2018 NHL mock draft: Eastern Conference teams

4. Ottawa Senators – Filip Zadina

Filip Zadina is good enough that he could go in any of the two previous picks and and it would not surprise anybody. The Senators will be sitting pretty if this actually happens. Zadina could very well be the best goal-scorer in this draft. As a team that was 25th in the NHL in goals for per game, the Senators could definitely use the help.

Zadina has played his junior hockey for they Halifax Mooseheads. This is a team that has given the NHL Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, Nikolaj Ehlers, Timo Meier and, most recently, Nico Hischier. Fair to say they no how to develop high-skilled players. Cam Russell, the General Manager of the Mooseheads, had this to say about Zadina,

"“Filip is different than MacKinnon, Drouin and Hischier… He’s a pure scorer and a power forward. “We always say we want to see more goals in the NHL, more of an exciting game. Filip fits that criteria and he’ll attract a lot of fans to NHL arenas.”"

That last comment speaks to another one of the plights of the Senators. If Russell’s prediction that he’ll attract fans rings true, that would definitely help the Senators as they finished 24th in average attendance last season. Zadina would instantly infuse some offense on the right wing, a position which currently has “past their primes” Bobby Ryan and Marian Gaborik as well as Tom Pyatt and Ryan Dzingel. Zadina would make the team just based on the fact they need his offense.