Team: 2023-24 Ottawa Senators

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 20, 2023

Published: Mar. 20, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Another stab at filling out the roster internally next season.

Frankly, DeBrincat hasn't played like a guy worth 9 mil. Fitting under the cap with enough space to have scratches on the roster for depth and flexibility becomes pretty difficult if Cat sticks to demanding is QO. If he's adamant at asking for 9+ long-term I think the right move is to trade him. For a long-term situation to work I think he needs to take less than 8.5. I have him at 8 here but I ended up with 200,000 leftover by trying my best not to inflate the salaries of the depth I re-signed, so you can picture this roster with Cat making 8.2 and it's pretty much identical. If he can return to the shooting percentages he saw earlier in his career and his D improves (or the Sens finally upgrade the coaching staff) then 8.2 will be more than fair for him through his age 31-32 season. I'd much rather keep him than let him go. Giroux will be gone in a few years and without Cat that basically leaves the team missing two top-six wingers again.

This only works because in this scenario Pinto only takes 2 for a small bridge and the rest of the bottom six is either on an ELC or accepts 1 mil or less. I don't have a clue if that's feasible or not. Hopefully the cap only going up by 1 mil keeps the market for depth forwards fairly cold. I kept Gambrell because I think the team/coaching likes him and though I prefer Kastelic long-term, Gambrell is a solid penalty-killer.

For the D, I think Brannstrom is a really valuable bottom-pairing asset and would like to keep him around. 1.3 is, IMO, more than fair for him and if there was a little more cap space I'd actually give him more to sign to a longer term deal. Hamonic has been ok this year, if over-used. I think he could decent again in a reduced role. I gave him 1 mil because he's a vet and the team seems to value his presence on top of what he brings on the ice. JBD hasn't shown he can break through to the NHL yet, but it's worth keeping him around to see if he can. If he takes another step, great, the team can re-sign him at the end of next season and doesn't need to replace Hamonic externally. If not, he might still hold some trade value.

Forsberg, if healthy, could return to form next year. Sogaard has been ok so far , but clearly has a ways to go. Goalies are magic and impossible to predict. This has felt like the thinnest, least certain part of the roster since Anderson left and I have no idea what the team's plan is besides crossing their fingers and hoping one of Sogaard, Mando, or Merilainen 'become good' at some point.