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Ottawa Senators: Erik Brannstrom playing well in Switzerland

By Ricky Miller

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 04: Erik Brannstrom #26 of the Ottawa Senators skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on November 04, 2019 in New York City. The Senators defeated the Rangers 6-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 04: Erik Brannstrom #26 of the Ottawa Senators skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on November 04, 2019 in New York City. The Senators defeated the Rangers 6-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Brief background

Coming as a result of the Mark Stone trade is Erik Brannstrom. A Swedish 21-year old 5’10 defender who was drafted 15th overall in the 2017 draft by the Vegas Golden Knights. Currently playing in Europe, he is an offensive puck-moving defenceman who exhibits excellent skating skills.

Brannstrom has been producing well and has a star probability of 73% per Bryon Bader’s model. Many would say that such a model makes a good comparison with Mathieu Schneider, which is not bad!

2019-20 season

SenShot editor Daniel Bruce mentioned in his article that Brannstrom is expected to take a big step this upcoming season. It was a pretty solid last season, with a CF% of 48.3  which was 4th among Senators defencemen (with at least 30 games played). CF% is short for Corsi-for and this determines how much the play was controlled with the player on the ice. Keep in mind that a CF% of more than 50% means the team was controlling the puck more when he was on the ice. For a player that hasn’t played many games in the NHL, that is quite impressive. In the AHL, he had 0.85 ppg (23 points in 27 games) and made plays like this:

This year

As of now, he is playing for the SCL Tigers in the National League (The top Swiss league). He has 7 points in 9 games, which is tied for the lead in points for his team. Although he is tied for 1st, he has 7 points in 9 games (0.78 ppg) while the player he’s tied with in points has played 2 more games. This is pretty impressive for Brannstrom, showing that he is the star player for his team. His team isn’t that good, being a -18, which is the worst in the league. They are 2nd last but only 1 point ahead of the last team with 3 more games played, so the SCL Tigers aren’t exactly a powerhouse.

Here are his shots and TOI stats from this season:

Here is a video of his OT snipe, which was just beautiful!:

https://twitter.com/SensProspects/status/1317212697784705024

Here is a video of him on a rush, using his skating ability to set up the GWG!

Conclusion

As Brannstrom’s team (SCL Tigers) is one of the weaker ones in the league, it is important that he continues to play well. Playing on a weak team could be beneficial though, as he could have more ice time and more opportunities. Hopefully, he can continue playing well and dominate this league showing that he is the ‘Brannchise’.

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