I'm strangely very optimistic for this draft for several reasons.
1) It is top heavy in defensemen: Clarke, Power, Hughes, and Edvinsson. If we're sitting at 8OA, there's a pretty good chance one drops to us and then we can really talk about a young D depth rivaling the Predators of old.
2) Similarly, our positions of need besides RD are also top 6 skill C/RW which Beniers, Guenther, Lysell, McTavish, and Johnson, all ranked in the top 10 are.
3) Top 10 is a bit of a crap shoot where it's not as clearcut as the Stamkos/McDavid/Eichel/Matthews years who the franchise player in the draft is at 1OA. Obviously there's always the Erik Karlsson and Thomas Chabot drafted at 15OA that become the face of franchises, but those are rare and a bit of luck. (Tarasenko, Vasilievsky, Pastrnak, ~Larkin, Barzal, Boeser, McAvoy, Norris? being the top line/franchise level players outside the top 15 in the first round over the last decade; roughly 1 per 2 years).
4) We still have a shot at being in the driver's seat and taking our preferred player in the top 3 with the lottery instead of seeing what trickles down. I don't envy 1OA pick, it'll be tough decision to choose between Power, Beniers, Clarke, Guenther. I would want any of them and each carry the possibility to be a franchise player so you don't want to be the guy that missed out because of poor scouting opportunity.
5) I heavily trust the Sens scouting staff at picking the BPA even with their limited viewings/exposure to these 17 year olds with 1 year of stunted development
