Ottawa Senators: Wishlist for the Upcoming Season

With Christmas and Senators hockey fastly approaching, fans should wish for these events to transpire

With a ton of new additions and subtractions in the offseason and even more young players coming into the mould, it’s shaping up to be a unique, exciting season for the Senators.

A Tim Stuetzle ELC

With recent news developing around Stuetzle‘s contract situation, it appeared as though it was likely that he would head back to Mannheim following the World Juniors, but Bruce Garrioch has restored some faith in the situation:

While some people have been led to believe the contrary, we should be prepared for Stuetzle to join the Senators after the World Juniors.

While some believe it would be best for Stuetzle to spend another year with Mannheim, personally  I think the sooner he gets to North America the better. His goal once he was selected by Ottawa was to play in the NHL and there should be nothing standing in the way of that possibility. He easily becomes the team’s second-most talented forward and instantly adds excitement to the roster that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

One aspect of the game where the Senators’ 3rd-overall pick would immediately help the roster is on the power-play. Struggling with the man advantage throughout the whole season, finishing last in the NHL, adding Stuetzle on the first unit alongside Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot would bolster their offensive firepower.

A Consistent Matt Murray

Ottawa has finally reached a new era in the net and it’s led by the newly acquired, two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray.

In the last three seasons, the Senators have been stuck with an ageing Craig Anderson who was constantly peppered by pucks and just couldn’t hold up with the porous team in front of him. Now with a new direction of the team, comes a new goalie and one that will hopefully regain his past form.

When the Penguins decided to roll with Matt Murray after his early career success and leave the veteran Marc-Andre Fleury to the expansion draft, they definitely didn’t expect to trade him in just a few years, but his play warranted change and was outplayed by their new starter Tristan Jarry.

Murray was really good in 2018-19, posting a respectable 0.919 SV% and a 2.69 GAA, solidfying himself as one of the better goalies in the NHL and at the age of 25, the sky was the limit. Fastforward just a season later, Murray was now out of favour in Pittsburgh as he posted a 0.899 SV% and a 2.87 GAA, easily his worst season in the NHL.

Now with a new opportunity in Ottawa, Murray will try to regain his form from just a couple of years ago and re-solidify himself as one of the better goalies in the league, and at just 26-years-old he hasn’t even reached his prime.

A Healthy Season for Logan Brown

Throughout his professional career, Logan Brown has been great whenever he’s on the ice but the only problem has been actually getting on the ice. Multiple nagging injuries have plagued Brown’s first two seasons against men, playing just 106 games over the last two seasons (81 in the AHL, 25 in the NHL), and has produced at an exceptional level in the AHL. Brown’s 70 points in 81 games in the AHL since transferring to professional hockey highlights his tremendous offensive upside, he just needs a fully healthy, productive season to establish himself as an NHLer.

Basically splitting last season between the NHL and AHL, appearing in 23 NHL games and 25 games in the AHL and his 28 points in those games with Belleville should leave Brown with little left to prove to the organization as far as his play in the minors goes.

With a great chance on one of the more accessable rosters in the NHL, Brown has to crack the lineup, despite being just 22-years-old he needs to become the big, top-9 centreman the Senators thought they had when they picked him 11th overall in 2016.