft class.