Through their long, dark rebuilding days, the Ottawa Senators cycled through a lot of players, often trying to fill holes with journeyman options. Some of those names hit the waiver wire this week, available to anyone, and seeing their names now will, in some of the cases, remind Sens fans of how far their team has come.
Eight former Ottawa Senators were placed on waivers in the last few days. They are forwards Roby Jarventie (Edmonton Oilers), Matthew Highmore (NY Islanders), Clarke Bishop (Calgary Flames), Scott Sabourin (Tampa Bay Lightning), Jake Lucchini (Nashville Predators) and Shane Bowers (San Jose Sharks), along with defenseman Josh Brown (Edmonton), and goalie Marcus Hogberg (Islanders).
Jarventie, Sabourin, and Brown cleared on Sunday, and Lucchini on Monday. Sabourin was recalled by Tampa on Tuesday. The others were placed on waivers on Tuesday.
Three of the names in the group of eight were once seen as potentially an important part of the Senators' future.
Roby Jarventie (33rd overall, 2022 NHL Draft)
It's hard to complain much about the Sens' lucrative 2020 Draft. The Sens had just scooped up Tim Stutzle (3rd), Jake Sanderson (5th), and Ridly Greig (28). But five picks after Greig, they whiffed on Jarventie. They did regroup and get Tyler Kleven (44) and Leevi Merilainen (71) so they get nothing but accolades for that draft. But Sens fans still can't get over how they passed on Stutzle's buddy, J.J. Peterka (picture me using a whiny voice here), who went with the pick right after Jarventie.
Shane Bowers (38th overall, 2017 NHL Draft)
Bowers never actually played for the Sens, but he was their first-round pick in 2017. He was also a 2017-18 Boston University linemate of their 2018 first-round pick, Brady Tkachuk. The Senators were wise to move Bowers while his stock was fairly high. Five months after they drafted him, they packaged him up and sent him to Colorado in the deal for Matt Duchene.
Marcus Hogberg (78th overall, 2013 NHL Draft)
In 2019-20, Craig Anderson's final season with the Senators, his main backup was Marcus Hogberg, prompting some very brief 'goalie of the future' discussions. But it became clear pretty quickly that he wasn't the heir apparent. So the Sens went out and acquired (deep breath) the injury-prone Matt Murray. Filip Gustavsson, also acquired from Pittsburgh several years earlier, arrived in Ottawa that season to overtake Hogberg as well, so it wasn't long before Hogberg went back to Europe. Hogberg returned to North America last season and got a chance after the Islanders ran into injury trouble. He won just 2 of 11 games in his return.
Life moves pretty fast in the NHL. One day you're a top prospect, the next you're on waivers. And with hundreds of new young prospects jumping onto the league's radar every year, no matter how good you once were, teams don't have time to wait around for you to figure things out.
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