Stylizer1
SENSimillanaire
The Senators are a borderline playoff team now without those high picks. I have no idea what your point is because, sure they were a playoff team with Bonk, Yashin and Daigle but they weren't a real contender without the contributions of Spezza, Hossa, and Alfredsson. The contribution of those "high picks" were negligible at best on the elite Senator teams of the 2000s.
Daigle, Bonk and Phillips weren't why the Senators were elite. Dumping Yashin for Spezza was the figurative move that really pushed the Sens to the top.
The coaching of the first wave of players is what positioned us to greatly improve down the road. We didn't become a cup contender over night. we had a very well coached team and added players. By the time Spezza came we were already one of the best teams in the league winning divisions.
The first year we made the playoffs it was Yashin, Alfredsson, Daigle, and Redden (our #2 D) leading us in scoring. Throw in some vets like Duchesne, Cunneyworth, and McEachern and you have the making of a good team. Lost to Buffalo in ovetime game 7.
The next season we upset NJ.
Our 3rd season making the playoffs is when we became on the cusp of being elite. We just ran into the sabers who had the best goalie in the league. That didn't change the fact that we were one of the top teams in the league, just hadn't learned playoff hockey yet.
Our foundation was in place before Havlat, Hossa, Chara, Spezza. They improved our team but it was those initial high picks were the reason we started making the playoffs. building off that with later picks filled out our team more,
In the end all of the above player didn't win us a championship.
I am saying we have no high end talent except for Karlsson and maybe Ryan if he stays. None of our picks will ever have the impact that Yashin did for us. By not get one of those high end players while we have been bad over the past few years will hurt us down the road. We have a lot of mid range picks but none of the top ones to fill out the roster.
Because management never wanted to bottom out we have the chance of being an average team for years to come.