If you asked all 32 NHL general managers at the draft whether they prefer to select based on positional need or simply take the best player available, most would say, “If all things are equal, we'll select the best player.”

Steve Staios would probably tell you he tried to do that in his first two drafts as Ottawa Senators GM, but at the same time, he didn't exactly ignore his current wish list either.

In 2024, size mattered. The three defensemen the Sens selected averaged 6-foot-5, while the three forwards averaged 6-foot-3. This year, the key theme was more help for the blue line on the right side.

The Senators used the 23rd overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft to select University of Wisconsin defenseman Logan Hensler, marking the second consecutive year Staios has used his first-rounder on a right-shot defenseman, after selecting Carter Yakemchuk seventh overall in 2024.

Hensler will probably head back to school, and Yakemchuk will likely start in Belleville, but both are considered key pieces for the future.

And just in case going back-to-back with another high-end right-shot D prospect wasn't enough to confirm the theme, Ottawa doubled down and acquired 24-year-old Jordan Spence from the Los Angeles Kings during the draft in exchange for third- and sixth-round picks.

The organization also re-signed 2019 first-rounder Lassi Thomson, who will return to North America after leading Malmö of the SHL in scoring last season. 

Even before all of that, the Senators still had the same three right-shot defensemen they went to war with in this spring's playoffs: Nick Jensen, Artem Zub, and Nik Matinpalo.

It's been well-chronicled that Jensen is a bit of a wild card for this fall. He’s recovering from reported hip surgery in May, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready to start the season. He’ll also be 35 years old.

Zub is a similar player to Jensen, but he’s also missed significant time over the past three seasons, playing only 54 games last year. As for Matinpalo, he's still establishing himself as an NHLer, but showed some encouraging signs of growth last year and didn't look out of place in the playoffs.

It’s often said that you can never have too many good right-shot defensemen, but Ottawa must be getting close.

The organizational depth chart on the right side now includes Jensen, Zub, Spence, Matinpalo, Yakemchuk, Thomson, and Maxence Guenette. Unless Hensler plays out of his mind in pre-season, he'll be headed back to school.

That’s a substantial group, the deepest Ottawa has had in some time.

I’d still rank Jensen at the top, assuming he’s healthy and hasn't lost a step. That's an optimistic assumption, I realize. He and Zub are similar players in many ways – neither is flashy, neither is overly offensive-minded, but both take care of business while letting Jake Sanderson or Thomas Chabot drive the offense from the back end.

Because of his age and recent surgery, there are questions about whether Jensen can still be a top-four next season, and whether he even wants to stay in Ottawa beyond that. If both answers are no, that changes the game. But until then, I still rank him as Ottawa’s best right-shot defender right now. 

Some believe Jordan Spence might push for a top-four role. The Senators obviously like him, but the new Kings GM, Ken Holland, did not. The Kings didn't see him playing in their top six every night next season and gave him up for only a third and a sixth-round pick. Typically, with everyone in the league looking for top-four right-shot defenseman, you'd think the cost would have been much higher. And then the Kings effectively replaced Spence on the roster with Cody Ceci.

For those reasons, and barring injuries, I’m not ready to slot Spence into Ottawa’s top four just yet.

Matinpalo is my seven right now, but since he's bigger and more physical, which the Sens generally prefer, he could easily push for the same job he held for most of last season.

Then there’s Yakemchuk and Hensler. Yakemchuk nearly made the team last season, so he'll get some NHL looks if injuries strike. But Ottawa would be wise to keep him in Belleville for a few months to see how he fares against grown men for the first time. It’s clear that the Senators have big plans for him, but there’s no harm in a bit of patience. Hensler is all but certain to return to Wisconsin for another year of development.

I do wonder which of the two first-rounders will be the better long-term player. I haven’t seen enough games from either to say definitively, but it’s notable that last winter Hensler made Team USA’s World Junior squad at 18 and won a gold medal. Meanwhile, the older Yakemchuk, whose numbers tumbled last season, wasn’t invited to the pre-tournament evaluation camp for a Canadian team that failed to make the semifinals.

Lassi Thomson might have the most to lose in all of this. After a fine year in Sweden, he probably saw the current depth chart and the injury concerns and thought he had a chance to compete for an NHL job. But now he finds himself behind the newly-acquired Spence. That can’t be a great feeling, but maybe he'll surprise people at camp. If nothing else, Thomson will make Belleville's back end a lot stronger, heading into group 6 unrestricted free agency next summer.

All of this raises the question: Do the Senators now have the right mix on the right side to make a deep playoff run? That remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: They've upgraded, and they finally have some solid depth. And that matters, because hockey is still a violent game where every team needs a "next man up" mentality.

This season, Staios can think about the next man up and not lose sleep over it.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News/Ottawa
Image Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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