Sens can really make a nice push this year tbh. That’s exactly the contract you’d want with Klingberg. When you start getting into term and etc it’s a mess and certainly not a mess that a team flying out of a rebuild wants to have.

Outside of Zub, who plays actually defense?

Holden is pretty good , Chabot can be above average if he tries . Sanderson is known for his 1 on 1 defence . They might have to focus a lot on deployment when it comes to this team and play matchups

I like the idea of Klingberg but I don't see how they can fit 7M under the cap for the 23-24 season and keep the core in tact. Stuey, Zub and DeBrincat are all up for big extensions. There's probably 10-12M in additional salary right there if Stuey gets around 8M, a little over 4 for Zub and around 9, his QO, for the Cat. Plus Pinto will need a raise, so there's another mil or two, could be more if he has a monster year but I would imagine a bridge at 2-3M for him is the play.

After next year it's not as bad with Murray, Ryan and Delly's buyouts/salary retention coming off, that totals over 4M.

Ideally a d-man at 4.5M would fit perfectly and would leave room for extensions for the current core (all this hinges on the ability of getting rid of Zaitsev though).

Oh and if we are talking about dream scenario, I did have a pipe dream that Mathew Tkachuk took a 1 year deal and walked to FA. Sens dealt DeBrincat and signed Mathew haha.

My guess is Formenton gets moved next off-season for Greig.

'Chabot can be above average if he tries' gets Jake Gardiner flash backs when I hear if he tries hahah

Chabot is better than Rielly defensively

And did I bring up Reilly? I did not. I would argue Lilly is already better defensively that Reilly

I don’t think Chabot is a liability defensively but he does need a guy like Zub to stabilize the defence so Chabot can move up with the puck . I’d say he’s average defensively

Agreed but like I am saying I feel like there needs to be more there. Ottawa is young and will likely out score most of their problems this year but the D isnt going to be better with Klingberg. I would use the UFA money to likely make a trade for a shut down guy or sign (But there isn't any good shut down D left)

I don’t think they need a guy longterm. I’d enquire about Martinez and Tanev if I was ottawa. They need a guy for 1-2 years so JBD/Thomson step in

I hadn't thought of Tanev, but he would fit.

I was thinking Hague from Vegas. Age fits with the team and he needs a contract and Vegas is tight aginast the cap with 6 D on one way contracts. Not sure if they are answering GMPDs calls though.

How about David Savard if MTL still looking shed salary?

I personally wouldn't be after Savard. He's had a few years now of steady decline and I wouldn't want to sign up for 3 more years of that.