Draft Retrospective: What we missed with Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stützle

In a re-draft of the 2020 class, Tim Stützle would likely go first overall. No one from that year has been more productive or dynamic. His skills are elite, and he excels in the middle of the ice.

Elite Prospects ranked him 8th.

This season marks the sixth draft the scouting team has covered. We’ve ranked hundreds of prospects and reported on thousands, but Stützle remains our biggest miss — by far. A gut-punch right from the start.

And we’re thankful for it.

It’s extremely rare in this business to get instant feedback on a prediction. It usually takes five or more years to fully assess a prospect’s development and gather enough data. But with Stützle, only a fool could have ignored what he was doing in his rookie season. Watching him speed through defences, pull off highlight-reel plays, and