Ottawa Senators 2025 First-Round Selection Says He Models His Game

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For the second time in its franchise history, the Senators were involved in a draft day deal that involved a swap of first-round picks with the Nashville Predators.

In 2008, the Senators infamously moved up from the 18th overall selection to Nashville's 15th overall pick to draft Erik Karlsson. Hopefully, the good vibes will continue since that trade worked out well. Although, there is still time for Chet Pickard to pan out.

On Friday night, the Senators moved the 21st overall selection for the 23rd overall pick and the 67th overall selection. They used their first-round pick to select defenceman Logan Hensler out of the University of Wisconsin.

Hensler is a right-shot defenceman who is listed at 6'2" and 190 lbs, and he was a product of the USNTDP. In 32 games for the Badgers, the freshman contributed two goals and 12 points. Hensler's offensive production was relatively modest for a player some analysts projected at the beginning of the season to be one of the first defencemen taken in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Our own Tony Ferrari touched briefly upon this in his 'Final Draft Rankings':

"After a slow start to his freshman season at Wisconsin, Hensler began to showcase the quality that had some believing he could be the second-best defender in the draft coming into the year. Hensler is a mobile, right-shot blueliner who showed he can be a responsible, two-way defender as the season wore on. On most shifts, he plays mistake-free hockey, but every once in a while, Hensler shows the puck skill and playmaking ability to be a catalyst from the back end."

Hensler is described as a big and mobile defenceman, which is an incredibly difficult asset to acquire around the league right now.

"You don't have enough defencemen," Senators head scout Don Boyd explained after Hensler's selection. "You can never have enough defenceman. Right-(shot) defenseman are a premium.

"To select him, (there's) so much room to grow and so much potential. I think there's more offense in his game than if…

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