Ottawa Senators Prospect Update: March 27th to April 2nd

Welcome back to Silver Seven’s weekly prospect update, where the past seven days have featured some stellar performances in the CHL playoffs. As per usual, the AHL team hasn’t doing quite as well, being outscored 8-3 in their two most recent games, both of which were losses.

Stats Sheet

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Biggest Standouts

Logan Brown

The Kitchener Rangers had no problem handling the Guelph Storm in round one, dismantling them in six games. They scored an average of 5.5 goals per game, with Brown contributing on over a third of them. His eleven assists and thirteen points puts him alone on top of the OHL’s scoring leaderboard, as he’ll take on the Sarnia Sting in round two.

Logan Brown scored his first career #OHL playoff goal and the GWG, putting up 2G & 1A in Kitchener's series-clinching win over Guelph 🚨

Brown leads the OHL in playoff scoring with 13 Points (2G, 11A) in 6GP. pic.twitter.com/Lj1lWdwGVc

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) April 2, 2018

Aaron Luchuk

If one player on top of the OHL wasn’t enough, Aaron Luchuk has been scoring at a rapid pace as well, with his nine assists and twelve points ranking second league-wide behind Brown. His Barrie Colts took down the Mississauga Steelheads in round one, and will face the Kingston Frontenacs beginning tomorrow. It’ll be an interesting matchup, as Barrie is one of the OHL’s highest scoring teams, and Kingston is one of the best when it comes to preventing them.

Aaron Luchuk had 12 Points (3G, 9A) in 6GP for Barrie in their 1st round win over Mississauga 💥

Luchuk is T-2 in #OHL playoff scoring, 1 point behind fellow #Sens prospect Logan Brown. pic.twitter.com/c81iGDVKFi

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) April 2, 2018

More Playoffs!

• One player who didn’t make it out of the first round was Alex Formenton, whose London Knights were swept by Owen Sound. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, however, as his five goals and seven points were the most amongst his peers. His 21 shots on goal was eight ahead of his next teammate.
• Drake Batherson, on the other hand, has the potential to go all the way to the Memorial Cup with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. They swept their round one opponent handily, and currently await their second round contestant (the bracket rearranges after each round). Batherson’s two goals and five points ranks second on the team.
• Meanwhile, things are starting to get crazy in the WHL, as four of the first round series are going to a game seven. One of those, surprisingly, is Parker Kelly’s Prince Albert Raiders, who are taking the first place Moose Jaw Warriors to the brink. The series winner will be decided tonight.
• Jordan Hollett didn’t fare quite as well, as his Medicine Hat Tigers were upset in six games by the Brandon Wheat Kings. In his five games played, Hollett posted a save percentage of 89.3%./

Silver Linings

• Although he won’t be able to play there next season, Alex Formenton has joined the Belleville Senators for their final six games.
• Lots of prospects have been seeing action in the NHL recently, including Christian Wolanin, Colin White and Filip Chlapik. The first two each scored a point this week, which for Wolanin was his first career NHL goal! Chlapik, meanwhile, has gone five games without a point, although has also been receiving less opportunities near the top of the lineup (average 9:42 per game in that span)./

Wolanin's first NHL goal! #Sens pic.twitter.com/8UEGdxaDBy

— Alex M (@nhlsensandstuff) April 3, 2018

• Nick Paul has been picking up the scoring down the stretch, with 5 goals and 10 points in his last 11 games.
• With the off-season near, it might be worth looking at which players are becoming restricted free agents, and whether or not there’s anyone worth letting go. This year’s crop of RFAs include:/

Forwards: Nick Moutrey, Nick Paul

Defencemen: Ville Pokka, Patrick Sieloff

Goalies: Chris Driedger

It’s not a hefty crop, although there are still a few questions. Does Nick Moutrey return after posting disappointing numbers for a third professional season? Is Patrick Sieloff brought back into the fold yet again? Is Chris Driedger going to be kept around now that there’s Hogberg and Gustavsson vying for full-time roster spots? Just a few things to keep in mind as we tread into the next months.