In 2006-07, the Ottawa Senators' bottom six featured the likes of Antonine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Chris Neil, Patrick Eaves, Dean McAmmond, and Oleg Saprykin. In comparison, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as their top line with Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, and Daniel Alfredsson, but it was the last time that the Senators actually had an effective bottom six at forward. 16 years later, it’s still an issue for a team that has a lot of the core talent already in place.
Finding elite talent to build around is the tough part, and the good news for the Senators is that they’ve done most of the heavy lifting.