Great. I would put Zub on the bottom line, Hamonic one the 2nd and Chychrun on the firs but I see what your doing have a good d-man help Sanderson develop. I would put in Brannstrom for Holden

I figured Chychrun could play with Sanderson or Chabot, same with Zub. I figured since Zub already has chemistry with Chabot, that I'd start with that and give Sanderson a very good D partner. Hamonic slots in perfectly on the 3rd pair. I found that when he played higher up last season, while he was a definite upgrade over Josh Brown, he looked out of place playing top 4 minutes. I would rather keep him in the bottom pair. Holden and Brannstrom can swap in and out depending on who's playing well and who the opponent is.

As a Sens fan myself, I really like this setup if we could land Chychrun! Alternatively, I propose the sens start the season as is and try to pry Dobson out of NYI if their season starts off poorly and they consider starting a fire sale to kick start a rebuild. Shipping out Barzal and Dobson could fetch a large reurn for NYI and I'd much prefer the price for Dobson rather then Chychrun. Plus Dobson is a Right shot D which is what the sens really need. I suggest the trade looks like Z. Ostapchuk, E. Brannstrom, a 1st in 2023 (top 10 protected) and WSH 2nd rounder in 2024 for N. Dobson.

Toughts?

Yeah that could work. I'm not sure NYI would want to go the rebuild route though. They also would probably ask for the same price Arizona is asking for Chychrun. They just signed Dobson too, so they don't really have any reason to trade him, unless he asks for a trade. I think if we're looking for alternatives to Chychrun, we'd have to look at teams that are over or really close to the cap or players that have 1 year left on the contracts. Severson, Tanev, Weegar & Dumba are all guys that could be targeted. I think if the team doesn't pull the trigger on a trade before camp, there might be some rumours that start around November/December where new names start circling the rumour mill. I hope it doesn't come to that because Ottawa really needs to upgrade the defense and it becomes even more pressing if Sanderson isn't ready for top 4 minutes. Zaitsev also needs to be moved as well.