Sens at Land's End

The third spot on the Fake Sens’ roster has been filled. This round, I opted to go for another forward because I was concerned about all the playmaker-types getting snapped up before my next pick. That might come back to bite me later if I end up with a no-name defence, but hopefully not.

Anyway, the newest member of my Ottawa Senators is Ales Hemsky!

Hemsky and Nash: Ottawa’s new offensive super duo?

My first thought was to pick a playmaking centre — I was actually hoping I might snag Jason Spezza; however, that ship sailed (to Columbus) a long time ago — but when I saw that Hemsky was still available at a very palatable cap hit of $4.1 million I thought, why not a playmaking winger? Hemsky, who led the Oilers in scoring last season despite missing 10 games, is an extremely talented, creative player, and my hope is that he might complement Rick Nash on the first line. While Nash has the size and skill to score those amazing goals on his own, he’s never really had an NHL linemate with Hemsky’s skill to help set him up. If the two work well together (and I can get a good centre to play with them), I can’t see any reason why Nash shouldn’t score 50 goals.

My next pick comes up at the seventh spot in round four. Depending on how things go between now and then, I’ll either go for a #1 centre or a #1 defenceman. As always, please feel free to share your opinions on the direction of the Fake Sens in the comments! If you’re curious about the progress of the Re-Draft, Double Edged Sabres has a regularly updated page of results. Also check out Cycle Like the Sedins’ One Stop Source for Re-Drafting GMs post.