Silver Seven Defense Options Dwindling, Reporters Trolling, Atlantic Division Senators, and more

[Burrowsaurus]

A second pairing D man who flashes some of the old EK but checks out mentally during stretches.

I dono about mentally. The legs just can’t do what they used to do. I would take him at 50% less. I think. But he’s definitely not better than Chabot

 

[Stylizer1]

What exactly do you think Karlsson is at this point?

On a good team a difference maker. I dont think he was the right fit in SJ.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

On a good team a difference maker. I dont think he was the right fit in SJ.

If he gets taken care of on the ice maybe. Like on with responsible players all the time

 

[Stylizer1]

I dono about mentally. The legs just can’t do what they used to do. I would take him at 50% less. I think. But he’s definitely not better than Chabot

Chabot and Karlsson on the same line would be a perfect fit. Would I trade Chabot for Karlsson, no. But adding Karlsson to this team would make us a lot better. At 30% retained it works out to 5.7 million in real money. That would be a steal.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Chabot and Karlsson on the same line would be a perfect fit. Would I trade Chabot for Karlsson, no. But adding Karlsson to this team would make us a lot better. At 30% retained it works out to 5.7 million in real money. That would be a steal.

How many more years

 

[DylanSensFan]

Adam Larsson is probably someone the sens should target right now. It probably won't take a Taylor Hall level player this time to acquire him. Would give Seattle Brannstrom + one of JBD/Thomson + Zaitsev to get it done.

No thanks.

 

[Blotto71]

No thanks.

Care to elaborate? Not sure where you see the problem with him - solid defensively, able to make a good outlet pass, very reasonable salary $4m), and little term...seems right to get the team to a point when a lower salary Thomson or JBD take on a full time top-4 role.

 

[Stylizer1]

How many more years

5 years. His contract would end well before our core players are up for new contracts. The next 5 years are the years we are going to try and win the cup.

Last season our D accounted for 24 goals. All of them. The last season we had Karlsson our D had 39 goals.

 

[JD1]

Chabot and Karlsson on the same line would be a perfect fit. Would I trade Chabot for Karlsson, no. But adding Karlsson to this team would make us a lot better. At 30% retained it works out to 5.7 million in real money. That would be a steal.

It's not a matter of what it works out to salary wise, it's AAV wise.

At 50% retained, he has a 5.75 cap hit. We can get a heck of a big physical defender for that cap allocation.

 

[Stylizer1]

It's not a matter of what it works out to salary wise, it's AAV wise.

At 50% retained, he has a 5.75 cap hit. We can get a heck of a big physical defender for that cap allocation.

But can that big physical defender score? Our D is missing a scorer. To spend close to 6m on a big defender is a waste of money. We can find a plug to do that role. Matt Carkner was fine, your an expert was fine, Gryba was fine, Borocop was fine, etc. YOu don't waste money on those guys.

 

[JD1]

But can that big physical defender score? Our D is missing a scorer. To spend close to 6m on a big defender is a waste of money. We can find a plug to do that role. Matt Carkner was fine, your an expert was fine, Gryba was fine, Borocop was fine, etc. YOu don't waste money on those guys.

Clearly I wasn't talking about a player of that caliber for that level of AAV.

 

[Stylizer1]

Clearly I wasn't talking about a player of that caliber for that level of AAV.

We have enough for both then and then some.

Karlsson wouldn't have to lead the league in ice time like he did in his first stint. Less is more in his case.

 

[GCK]

We have enough for both then and then some.

Karlsson wouldn't have to lead the league in ice time like he did in his first stint. Less is more in his case.

He just doesn’t fit anymore.

 

[Tuna99]

He just doesn’t fit anymore.

His real salary goes down to $11.5 million next year

 

[Sensinitis]

Our D is miles better than it was at the beginning of last season.

Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Holden
Thomson

Hamonic was a solid pickup and Sanderson will at the very least be better than Brannstrom was so together that makes a good 2nd pair.

There will be good internal competition between Brann/Thomson/JBD to earn a spot in the regular lineup.

If we bleed goals you make an acquisition but I’m not sure how necessary it is at the moment unless there’s an opportunity to land someone that you can’t miss..

 

[JD1]

Our D is miles better than it was at the beginning of last season.

Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Holden
Thomson

Hamonic was a solid pickup and Sanderson will at the very least be better than Brannstrom was so together that makes a good 2nd pair.

There will be good internal competition between Brann/Thomson/JBD to earn a spot in the regular lineup.

If we bleed goals you make an acquisition but I’m not sure how necessary it is at the moment unless there’s an opportunity to land someone that you can’t miss..

It's definitely better than the start of last season for a few reasons.

Sanderson coming in
The Hamonic pick up
Brannstrom maturing
Zaitsev slotting lower
Zub with a 2nd NHL year under his belt
JBD and Thomson pushing from underneath

We're better top 6 wise and we're more able to manage injuries

 

[Cosmix]

It's definitely better than the start of last season for a few reasons.

Sanderson coming in
The Hamonic pick up
Brannstrom maturing
Zaitsev slotting lower
Zub with a 2nd NHL year under his belt
JBD and Thomson pushing from underneath

We're better top 6 wise and we're more able to manage injuries

I agree it is better than it was at the start of last season and should be better with the addition of Sanderson. However, I think we need to upgrade on Hamonic, Zaitsev and Holden. Trading one of Hamonic or Zaitsev would reduce salary and adding a better D at a higher salary would improve the D even more.

 

[OgieO]

I care less about adding a RD than I do about shedding Zaitsev this summer, I don't mind rolling with one of Thomson or JBD for a bit and then adding a RD at the deadline if needed. Not ideal to roll with Sanderson and LT/JBD, that's a lot of inexperience but I also don't want to force a less than ideal option right now. We don't need another Hamonic deal. If something comes up (i.e. a team needing to make room for Tkachuk $$), do it. But just shed Zaitsev first and then have patience.

 

[Bileur]

I definitely think the D will be better than last season but it’s still far from good enough without a significant addition. Bottom third of the league to start the season and hopefully they can progress over the year.

Sanderson needs a reliable, experienced, quality partner to hit the ground running. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but someone well rounded and reliable defensively. I don’t want him thrown out there to the wolves. When Karlsson broke in, Phillips-Volchenkov took the hard matchups and Karlsson was able to grow with a good partner in Kuba. Hamonic wouldn’t be a bad plan B but an upgrade would be nice. Zaitsev is an absolute non-starter.

Adding another good D also allows the Sens to pair Chabot with Zub again. Those two mesh well together and looked like a dominant pair at times. Chabot deserves a chance to run with a good partner for a long stretch which he hasn’t really had in his time here. An additional quality top 4 piece also allows the Sens to scale back the use of Chabot. I’m really curious to see what he could do in a season where (1) he isn’t gassed leading the league in minutes and (2) he avoids injury.

I don’t think PD is done so I expect our D to look like this opening night:

Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-XXX
Holden-Hamonic
Brannstrom

I like Branny and want to keep him around but to preserve Chabot and allow Sanderson to take on responsibility gradually I think the Sens need good PK options. I can see DJ trying HH as a poor man’s shut down pair. Use would be similar to when the Sens had Boro-Gryba as a keep it simple meat and potatoes bottom pair who also handles a lot of PK duties.