It has been more than five years since Alexei Yashin was in Ottawa at all and more than a decade ago that he last played for the Senators. He still calls the National Hockey League team’s home arena the Corel Centre, and Lansdowne Park redevelopment reports apparently hadn’t reached his home in Russia, because he didn’t know until Tuesday that the Civic Centre was closed.
The odds are long that the Ottawa Senators will land a superstar with the 15th pick in the first round of this year’s draft. They’ll get a competent NHL player, certainly. Given the recent track record of director of player personnel Pierre Dorion and his scouts, it’d be a disappointment if they didn’t.