As a follow-up to last week’s entry on the best Ottawa 67’s drafted by the Senators, we’re now delving into the NHL team’s past interest levels in former Gatineau/Hull Olympiques, also a major junior club in their backyard.
Just like the 67s, only four Olympiques have ever been drafted by the Senators, and only nine have ever worn the centurion crest. The 2024-25 Senators will again have two in their lineup this season: veteran Claude Giroux and tough guy Zack MacEwen.
MacEwen has shown he can score in the QMJHL and AHL, but the NHL production dropoff has been fierce, so he doesn’t make this list—not at this time, anyway. As for Giroux, that’s where we begin.
Claude Giroux
If you asked former head coach DJ Smith, he’d have told you he could have used a couple more Claude Girouxs on the team. That was probably the point of the Senators signing David Perron this summer. There aren’t any available Claude Girouxs out there, but a player like Perron is as close as they could get. Giroux’s resume speaks for itself. Not only has he remained productive, but he’s been an extension of the coaching staff, teaching, mentoring, and leading by example.
In just two seasons in Ottawa, he’s already 35th in all-time team scoring with 143 points and surely among the leaders in memorable goals.
Pageau’s offensive stats have never topped out at much more than 40 points but he was a good solider for seven seasons, always playing the game the right way. It would have been fascinating to see what that reliable, powerful motor would have looked like in a bigger body. No one will ever forget Pageau’s four-goal performance against the Rangers in that magical 2017 run to the Conference Final.
It’s certainly easy to be distracted by Ubergate, the feud with the Karlssons, or lack of defensive presence. But Hoffman, one of the fastest players in Sens history, was a top offensive player for the Senators, averaging close to 60 points for three seasons. He finished tied for third in Sens playoff scoring in 2017, including this beauty against Boston.
Based on his productive NHL career, mostly with the Edmonton Oilers, Hemsky could easily be slotted into second place on this list. But his cup of coffee in Ottawa was still hot when he left, so we penalized him for that. Hemsky was…