The 2025 NHL Draft is set for Friday night in Los Angeles, where they're experimenting with some new ideas this year. The biggest one is that all NHL team executives and scouts will stay back in their home cities, calling in their selections to the Peacock Theatre, where the draft is being hosted.
In the first round, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will make the first overall selection on behalf of the New York Islanders to lead off the draft. But after that, almost every NHL team—if not all—has come up with a special guest to make their first-round selection. It might be a current player, a member of the team’s alumni, or a celebrity who has some kind of tie to the team.
So the question becomes: who will the Ottawa Senators choose to announce their 21st overall selection? With virtually no research as to where in the world these people will be this weekend, let's handicap the field.
Because let's face it, you haven't had enough mock drafts this month.
5. Alanis Morrissette 10/1
The Ottawa native sang the Canadian anthem before the Ottawa Senators’ first-ever home game back in 1992, so her heritage with the team goes back a long way. She also sang the anthem before Game 4 of Ottawa's only Stanley Cup Final appearance back in 2007. And she still doesn’t mind jumping into the hockey fray—singing the anthem before Game 7 of the Cup Final between Florida and Edmonton last year.
She lives in the Bay Area, so it’s only about an hour-long flight to L.A. Choosing her wouldn’t be ironic—like most of the things she sings about in her song of the same name—but it would be kind of cool.
4. Annie Murphy 8/1
Murphy played Alexis Rose in the hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek, one of the most popular Canadian TV shows of all time. She's now on the new season of Nine Perfect Strangers with Nicole Kidman. Murphy grew up in Ottawa and has been to several Senators games, even jumping on for an interview with TSN’s Claire Hanna during an intermission this past season. Can’t go wrong if your special guest is A Little Bit Alexis. Boop.
3. Brady Tkachuk or Daniel Alfredsson 8/1
We're jamming them into the same frame because it's pretty much the same idea: the Senators’ leader of today or the one from the past. It would be a good debate to see which of them is more popular in Ottawa, and both would be appreciated by the fan base if they came out to welcome the newest Ottawa Senator.
2. Brooke Henderson 5/1
In 2022, the Smiths Falls native proudly wore a Senators jersey at The Rink hole at the Canadian Open when it was played in Ottawa. She also committed last year to a multi-year partnership with the Senators and has frequently been a guest of the team, dropping the puck at games. The LPGA’s Dow Championship is on right now in Midland, Michigan, and Brooke is unlikely to fly across the country in the middle of a tournament. After a glance at the round one leaderboard, it doesn't look like she’s playing this week.
1. Claude Giroux 5/1
I feel like it's 50/50 that Giroux agrees to an extension, but if he does sign, what a fine way to announce it. Maybe something like:
“Good evening. I’m excited to be back with the Ottawa Senators next season, and with the 21st selection, the Senators select (insert name here).”
We could even bring it full circle to Giroux’s draft day and have the in-house announcer go all Bobby Clarke on him and forget Giroux's name.
There it is. We've drafted the drafters. Who do you like? The Sens' Gladiator? Paul McClone? DJ Prosper? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
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