Being the fan of the Ottawa Senators has never really been easy.
From the team’s inaugural season through the first few years of its modern reincarnation, it was hard to watch guys like Troy Mallette and Pat Elynuik take shifts regularly. The hockey was horrendous, but fans got through it by savouring the small things: the odd goal, a good shift, a Dennis Vial tilt, Dave Archibald’s hair and even the Phil Bourque waiver claim. We stomached it all by clinging to the hope that the Senators would eventually get better.
As a small-market Canadian franchise that did not have the capital to acquire good players through free agency via trade, this hope was tied to the idea that the Senators could stockpile enough young talent through the draft to hold onto and make the team better or use as a surplus to acquire better talent.