News Article: Where Do the Senators’ Brännström and Batherson Fit in 2019-20?

[AchtzehnBaby]

It’s no surprise that Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion has been able to amass a wealth of young and talented prospects. With the departures of fan favorites like Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel over the past year, the Senators seem to be set for the future with all the assets they’ve acquired. However, two names stand out when looking at their prospects, Erik Brännström and Drake Batherson. Both seem destined for all-star careers in the NHL.

https://thehockeywriters.com/senators-brannstrom-batherson-2019-20-lineup-fit/++

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[Brannstorm]

I agree Batherson is going to be a top six winger right off the bat. I like him, Alfredssonesque to me.

I'm not so sure about this Brannstrom kid though, .

I can tell a team's defence will be good when they are young and still have no room for Brannstrom at the beggining of the season.

I do like that Hainsey and Zaitsev can give everyone the dirt on systems of Toronto... also DJ smith. Also I saw it and we beat them pretty bad (3/4 last year?).

It's these "other" teams that have me worried. 2? ... 29?.. 30! I forgot. What will our plan be against those teams. New thread lol.

 

[Tuna99]

Brannstrom if he pans out as a top talent D with Chabot it will make Ottawa dangerous - has a New Jersey Devils Neidermeyer / Rafalski feel to it.

 

[MatchesMalone]

Short-term, Batherson will be on the team for 2019/20, and should be somewhere in the 13-17 minute per game range. He'll see powerplay time and play mostly on a second or third line. I suspect they'll keep Tkachuk and White together as the de facto top line, so it wouldn't be ideal to have another rookie up there with them. 30-40 points would be a reasonable prediction, but a Calder Trophy run shouldn't surprise anyone either.

Long-term, I see him as a guy who could play on a top line, or carry a second line, but maybe not an elite player. 70-80 points in his prime years would be my best bet.

I really hope Brannstrom plays most of this coming season in the minors. I'd love to see him get some call-ups for the experience, but he needs experience being the guy down in Belleville. He was a top three or four defenseman on his Swedish pro team, and a top two or three guy in Chicago - don't get me wrong, impressive for a teenager - but now at 20, he needs to show he can consistently be an elite player st the AHL level. An ideal year for him would be 30-50 points in 40-60 AHL games, and 15-30 NHL games.

Long-term, Brannstrom's upside is enormous. I could see him as a 23-26 minute defenseman who consistently puts up 50-65 points a year. Like above poster said, could be a Niedermayer-Rafalski (or if I can go way back, Potvin-Persson) situation with him and Chabot.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Brannstrom should spend the entire season in the AHL for 2019-20.
I could only see him up in the NHL if there were a number of injuries on the Senators and had played well enough to be near the top of the call up list in Belleville.

He has only 50 games in the AHL, and a full season down there would serve him and the team well in the long run.

 

[Micklebot]

Batherson likely starts with the team in the top6. Brannstrom will have to make an impression at camp if he wants to get the ~10 game tryout, and will need to force his way into the lineup. More likely he starts in Belleville and gets called up half way through the year.

That said, Brannstrom has been playing Pro hockey for 4 years now and has 134 games playing against men at a high level (top SHL division, AHL and NHL). This isn't the same as your typical kid coming out of the CHL or college hockey. He also put up extremely good numbers in the AHL for a rookie, little lone a 19 year old dman. It won't hurt him staying down there, but I don't see there being any need to keep him down there if he proves he's one of our top 6 at the NHL level.

 

[Sensmileletsgo]

Is everyone sold here on Brannstrom? I still haven’t watched him play yet. I’m looking forward to seeing him in pre season. It does kind of sound like he hasn’t been a total stud since he’s come to Ottawa (I’m only basing that off his stat line and Dorion saying that Bernard-Docker was better then him in the rookie camp).

 

[SPF6ty9]

Is everyone sold here on Brannstrom? I still haven’t watched him play yet. I’m looking forward to seeing him in pre season. It does kind of sound like he hasn’t been a total stud since he’s come to Ottawa (I’m only basing that off his stat line and Dorion saying that Bernard-Docker was better then him in the rookie camp).

Not yet, I think the article kind of makes him out to be more than he's shown so far. Seemed to be playing great early in the year / World Juniors but didn't show too much since the trade to Ottawa.

Batherson I am very high on. I feel like he's going to end up being one of our top 3 highest scoring forwards this year, not like the competition is that great.

 

[coladin]

Belleville. Stay away from Ottawa unless there are injury situations.

 

[OD99]

I hope Lajoie has a great off season of training and takes a spot on LD - as mentioned previously everyone is sleeping on him and he could be part of our 7 man group easily.

Have a hard time imagining that Wolanin doesn't show he belongs again so that means Brannstrom is in the A.

Chabot - Demelo
Wolanin - Z
Lajoie - Hainsey
Boro

Guess that leaves Jaros out too though...going to be tough on the young guys to make our D this year.

 

[Sensinitis]

I hope Lajoie has a great off season of training and takes a spot on LD - as mentioned previously everyone is sleeping on him and he could be part of our 7 man group easily.

Have a hard time imagining that Wolanin doesn't show he belongs again so that means Brannstrom is in the A.

Chabot - Demelo
Wolanin - Z
Lajoie - Hainsey
Boro

Guess that leaves Jaros out too though...going to be tough on the young guys to make our D this year.

Hopefully they all play well in the NHL or AHL and drive up their value, cause we're gonna have to trade one or couple at some point.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

If Brannstrom can have the same impact in Belleville as Wolanin did, that will be a good start. He should go down and be a stand out and knock down the door like Batherson did last year. Batherson should be given every opportunity on the top line with the best players we can muster up to play with him. And that certainly does not mean Tierney as a 1C. Problem with the Sens are the high end Cs .. I hope they don't see Tierney as a top line C.

 

[bert]

I think with the current D core in what they showed at the NHL level Brannstrom should be starting in Belleville and be the man down there like many other posters have suggested. Wolanin showed some real dominant stretches last year, he is 4 years older and further along in development. I actually think the same thing should happen with Batherson, I want to see him dominate the AHL like last year before he comes up. Never hurts a prospect to stay in the AHL compared to brining him up early to the NHL.

 

[Star Ocean]

Brannstrom is NHL ready. Dude was close making vegas 2 years ago. Dont overcook him.

 

[MatchesMalone]

Brannstrom is NHL ready. Dude was close making vegas 2 years ago. Dont overcook him.

That's fine, but there's a couple guys ahead of him on the depth chart he'll have to play out of a spot in pre-season.

 

[Micklebot]

If Brannstrom can have the same impact in Belleville as Wolanin did, that will be a good start. He should go down and be a stand out and knock down the door like Batherson did last year. Batherson should be given every opportunity on the top line with the best players we can muster up to play with him. And that certainly does not mean Tierney as a 1C. Problem with the Sens are the high end Cs .. I hope they don't see Tierney as a top line C.

Honestly, I think he kind of was doing that in in Chicago before getting traded; 28 pts in 41 games as a 19 year old adapting to NA hockey is pretty darn impressive.

I think he starts in Belleville, but he likely doesn't look out of place if he starts in Ottawa.
Edit: I should mention, he's still really young, so there's really no harm with him playing in Belleville and dominating, we don't need wins in Ottawa this year, so I don't really care if Boro plays instead of him so long as we are giving the young D lots of development time.

 

[bert]

Brannstrom is NHL ready. Dude was close making vegas 2 years ago. Dont overcook him.

The thing is so is Wolanin, he is older and further along in development. This is a tank season let the young guys percolate and keep them away from the losing environment with the big club. There are atleast 4 franchise level forwards in the up coming draft. If the sens finish dead last they are guaranteed to get 1.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Brannstrom is NHL ready. Dude was close making vegas 2 years ago. Dont overcook him.

He is not NHL ready.
He has 2 NHL games under his belt, to go along with his 50 AHL career games.
Could he play on the Senators, the team that finished dead freaking last in the past season?
Yeah he could, but there is no need to Lazar him, the team is just in the the baby steps of their re-build and he needs to play at least an entire season in Belleville.
There are other players in Belleville that can come up and replace an injured player.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

And the end of the day, I want the Sens to do whatever is best for the kids to have the best chance at a long and productive NHL career. Whether it's in Belleville, Ottawa, or the dark side of the moon, it doesn't matter.

Now that said, I think Batherson has a great chance to be in Ottawa all year. He was preetty good during his NHL games last year, and if he comes in a bit stronger and more confident, he should stick.

Brannstrom is a mystery. I haven't paid attention to this kid...yet. So many roster changes and dramarama around the organization last year, it was too hard to keep up with all of it.

 

[branch]

Brannstrom will play himself onto the team.

 

[topshelf15]

Brannstrom will play himself onto the team.

Yep,and Batherson will be on the team,due to our lack of RW options with some offensive upside

 

[Micklebot]

He is not NHL ready.
He has 2 NHL games under his belt, to go along with his 50 AHL career games.
Could he play on the Senators, the team that finished dead freaking last in the past season?
Yeah he could, but there is no need to Lazar him, the team is just in the the baby steps of their re-build and he needs to play at least an entire season in Belleville.
There are other players in Belleville that can come up and replace an injured player.

Why are you focusing on AHL games to determine whether a guy with 4 years pro experience is NHL ready? Was Aho NHL ready with his 0 AHL games? Pettersson with his 0 AHL games? How about DeBrincat and his 0 AHL games? How about Tkachuk (you can pick which one) with their 0 AHL games? Larkin had 6 AHL games when he started his career, was he not NHL ready? Or does it have to be a Dman, how about Will Butcher and his 0 AHL games? Heiskanen and his 0 AHL games? McAvoy and his 4 AHL games? Slavin and his 14 AHL games? Klingberg and his 14 AHL games? Parayko and his 22 AHL games? Werenski and his 24 AHL games?

Maybe instead of focusing on the number of games he’s played (which btw if you look at all his pro experience instead of just the NA leagues, is likely more than anybody on the above list, though I haven’t double checked), we can judge his NHL readiness based on how he’s performed in those games, which so far has been very promising, and avoid useless tropes like Lazar’ing players which add nothing meaningful.

 

[aragorn]

IMO Batherson starts the yr in Ottawa & could play with both second yr players Tkachuk & White to form a deadly trio & decent line behind Tierny's line. Batherson is the goal scorer that the White line could use to complete it & become a #1 line or very good 2nd line.

Brannstrom IMO starts the yr in Belleville & once PD has cleared some roster room on defence by moving one of the three UFA defencemen (Boro, DeMello or Hainsey) by the trade deadline then he should be the first guy called up. However, there is no guarantee of that & they may want to look at a couple of other defencemen first to see what they have & who can play in the NHL. But I do expect he will be in Ottawa for the 2020 season.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

IMO Batherson starts the yr in Ottawa & could play with both second yr players Tkachuk & White to form a deadly trio & decent line behind Tierny's line. Batherson is the goal scorer that the White line could use to complete it & become a #1 line or very good 2nd line.

Brannstrom IMO starts the yr in Belleville & once PD has cleared some roster room on defence by moving one of the three UFA defencemen (Boro, DeMello or Hainsey) by the trade deadline then he should be the first guy called up. However, there is no guarantee of that & they may want to look at a couple of other defencemen first to see what they have & who can play in the NHL. But I do expect he will be in Ottawa for the 2020 season.

If Tierney is the #1C we are one brutal team

 

[stempniaksen]

If Batherson plays with Tkachuk and White they aren't going to considered the 2nd line. Who would they be playing "behind"? Tierney, Ryan and Duclair?