Ten Ottawa Senator First-Rounders Who Weren't as Good as Alexandre Daigle

The Ottawa Senators welcomed back a familiar face (one that hasn't aged a bit) on Thursday night, reconnecting with former winger Alexandre Daigle, their first overall pick from 1993. 

Daigle was once seen as the fairytale solution to all of their problems in the early days of the franchise.

Daigle never got to that elite level everyone had him pegged for, but still had a pretty decent NHL career, playing 616 NHL games and scoring 327 points. He would have played more if not for a two-year hiatus from the game and two NHL lockouts.

Compared to some first-rounders the Senators chose in their history, Daigle was an absolute star. So it's time to put some respect on his name. It's not his fault that the hockey world expected so much from him. And it's not like there haven't been others who failed to live up to their lofty draft status.

Using 2017 as our cutoff, The Hockey News presents 10 Senator first-rounders who wish their careers panned out as well as Daigle's:

1998 Mathieu Chouinard

Ah, yes. The goalie so nice, they drafted him twice. Chouinard was selected by Ottawa 15th overall in 1998 but he never signed. So he re-entered the NHL Draft two years later and the Sens drafted him again 45th overall. Marshall Johnston was Ottawa's director of player personnel in 1998 and ascended to GM in 2000. He sure liked Chouinard, who played one career NHL game, and it wasn't even for the Sens. 

2002 Jakub Klepis

Klepis was drafted in the first round in 2002, 16th overall, then was traded to Buffalo for Vaclav Varada a year later. Buffalo then dealt him to Washington in 2004 for Mike Grieg. Klepis finally made his NHL debut for the Capitals and played 66 NHL games before heading back to Europe. Klepis is now 39 and still playing in the Czech league, where his teammates this season included Tomas Plekanec and Jaromir Jagr.

2005 Brian Lee

The Senators drafted Lee in the first round, 9th overall (Anze Kopitar went 11th). Lee then attended North Dakota, the first of many Sens draft picks to do so. He played 161 games for the Senators before being traded to Tampa Bay for Matt Gilroy. Knee injuries forced him to retire in 2014.

2007 Jim O'Brien

O'Brien was chosen 29th overall and played just 77 games in the NHL. He's one of those guys who had two stints with the Sens. After playing just 63 games over three seasons, he left for the KHL in 2014. That didn't last long. O'Brien returned and mostly saw AHL action for the next three years. The Sens gave him another shot in 2017-18, when he saw 10 games in Ottawa. His career NHL stat line? 13 points in 77 games.

2009 Jared Cowen

Cowen was drafted in the first round, ninth overall, by the Senators in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. GM Bryan Murray was openly lobbying to trade up and get Nazem Kadri but the Leafs told Murray they were taking Kadri. So they went with Cowen, a 6 foot 6 230 pound defence whose career started well, but then was unravelled by injuries and ineffective play. He was eventually traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, but never played for them.

2011 Matt Puempel

Puempel was 24th overall, the third of three first-round picks Ottawa had in 2011. They also chose Mika Zibanejad (6) and Stefan Noesen (21). Puempel had six points in 52 games for the Sens, who weren't that concerned when they lost him on waivers to the Rangers. He played 25 more games in the league and is now an average scoring forward in Germany.

2013 Curtis Lazar

Lazar was selected in the first round (17th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He's emerged as a useful, high-character defensive forward in the league, but he's miles away from the expectations one would reserve for the captain of our World Junior gold medal winning team. That said, Lazar  barely made the top 10, beaten out by Stefan Noesen, who's suddenly found some offensive mojo in the past two years,

2015 Colin White

White was selected in the first round, 21st overall, in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. He had a great rookie season in 2018-19, with 41 points. But that was while playing with Mark Stone and Brady Tkachuk for a lot of the year. But then his NHL stock plummeted and his injury absences soared, to the point where the Senators bought him out. White has zero points in 24 games this season, split between Pittsburgh and now Montreal.

2016 Logan Brown

Brown was selected in the first round, 11th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. He seemed like he'd it right in with the Sens, who had/have a number of American-born players, whose father played in the NHL. Brown played just 30 games in Ottawa over four seasons. No one ever questioned his ability with the puck, but the skating wasn't quite at an NHL level. Brown is now in Tampa Bay's organization and has been on LTIR since September.

2017 Shane Bowers

Bowers was taken in the first round, 28th overall, of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. He was Brady Tkachuk's linemate at Boston University so the Sens amateur scouts obviously fell in love with both of them, taking Tkachuk a year later. Bowers was sent to Colorado in the Matt Duchene deal, along with either a 2018 or 2019 first round pick. The Sens kept the 2018 pick and used it to take Tkachuk. Colorado got the 2019 pick and used it to take Bowen Byram. Bowers, meanwhile, and has had no impact in the NHL, appearing in just four career games.

Daigle's life and times are currently the subject of a documentary called Chosen One, now streaming on Amazon Prime.