Ottawa Senators 2024 Top 25 Under 25, #25: Blake Montgomery

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*Editor’s Note: We’re baaaaack! It’s time for Silver Seven’s annual ranking of the Ottawa Senators’ top 25 players under the age of 25. As a reminder, to be eligible, a player has to not yet have turned 25 by August 1st. This is always one of our most hotly debated features. Enjoy! - nkb

With a couple of former early picks leaving the Ottawa Senators’ organization over the last few months, and players such as Josh Norris and Drake Batherson graduating in back-to-back years, space on our Top 25 Under 25 list has opened up for names like Blake Montgomery – a fourth-round selection from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. The Senators are hoping he'll be an NHL player in some capacity, but we almost certainly will not find out what he’s going to be for several years.

Montgomery plays left wing, boasts a 6'4, 181-pound frame, and offers a reliable game centered around forcing opposing turnovers, solid transitional play, and a shoot-first mentality. Multiple scouts have labelled him as something of a long-term project, in particular looking for improvements in his stability and ability to generate chances off sustained offensive zone pressure.

In recent memory, the Senators have found success with drafting overagers in the fourth round, such as Batherson and Stephen Halliday, and are hoping Montgomery, at 19 years of age, can continue that trend.

Last season, in what would effectively he have been his D+1 season with the Lincoln Stars, he tallied 22 goals and 21 assists for 43 points in 58 games, which, for a familiar reference, falls below Halliday's 48 points in 52 games for the Dubuque Fighting Saints in 2020-21. As Ary pointed out in his overview of the 2024 Sens draft class, however, Montgomery achieved the difficult task of increasing his points-per-game from prep school to the USHL, a potential sign of a strong upward trajectory.

You could call Montgomery an undisciplined player from looking at his 43 PIMs, but on closer inspection, he only put his team shorthanded 8 times – one of which was in the final 30 seconds of a 7-2 loss. A fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct, and 8 minutes of coincidental minors carry most of the weight here.

Looking at tracking data from EliteProspects' Mitch Brown (who stands out as the only analytics-driven scout on Twitter that doesn't seem to hate every Senators draft pick these days), we observe a player who's adept at creating rush chances, shutting down opposing offense along the boards, and carrying the puck between zones. Brown also highlights that out of all of the USHL players he tracked, only two factored into their team's 5-on-5 offence more than Montgomery.

We're starting to see a new trend in players taking the college route, in which they spend an extra year or two in the USHL before beginning school. This can be a smart move for mid-to-late round picks who might not get proper development time if they enter their desired program right away. As an added bonus, players will remain on their NHL team's reserve list for an extra year. Halliday was able to use this approach to great success in Ohio State, and Montgomery will be attempting to follow suit, as he's playing for Lincoln in 2024-25 before joining the University of Wisconsin in the following season. Fellow draftees Gabriel Eliasson and Javon Moore are a year younger, but will also be spending next year in the USHL before starting school.

Fun fact: the pick used to select Montgomery previously belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who traded that selection along with Mathieu Joseph to Ottawa for Nick Paul in the 2021-22 season. Paul was the lone shining star from the Jason Spezza trade (aside from the legendary Brian Gibbons) in 2014, and the 2001 2nd-overall pick used to select Spezza was acquired from Mike Milbury's New York Islanders as part of the return for Alexi Yashin. The trade tree is still alive, and it all rests on Montgomery's shoulders. No pressure, kid!