I love Nick Paul, but he probably gets half of that contract. He's a great modern power 4th liner, but he's still a 4th liner.

If you were one of my students, I'd give you an F. As a diehard Sens fan whose opinion I value highly, yours is an insight I was going for. Instead of giving me some analysis, you ignored the "Don't pay attention to any signing amounts -- I'm just trying to get players down on paper" sentence in the Team Explanation. Try again.

I would say you have effectively highlight players that are going to play next year or are relatively close to being ripe.... except the blueline. I for one am not sold on Zub being ready, nor is JDB. They could use another year in Bellevegas.

Ok, I guess I say that if that is the overall intent of the post.... next year's big turnover.

The challenge in your process of educating yourself anlittle on the Ottawa system (a process I also undertook), is going to be gauging who stays and goes at forward. The team is very deep. I see 5 centres that will or could play next year..... White, Norris, Tierney, Amisinov and Brown. More difficult is the wings are deep enough that moving one of them to the wing (Brown would be the likely candidate) is that you can't make it work without moving another body.

Making an ACGM would probably be more productive to get a gauge on the talent. @Claesson4Norris is quite knowledgable of the system, and if you tag him should give you aome real constructive feedback on players. One of the few here that doesn't grossly overvalue his/her team's system.

I don't really understand what you're asking? Analysis of what specifically? That's so vague.

Perhaps I should have spent more time on my Team Explanation. I don't see Ottawa competing next season, but starting in 2021-2022 I see them as a team to be reckoned with and if most of their high-quality prospects turn out, I see them contending well through the second half of the decade. Adding the players I've shown to a few core players already "there" (Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Connor Brown, Thomas Chabot) makes them a very strong team. I guess my intent was to ask if this is the basis of a Stanley-Cup-winning team in 2024 or 2025? Have I overlooked anybody? Have I overvalued anybody? What might need to be added? That's the sort of feedback I was going for.

@Claesson4Norris @swinny P.S. I didn't mean to suggest that this is the team Ottawa will ice next season. Many of these prospects are at least a season away, and I know that.

Then I would say you're pretty in tune then.

Moving forward long term I still feel that the organizational depth on the blueline is underwhelming. Potential is certainly there, but knowing that bodies up front are going to be needed to shuffle around, that would be a return I am looking for. Zub and JDB are looking like top 4 candidates, but behind that I am very luke warm. Would be looking to shore that up a little.... which maybe is done via the draft 🤷‍♂️, but be the one area I would personally highlight.

Never enough D depth!!!!

Thanks!

The Islanders pick (if you still have it) and the first two second-rounders should give you some real good defensive opportunities.

I think Shane Pinto is going to be an important piece for the Sens as a contender. He's a big body centre who plays all situations and scores big goals. His upside his hard to really peg down because of his delayed development curve. He only started playing high level organized hockey at 15, which is super late. Going from that to NCHC rookie or the year in just 5 years is a pretty remarkable trajectory.

Also I think I would have Joey Daccord as The Guy in net. He's so good. He's got amazing poise and positioning, and he's got a great hockey mind. He's easily the top guy for Ottawa.

Thanks for the insight!

I'm not too sure what you're asking for so I'll just give a quick rundown of some of our players. Chabot is by far our best player and can eat minutes like Karlsson. Tkachuk is our best forward and plays the physical style of hockey that the Tkachuks are known for, but he needs to work on his skating (especially staying on his feet).

Our goalie situation is interesting since with Anderson likely retiring this year, that leaves Nilsson and Hogberg who both played like solid 1Bs last season. Gustavsson seems to only get worse every year so at this point I'll be happy if he can fight for his job in Belleville next season. Daccord has jumped him on the depth chart and I'm excited to see how he develops. Mandolese is still a question mark that probably starts in the ECHL, and Sogaard is having a down year but hopefully he can bounce back.

A few other key forwards are Duclair, who is very hot and cold, many people were hoping he found his stride in Ottawa but he finished the year cold so we'll see. Connor Brown is a terrific two way guy that I'd be happy to sign longer-term as a 3rd liner. Colin White had a down year which is scary since we just signed him to a six year contract, but he showed signs of life at the end of the season so he could still very well bounce back. At his best he's a great middle 6 two-way guy and at his worst he's invisible. Tierney is a solid 3C on pretty much any team, and I could see him being the one that goes to Seattle in the expansion draft.

On D, we just signed Zub, who is a defensive defenceman, and will hopefully be able to fill the hole left by DeMelo as Chabot's partner. Other than that, there's Borowiecki, who is a bottom pairing heart and soul guy that plays with grit, and Zaitsev, who is the worst contract on the team, and is ideally also a bottom pairing guy.

Some of our nearly NHL-ready best prospects on C are Norris and Logan Brown, who both have that top 6 potential but neither are likely to become that superstar 1C, so hopefully we can snag Byfield from the draft. Batherson is another one of our best forward prospects, and he's mostly been playing on the wing since going pro. Formenton is interesting because he's insanely fast, like almost McDavid caliber speed, but most project him as a middle 6 guy. Balcers also projects in the middle 6, although I'm higher on him than most others, I think he'll be a late bloomer. We have many other prospects with 3rd line potential such as Chlapik, Abramov, Davidsson, and the struggle with them moving forward will be maximizing their chances to prove themselves, because there isn't room for all of them. On the blue line, our best prospect by far is Brannstrom, who is an offensive defenseman that can supposedly play both sides. There's also Wolanin, who I call "prospect" but he realistically could have spent all of last year on our 2nd pairing. Then there's Lajoie who came out of nowhere in the NHL at the beginning of the season and scored a bunch of goals, then promptly went back to nowhere. He could probably be a good 3rd pairing guy eventually but he won't get the chance here because we just have so many left-handed defensemen. On the right side, the only one that will probably make the NHL next season is Jaros, who has a similar story to Wolanin except on the 3rd pairing. There's a few other notables like Bernard-Docker and Thomson, but they probably don't get their shot for another couple years.

Thanks! This confirms most of what I've understood about your team. I wasn't thinking about next season so much as evaluating the structure of the team for eventual playoff contention. You can see from my post that I consider Brown, White and Tierney keepers and of course there's no doubt about Chabot. I'll file away @Claesson4Norris 's advice about Pinto and Daccord.

I think they hit the nail on the head about Pinto and Daccord. Pinto I see as an excellent 1st or 2nd line centre in a couple years, and Daccord is exciting for sure. Goalies are weird so we'll have to wait and see, but I'm excited for him nonetheless.