Looking at the Senators

[Pop Zeus]

Here's a quick look at the Senators

The Ottawa Senators have made some absolute boner decisions in recent years.
Trading a lot for Chychrun - and then gave him away for Nick Jensen.
Traded a lot for Debrincat - got fuck all for him.
Tyler Boucher was a stretch at 10th overall and now looks even dumber.

Still, it looks like a team in pretty good shape for the future.
Here are the lines for next season.

Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux
Perron-Norris-Batherson
Grieg-Pinto-Amadio
Gregor-Ostapchuk-Macewen

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-Bernard-Docker

Ullmark-Forsberg

Some thoughts_-
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux -
2 big questions. Can Stutzle regain form and improve his defensive work as a center. And can Giroux remain a good player.

Perron-Norris-Batherson
Josh Norris? He was OK last season - when he played. This guy has never played more than 66 games, when he scored 35 goals. He's played just 58 games in two seasons. What happens to this team if he misses 1/2 the season? And Perron? We've seen the show. He's only getting older.

Grieg-Pinto-Amadio
Pinto and Grieg are pretty good players. Amado - it;s kind of hard to believe he's turned himself into a solid NHLer -but he has.

Gregor-Ostapchuk-Macewen
Who? Gregor looks like a legit 4th liner with some hitting. Their center is a kid who has 7 NHL games to his name. Macewen is a big guy who can be physical and drop the mitts. I'm really not sure.

Concerns:
* There's not a center I want on the ice to protect a one goal lead in the final minute. Maybe shift Giroux over for the faceoff. But compare that to Detroit, which has Larkin, Compher and Copp.
* There isn't really a matchup line. The 4th line looks like a collection of spare parts. The third line is offense. The first and second line are offense.
* If Norris is hurt, the center depth is crushed. Maybe Giroux can play center a bit?

Defense
Sanderson-Zub
Sanderson became the team's #1 defenseman at 21. Will he improve offensively? He';ll get more time with Chycrun gone Zub is a solid defenseman, First pairing is probably a stretch for him.

Chabot-Jensen
With Chycrun eating powerplay time, Chabot's role shrunk, and he had his lowest output since his rookie year. He's a good bet to rebound. Jensen should be able to handle 2nd pairing minutes next to Chabot.

Kleven-Bernard-Docker
Both young and unproven. Kleven is just 22 with 18 games to his name. He's 6;4 200+. Looks ready to go. He better be. Dicker played 72 games - his first full season, really - and went 4-10-14. He's a 6-0 RHD. That's a very inexperienced third pairing.

Concerns.
That young third pairing....There are going to be growing pains.
It's a young defense, with 3 guys 24 or younger. Jensen is 33, Zub is 29 and is 27. With a group of centers that iisn't known for defense and without a single cogent checking line, that could be trouble.

Goaltending
Ullmark-Forsberg
I think their goaltending sucked so much last year because the team played lousy defense. Is Travis Green going to change things? If the Sens play solid D, then this goaltending is as good as many teams.

Overall
It feels like Sens can only be so good at keeping the puck out of the net. If Green installs a good system and the players improve the defense, that would help, obviously.
The question is, can Stutzle re-elevate his game?
Stutzle went from 90 points to 70 points last year. If he can return to 90 points which Tkachuk gets near 40 goals again, that will be huge.
If Norris can stay healthy and help the second line be a threat, that'll be a good thing for the Sens.
For all the losing the Senators have done, they don't have a minor league system bursting with prospects ready to step in.

Of note - take a look at their 2020 draft.

3 - Stutzle
5 - Sanderson
28 - Greig
33 - Jarventie
44 - Klevin
67 - Sokolov
71 - Merilainen
155 - Engstrand
158 - Daoust
181 - Reinhardt

All but Daoust and Engstrand have played 1 game.

From the Red Wings, one player has played any games.

The problem is, since then, only Ostapchuk has played a game.

2020 - 8/10 played 1 game or more
2019 - 6/6 played 1 game or more.
2018 - 5/8 played 1 game or more
2017 - 3/4 played 1 game or more.
2016 - 3/5 played 1 game or more
2015 - 6/8 played 1 game or more.

Looking at the history of the Sens, they've done quite well.
In 2008 they had five guys play 200 games or more.
In 2009 they had five guys play 200 games or more.
In 2010 they had two/four guys play 200 or more, including Mark Stone
In 2011, they had 4 guys play 200 or more games and four more guys play at least 87 games.

[Machine]

I feel bad for Norris, got the skill just can’t stay healthy
Got to be frustrating

[dcz28]

Greig is a center so if Norris injures himself again they move Pinto to the 2nd line and Greig centers the 3rd line. You also forgot Hamonic on defense who is likely going to be the 3rd pair RHD. Crookshank might get a shot at making the roster. He was close to a ppg player in the AHL last season and got a couple of games with the Sens.

They did use the 1st rounder they got from the Wings in the deal to get Ullmark so it's not exactly nothing they got for Debrincat. If he won't sign or they aren't close to they playoffs, they might trade him and get a decent haul back at the deadline.

Not a fan of them picking Travis Green as their coach and i think most Sens fans were not happy either. We'll see how that goes but i think he's just going to be another DJ Smith.

[Pop Zeus]

Travis Green has never done anything impressive.

I forgot about Hamonic and was using the Daily Faceoff Lines, which I think were taken from an Athletic Article. But Hamonic only played 48 games last year and he averaged just 14.44 per game, so maybe he's getting phased out. Looking at his stats, he once had 213 hits. He's nowhere near that anymore. I think like lots of older guys, he's trying to tone it down and stay healthy.
In 14 years, his most games ever in a season was 75. Though he did play all 48 games in 12-13.

[dcz28]

Travis Green has never done anything impressive.

I forgot about Hamonic and was using the Daily Faceoff Lines, which I think were taken from an Athletic Article. But Hamonic only played 48 games last year and he averaged just 14.44 per game, so maybe he's getting phased out. Looking at his stats, he once had 213 hits. He's nowhere near that anymore. I think like lots of older guys, he's trying to tone it down and stay healthy.
In 14 years, his most games ever in a season was 75. Though he did play all 48 games in 12-13.

I think most Sens fans don't really like Hamonic much at this stage of his career and he played too much kind of like Petry for the Wings. 3rd pair D with a rookie might be ok for one season. Sens fans don't seem to think much of JB Docker anymore and lot were talking about trading him this off-season. I don't think they are going to like Jensen that much in their top 4. He can still skate and isn't horrible defensively but i'm not even sure he would be that much of an upgrade over Petry for the Wings so i think them trading Chychrun (who really does suck defensively) straight up for him is going to leave a bad taste in their mouths pretty fast.

[Pop Zeus]

Travis Green has never done anything impressive.

I forgot about Hamonic and was using the Daily Faceoff Lines, which I think were taken from an Athletic Article. But Hamonic only played 48 games last year and he averaged just 14.44 per game, so maybe he's getting phased out. Looking at his stats, he once had 213 hits. He's nowhere near that anymore. I think like lots of older guys, he's trying to tone it down and stay healthy.
In 14 years, his most games ever in a season was 75. Though he did play all 48 games in 12-13.

I think most Sens fans don't really like Hamonic much at this stage of his career and he played too much kind of like Petry for the Wings. 3rd pair D with a rookie might be ok for one season. Sens fans don't seem to think much of JB Docker anymore and lot were talking about trading him this off-season. I don't think they are going to like Jensen that much in their top 4. He can still skate and isn't horrible defensively but i'm not even sure he would be that much of an upgrade over Petry for the Wings so i think them trading Chychrun (who really does suck defensively) straight up for him is going to leave a bad taste in their mouths pretty fast.

Chycrun for Jensen doesn't make sense to me. But it doesn't make much sense to have Sanderson, Chabot and Chychrun on LD.
Each of those guys is a 23-minute a night kind of guy and there are only 60 minutes in a game.
Are RD really that rare?

[dcz28]

Travis Green has never done anything impressive.

I forgot about Hamonic and was using the Daily Faceoff Lines, which I think were taken from an Athletic Article. But Hamonic only played 48 games last year and he averaged just 14.44 per game, so maybe he's getting phased out. Looking at his stats, he once had 213 hits. He's nowhere near that anymore. I think like lots of older guys, he's trying to tone it down and stay healthy.
In 14 years, his most games ever in a season was 75. Though he did play all 48 games in 12-13.

I think most Sens fans don't really like Hamonic much at this stage of his career and he played too much kind of like Petry for the Wings. 3rd pair D with a rookie might be ok for one season. Sens fans don't seem to think much of JB Docker anymore and lot were talking about trading him this off-season. I don't think they are going to like Jensen that much in their top 4. He can still skate and isn't horrible defensively but i'm not even sure he would be that much of an upgrade over Petry for the Wings so i think them trading Chychrun (who really does suck defensively) straight up for him is going to leave a bad taste in their mouths pretty fast.

Chycrun for Jensen doesn't make sense to me. But it doesn't make much sense to have Sanderson, Chabot and Chychrun on LD.
Each of those guys is a 23-minute a night kind of guy and there are only 60 minutes in a game.
Are RD really that rare?

Established top 4 ones seem to be although there was a few on the UFA market this summer. Problem for Ottawa is they don't attract top UFAs unless they overpay and they don't have a ton of cap space. If they were easy to get, i assume we wouldn't be going into the season with Petry and Holl to play behind Seider again.

Chychrun for Jensen only makes sense for the Caps. If that was the best RD he could get for Chychrun, he should have traded him for anything else that was better and then tried to trade that for a better RHD or at least a younger one.

[DelHowLich]

I think most Sens fans don't really like Hamonic much at this stage of his career and he played too much kind of like Petry for the Wings. 3rd pair D with a rookie might be ok for one season. Sens fans don't seem to think much of JB Docker anymore and lot were talking about trading him this off-season. I don't think they are going to like Jensen that much in their top 4. He can still skate and isn't horrible defensively but i'm not even sure he would be that much of an upgrade over Petry for the Wings so i think them trading Chychrun (who really does suck defensively) straight up for him is going to leave a bad taste in their mouths pretty fast.

Chycrun for Jensen doesn't make sense to me. But it doesn't make much sense to have Sanderson, Chabot and Chychrun on LD.
Each of those guys is a 23-minute a night kind of guy and there are only 60 minutes in a game.
Are RD really that rare?

Established top 4 ones seem to be although there was a few on the UFA market this summer. Problem for Ottawa is they don't attract top UFAs unless they overpay and they don't have a ton of cap space. If they were easy to get, i assume we wouldn't be going into the season with Petry and Holl to play behind Seider again.

Chychrun for Jensen only makes sense for the Caps. If that was the best RD he could get for Chychrun, he should have traded him for anything else that was better and then tried to trade that for a better RHD or at least a younger one.

They did not want to pay a -30 Chychrun nearly $8M x 8 next year.

[dcz28]

Chycrun for Jensen doesn't make sense to me. But it doesn't make much sense to have Sanderson, Chabot and Chychrun on LD.
Each of those guys is a 23-minute a night kind of guy and there are only 60 minutes in a game.
Are RD really that rare?

Established top 4 ones seem to be although there was a few on the UFA market this summer. Problem for Ottawa is they don't attract top UFAs unless they overpay and they don't have a ton of cap space. If they were easy to get, i assume we wouldn't be going into the season with Petry and Holl to play behind Seider again.

Chychrun for Jensen only makes sense for the Caps. If that was the best RD he could get for Chychrun, he should have traded him for anything else that was better and then tried to trade that for a better RHD or at least a younger one.

They did not want to pay a -30 Chychrun nearly $8M x 8 next year.

Nobody is paying him that unless he has an unreal season this year. Right now he would be lucky to get 7.5 mil a year.

[DelHowLich]

Established top 4 ones seem to be although there was a few on the UFA market this summer. Problem for Ottawa is they don't attract top UFAs unless they overpay and they don't have a ton of cap space. If they were easy to get, i assume we wouldn't be going into the season with Petry and Holl to play behind Seider again.

Chychrun for Jensen only makes sense for the Caps. If that was the best RD he could get for Chychrun, he should have traded him for anything else that was better and then tried to trade that for a better RHD or at least a younger one.

They did not want to pay a -30 Chychrun nearly $8M x 8 next year.

Nobody is paying him that unless he has an unreal season this year. Right now he would be lucky to get 7.5 mil a year.

That is still too high for the Sens to pay, and their LS was too crowded where JC was better at.