Great mocking sarcasm but I think the term usually used is top pairing. Would you argue that Chabot and Chychrun are not top pairing D-men? I can understand why some haven't caught up on Sanderson yet as he's just 21 y/o but he's actually the best of them and arguably the Sens best player with/after Stutzle
Strangely, all 3 are ranked Top-30 in NHL's current fantasy ranking :
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Chabot 15th in PPG among D-men since his sophomore season in 2018-19 when he was 21 y/o and 3rd in TOI/GP behind Doughty and Seth Jones.
Chychrun has not been as good as he was in Arizona but 4th in the league in GPG since 2019-20 when he was also 21 y/o, also Top-30 in PPG since
Sanderson is 39th in PPG among D-men this season but it's more his 2-way play that stands out
All that being said, talent doesn't guarantee winning. I think people in general were all aware how Melnyk was an awful owner but even if they finally moved to another era, it took a lot of time, Andlauer only took control of the team in September so unfortunately, Sens were stuck with Pierre Dorion (easily one of the worst GMs of all-time) and DJ Smith (good guy but made to be an assistant coach) alllllll that time. I have been repeating since the beginning of the 2020-21 season that the Sens wouldn't go anywhere with them at the helm
So once the new ownership group were able to purge the past regime, the mandate for Jacques Martin and Daniel Alfredsson was to fix the bad habits and teach them to "play the right way". Very few players learned to play NHL hockey away from DJ Smith systems. Kubalik and Tarasenko were never good defensively (brought in by Dorion who had no idea how to construct an efficient roster, he just went by name recognition as much as possible). Dorion also brought back Hamonic who is really bad now.
The coaching change happened December 18th and results certainly weren't apparent at first (only newbies would have expected an instant turnaround) but since January 11th :
CA/60 : 2nd best
SA/60 : 5th best
xGA/60 : 3rd best
SCA/60 : 3rd best
HDCA/60 : Best
The "team game" is vastly improved from what it was under DJ Smith and it's already reflecting in advanced stats (which is a predicator of results, they were 6-2-2 in their last 10)
As for this poll, I would have voted Ottawa under DJ Smith, it was actually non existant defense. The way to prevent goals was : attack, wait for turnovers when defending, hope your goalie bails you out, which is why Ottawa has been a goalie graveyard during all the DJ Dorion Era.