I would put JBD in over Hamonic. Kasty over Kelly. Kubalik on LW in the top 6 and Joseph at 3RW. Hopefully we can pick up a better ufa than Bjork

No need for Bjork, gotta use the cap space for a better forward to round out the Top-9


Kastelic will 100% be the 4th line center. Kelly is 12th or 13th forward, depending

Unfortunately, they will play Hamonic over JBD until they realize (too late) that it's hurting the team. Hamonic shouldn't be carried by Sanderson another year if we're serious about making the playoffs

There aren't really any better options over Bjork that can be had for league min

Who still on the market can be had for league min that is better than Bjork?

Sens don't need any 4th liner at league minimum. The only thing they could use right now is a good top-9 forward to push Joseph down to the 4th line to make the whole forward group stronger, including the 4th line

Tkachuk - Stutzle - Giroux
Kubalik - Norris - Batherson
Greig - Pinto - Joseph
Kelly - Kastelic - MacEwen

Call-ups : Crookshank/Sokolov/etc

You guys can certainly hope. As for me, Kastelic and Kelly aren't good enough to be everyday players. I'm tempted to put MacEwen in that conversation as well

That's why if they get a good top-9 forward, it pushes Joseph down the 4th line to make it stronger.

Do you really know Kastelic? The guy has good defensive metrics and a 57.2 FO% in the NHL. He's a 4th liner but he's big, doesn't back down from anyone and even has a bit of a scoring touch

I agree that Kelly and MacEwen shouldn't play anywhere close to 82 games each but if you have Kastelic & Joseph on your 4th line, then it wouldn't be the end of the world if they both share the 12th spot. The Top-9 would be very strong anyway and would get 50+ minutes a night

Pretty much. I feel that I'm looking at a fringe playoff team at best. Better depth both up front and on the back end. Kubalik and Greig will be the X-Factors this coming season, and honestly, if those two along with Kelly and MacEwen, even Brannstrom and Hamonic, all perform subpar their normal standards, I can see that being enough to sink the Sens playoff chances by themselves

I don't think its possible to know how good this team could be as long as DJ Smith and Pierre Dorion are in charge of it. Not only it holds them back on the ice (hockey systems) but management is clueless in terms of asset management, roster construction and foresight.

This team basically has 5 top line forwards and 3 top pairing D-men... it's such a waste of talent so far it's crazy

Tim Stutzle : Elite center in development, just 21 y/o
Brady Tkachuk : PPG powerforward unicorn
Josh Norris : great 2-way center, elite goal scorer (scored 47 goals in his last 91 games prior to last season, which started when he was 21 y/o facing top competition every game)
Claude Giroux : yeah he's getting older but still a very high-end2-way forward
Drake Batherson : had his own setbacks (injury + WJC scrutiny) but he was the best Sens player in 2021-22 before the stupid Aaron Dell cheapshot

Jake Sanderson : Elite D-man in development, just 21 y/o
Thomas Chabot : 26th best PPG among D-men since 2020-21, but really needs his Methot like Karlsson needed back then for his game to get to another level. Incredibly talented
Jakob Chychrun : 26th best PPG among D-men since 2020-21 (tie with Chabot), solid 2-way metrics

It's ridiculous if you can't build a contender having these 8 players. Sure last year Norris was injured and Chychrun only arrived late but the thing is you even have some quality supporting pieces like Zub, Brannstrom, Kleven (soon), Greig and Pinto (and well, Kubalik)

There's just no excuses and the fact that Dorion and DJ are still here is kind of a joke (which also is their luck as it coincided with Melnyk's death and the team sale)

Giroux and Norris are not strong two-way players, they're both purely offensive beasts

That's not what metrics say at all... And well, eye test too

This was Norris rookie season, facing top competition :

Key word is "Rookie" season

Yes, which is very impressive, particularly since his QoC was so high and he was playing with Tkachuk and Batherson who were very young too.

Did...he maintain it though? Btw, Batherson isn't someone I trust defensively all that much

Norris was not as good in his sophomore season but this is something that happens regularly with the 2nd season. He was still good, facing top competition and scored 35 goals in 66 games.

Drake Batherson is like DeBrincat, they are offensives winger who need to be structured in an efficient defensive system to be fine defensively. They're not like Mark Stone who is going to carry his line defensively for example.

Batherson is the one who missed Norris the most last season, and keep in mind Ottawa's coaching is not optimal so you don't fully know what you have in these guys.

Yeah, I'll believe the coaching factor after DJ Smith is gone

Team defense in Toronto was also pretty bad when DJ was a coach there...

Except for Connor Brown I take it?

Sorry but not sure why you're talking about a single player.

Was Connor Brown not good in Ottawa? Particularly defensively? UNDER the guise of DJ Smith? Team defense bad + Connor Brown good? Yeah, that doesn't add up

Individual ability/performance is not the same as overall team defense, structure, hockey systems. If you played competitive hockey, you'll know what I am talking about

Some players will still be good defensively in spite of poor team structure... That's the case for players like Connor Brown, Nick Paul, Josh Norris, Claude Giroux and Erik Brannstrom. Players like Drake Batherson and Alex DeBrincat need to be structured to be fine defensively

I would think if a team has enough good responsible middle six forwards they would be able to patch things up, and if the system they're playing in is screwing them over too much, we wouldn't regard those players as being "good" to begin with. Also, Erik Brannstrom isn't that good defensively.

Sure it would really help so I really was against Dorion trading Nick Paul then Connor Brown

The problem is that the hockey systems are deficient.

Erik Brannstrom was excellent defensively, pretty good metrics. He retrieves pucks very fast and move them swiftly

Maybe I'm experiencing some recency bias because Jack Studnicka scored his first as a Canuck off an AGGREGIOUS turnover by Brannstrom, I remember quite specifically

Yeah that was a risky pass but on that play, Chabot lost the puck which put the defense under pressure and it was rather a weak goal given up by Talbot

But that play was very uncharacteristic from Brannstrom last season. All players are prone to mistakes for sure.