Ottawa Senators chief amateur scout Trent Mann made no bones about his confidence in the team’s 2021 NHL Entry Draft picks, yesterday. As is now becoming something of a tradition, the Senators went off — and in some cases way off — the board with most, if not all of their selections. Time will tell if they were right in doing so, but as it stands, first-rounder Tyler Boucher, as well as second-rounders Zack Ostapchuk and Ben Roger in particular were singled out as reaches by the larger scouting consensus. All have varying degrees of upside.
Needless to say, the public consensus did not factor into Ottawa’s decision to draft them.