Senators trade up, select Mads Søgaard 37th overall
Goaltender stole ex-prospect Jordan Hollett’s starting job in Medicine Hat this year
The Sens saw a player they really wanted to get, and decided to trade up to do it. Dorion and co. sent pick #44 and pick #83 (acquired from Vegas in the Derick Brassard swap) to the Carolina Hurricanes for Danish netminder Mads Søgaard.
Søgaard stands at 6-foot-7, 200 pounds and finished fifth in save percentage (92.1%) among goalies in the WHL this season. Thought of as in the competition for the second-best goalie in the draft after Spencer Knight, Søgaard stole the starting job from Jordan Hollett in his rookie year with Medicine Hat.
Here’s a scouting report, via Steven Ellis at Dobber Prospects:
“With the stretch run coming up to the playoffs nearing, Søgaard was playing some of his best hockey in early February. The Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender was named the Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week for the first week of the month after posting a 3-0-0-0 record, finishing with a 1.30 GAA and .960 SV%. The award marked the second time he walked away with the honour this year after being named the top goalie for December 10-16, just before he went to play with Denmark at the World Juniors. He joined Dustin Wolf as the only goalie to win it twice during the regular season this year and after winning the WHL’s Top Goaltender award twice as well, it’s clear that the big netminder is a favourite to be considered for the Del Wilson Trophy as the top goalie in the Western league. While there are concerns regarding the number of times he puts himself out of position, his size allows him to absorb most of the net and forces the opposition to get creative. He doesn’t flop around and tracks one timers fairly well while giving shooters little to shoot at from east to west.”
Colin had Søgaard going between 53 to 87, so it appears like a reach — the Sens potentially could’ve drafted him at 44, but clearly thought someone else had the netminder ranked highly.