Originally Posted on: The Hockey Writers
The Ottawa Senators began what was supposed to be a long slow and painful rebuild last year. The season has not gone according to plan; instead they sit comfortably in a playoff position with less than ten regular season games remaining. A pleasant if not shocking turn of events to be sure. But the thing that has Sens fans most excited is not necessarily the current success the team is enjoying but rather the promise their prospects offer for the future. The Ottawa roster is laden with talented players who are under 30 such as Jason Spezza (29), Erik Karlsson ( 22), Kyle Turris (22), Milan Michalek (26) and Nick Foligno (23) to name a few. The Hockey News recently released its annual edition of Future Watch and graded the Senators an A- with the fifth overall best prospect depth in the NHL. Among their list of the Sens top ten there are five players in the top 100, and three in the top 50. The Sens boast in impressive group of young talent consisting primarily of forwards with only one goalie and one defenseman cracking the list. For purposes of this list I only included players who are under the age of 23, and have played less than 50 career NHL games.
