Over the last 9 years, the Ottawa Senators have selected at least one player from Europe in every draft. They have a clear preference for Swedes, and hence, three of the five players showcased below will be from the home country of Captain Erik Karlsson. However, last year, they drafted a Finn (Markus Nurmi) for the first time in 10+ years; that information, combined with the fact that there are two interesting Finnish defenders as potential mid- or late-round picks influenced our selection below.
Why defencemen? The Sens definitely have a need for quality players throughout their system, but outside of Thomas Chabot and maybe Christian Jaros, there’s a lack of T4 ceiling defenders.