Ottawa Senators: Top 3 burning questions for 2019 season

Question #3: Who is going to score goals for the Ottawa Senators?

The Ottawa Senators finished 17th in the League in goals scored last season, with Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Mark Stone accounting for 77 of the 242 goals scored. That’s a pretty big chunk of goals taken out, but the organization is going to have to rely on young players to graduate to the NHL and produce in order to remain competitive on most nights.

Of the returning forwards on the roster, only Bobby Ryan and Brady Tkachuk scored 15 goals or more last season. The addition of Artem Anisimov in exchange for Zack Smith should help provide a little more offence compared to what Zack Smith had been providing for the last few seasons. Other than that, players are going to have to keep progressing.

Players like Colin White, who scored 14 goals last season. White is going to need to be closer to the 20-goal mark if this team is going to win some games. A full season of Anthony Duclair should help provide some decent offence as well. Duclair, who came over at the trade deadline last season, recently signed a one-year contract to remain in Ottawa. Duclair had 8 goals in 14 games with the Senators after the trade deadline, which brought him to 19 goals on the season. Realistically, I think fans can expect Duclair to score anywhere from 15 to 25 goals next season. God knows the team is going to need him to.

With Drake Batherson expected to graduate to NHL duties on a more full-time basis this season, he should be able to help provide fans with goals to cheer for. If this team is to play fast-paced and energetic, like the General Manager and Head Coach wants them to play, then someone somewhere is going to need to score goals. Fast-paced hockey is great, but if the team struggles to score goals I wonder if the coaching staff is going to be tempted to going away from that and playing a stauncher defensive style? I sincerely hope not, we went through three years of Guy Boucher hockey here in Ottawa, we don’t need any more of that!

Needless to say that this will be an interesting season for the Ottawa Senators and the fanbase. The team has said that the building part of the rebuild is underway, which means we need to start seeing improvements with the on-ice product, night in and night out. It also goes without saying that there is a very strong chance that we are not done seeing roster turnover, with eight players on the current roster who are slated to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. On top of that, the Senators also have six players slated to become restricted free agents, one of which is Thomas Chabot so hopefully that number goes from six to five before the end of the season. I don’t think this fanbase could handle losing Erik Karlsson and Thomas Chabot in under two years!

Hopefully, the management group and coaching staff have the team on the right path to success. The fanbase sure could go without any negativity for a while, so let’s hope it keeps going this way. Hopefully, the fans can enjoy a season where we see improvement with the on-ice product, all while knowing that there are very good chances that the team will once again finish at the bottom of the standings. At least this time the team owns their first-round pick! One last thing: remember the power of positivity! This fanbase sometimes gets stuck in a rut of negativity and that’s not good for anyone! Alright, go back to enjoying your summer!

Let us know what your thoughts are for the upcoming season in the comment section below! Are you expecting more of the same from last year, or can there be improvements?