The Senators have plenty of well-regarded young players in the organization, but most of them are already in the NHL.
When an organization's rookie tournament entry brandishes an 0-3 record while being outscored 17-4, it will inevitably elicit concerns about the state of the farm system and potentially muddy the outlook of the future.
For Ottawa Senators fans, some of that unease is understandable.
This organization has been mired in a rebuild for the last seven years following the team's appearance in the 2017 Eastern Conference final.
Excluding the Seattle Kraken, who came into existence three seasons ago, only two franchises -- the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks -- have accumulated fewer points since the start of the 2017-18 season than the Senators.
Whenever an organization endures that kind of systemic losing, the reward for the fan base's patience is supposed to be a robust farm system built on high picks and quality of depth.
The Senators took on a lot of risk; moving significant draft capital in blockbuster trades would eventually blow up in the team's face. Coupled with some poor drafts and the graduation of many of their top prospects to the parent level in recent years, it has left the system looking barren. This, in turn, led to this year's rookie tournament entry that featured 12 players who participated through amateur tryouts.
Realists will recognize the context of these tournaments. These events are hardly precursors of organizational success. The games often lack structure, but they offer prospects a chance to acclimate to the speed and intensity of professional hockey while serving as a stepping stone for prospects to carry momentum into the main training camp.
Where the frustration comes into play is that Ottawa's young core is well-regarded. In his organizational rankings for The Athletic, Corey Pronman rated the Senators as having the fifth-best pipeline of players aged 22 years or younger. The same publication's prospect rankings by Scott Wheeler earlier in the year were diametrically opposed because of some slightly different criteria. He rated the Senators as having the second-worst farm system in hockey after the graduation of Ridly Greig to the NHL.
This tournament shone a light on how thin the farm system is. The Senators spent a lot of the games chasing the puck. They were noticeably slower and less skilled than the opposition.
On the other hand, the tournament should not be viewed in isolation. There are plenty of young, foundational pieces on the parent roster to build around. It is just that years of mismanagement have put the organization in a more difficult position than it should be.