Gotta disagree. There's just no point in trying to draft easily replaceable bottom six players. Why draft a guy whose clone is available in UFA for the same money? Just sign that other guy instead and swing for the fences on draft day.
Some other team is going to win the powerball while we're dropping quarters at the Crown and Anchor table.
The Colorado Avalanche are the most extreme example of why teams need guys who have a reasonable chance to pan out as good third liners in the NHL. You can't add an entire team of bottom 6 players in free agency.
You also have to overpay in salary/term. For example, if this team felt that Nick Paul was ready to be a 4C/fringe 3C when Brassard is out to start the year, we wouldn't have had to pay Thompson nearly 2M, we could have used Nick Paul who as an RFA player would have been much cheaper for the next few years. RFAs in bottom 6 roles is where teams can save a huge amount of money which can be used to retain (or in more desirable FA destination teams cases) attract higher end talent.
I also see the sentiment a lot that the Senators want to draft safe character guys with low ceilings every year, but this seems to be the farthest thing from the truth when you actually look at who we are drafting. We invested the 12th overall+a 3rd rounder in Logan Brown last year who is the definition of swinging for the fences, Chabot was a highly skilled riser, Gagne wasn't a safe pick. Even dating back a few years ago, Zibanejad wasn't a safe pick either, neither was Puempel, Cowen, or Karlsson. I'm not sure where this sentiment of the team only taking safe players comes from because if you look at the Senators modern draft history, there are a few Lazar/White types in the first two rounds, but there are just as many if not more high skilled or high risk picks.