Rejoint: août 2020
Messages: 9,527
Mentions "j'aime": 8,968
I think a strong 2LD is exactly what the Sens need this off-season and if they can get Oleksiak that would be great. Graves from Colorado is another target that might come cheap pre-expansion draft if Colorado is looking to recoup value for an asset they’d have to leave exposed (and trading him to the East may be more palatable than losing him to a new Western rival). I think this is the case whether we get rid of Zaitsev or not (Chabot-Zub / Oleksiak-Zaitsev / Brannstrom-JBD / Mete-J.Brown would be the alternative if we kept Zaitsev around). I just don’t think getting rid of Zaitsev is something that will be high on Dorion’s to-do list, if it’s even on his radar. If getting him out of the lineup is a priority though, I would much rather simply send him down to the AHL, 3 more years on the books is much more palatable than 6 more years, especially when for at least 2 of those years we’ll be swimming in cap space (maybe buy him out in the final year). This may also motivate him to come to a mutual termination to find NHL playing time elsewhere a la Gusev which would be the ideal solution. I would agree with you that this top 6 is the ideal outcome for next year, as Brannstrom gets into the top 4, gets to play the right side (one of him or Sanderson will have to swap sides if they both figure into our long term plans so it might as well be the guy who likes that side), and gets to play with a big defensively oriented guy who can act as a stopgap until Sanderson is ready for that role while allowing Brannstrom the freedom to get creative offensively in the meantime. I feel like Oleksiak will want a slightly bigger contract though (3-4 years at 3.5-4mil). I’d probably be fine with overpaying him in order to actually get him as he’ll be very valuable for the first two years and should still be a good player on our 3rd pair for the last 1-2 seasons (maybe mentoring Thomson by then).