"Truth is, Chris Phillips nearly didn't play a single game for the Ottawa Senators, let alone one thousand.

On draft day, June 22, 1996, Senators general manager Pierre Gauthier was up at 5 a.m. entertaining offers for his first overall draft pick. None was enticing enough, and Gauthier selected the Calgary-born Phillips, the consensus No. 1 pick out of WHL Lethbridge, a 6-2 (soon to be 6-3), 200-pound defenceman.

"Big defencemen," Gauthier said. "Everybody looks for big defencemen. He's the total package. This kid is going to play for us for 10 to 12 years."

How about 16? Phillips, who will be honoured for game No. 1,000 tonight at Scotiabank Place when his old pal Mike Fisher and the Nashville Predators visit, signed a three-year extension last February for $9.25 million that will carry him through 2013-14. That would be his 16th NHL season in Ottawa. "