Ottawa Senators Season Preview: Defencemen

Previewing the defencemen for the upcoming season of Senators hockey

With multiple additions to the defensive core this offseason, the Senators will an intriguing unit led by some fresh faces, but does this necessarily mean it’s a better group than last season? My first indications are yes. While Mark Borowiecki and Ron Hainsey both left in the summer, neither turn the needle in terms of on-ice play, so their impact shouldn’t be felt too much in terms of quality of play.

The Senators brought in Josh Brown, Erik Gudbranson and Artem Zub to add veteran bodies and size to their right-side and they succeeded in that. The biggest addition for this season wasn’t someone acquired by the team via trade or free agency but is actually Christian Wolanin’s return after he missed the majority of last season with a shoulder injury. I think if the team wants to get the most out of their d-core, placing Wolanin on the 2nd pairing with a player like Josh Brown would serve the team well.

The first pairing seems all but solidified with Thomas Chabot and Erik Gudbranson supplanted at the top, while it appears the rest will be jostling for position prior to opening night on Friday. Players such as Erik Brannstrom, Mike Reilly and Zub shouldn’t be lost in the fray either as they will likely be seeing their fair share of ice-time this season.

First Pairing

Left Side: Thomas Chabot

No surprises here, Chabot is the crown jewel on the back end and will have another chance to lead the NHL in ice-time much like he did last season. Still trying to find a competent partner after the Chabot-Zaitsev pairing was hot garbage last season, Erik Gudbranson now steps in for a trial.

Chabot’s pedestrian numbers last season can be attributed to multiple things; defensive partners, lack of talent around him, the quality of the team last season didn’t help him in the least. A drop in production of 16 points from the year prior to just 39 points last season shouldn’t leave people worried, as the team improves through the rebuild Chabot will likely exceed his career highs.

The quarterback on a much-improved Senators powerplay unit this season, Chabot likely crushes his totals produced last season, at least on a per-game basis. This group of players is just filthy:

Chabot’s career projection is taking a similar trajectory to that of Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson:

There’s no doubt Chabot is a star defenceman in the NHL and likely throughout the remainder of the decade.

2020-21 Prediction: 56GP 9G 32A 41P

Right Side: Erik Gudbranson

Chabot’s new running mate, Gudbranson has obviously impressed throughout camp and has given coach D.J. Smith no choice but to place him alongside the team’s star defenceman.

Gudbranson had a slight career revival last season when he was traded to Anaheim to play with Cam Fowler, his metrics were better than his previous seasons, but he is far from a hot commodity.

Everything about Gudbranson screams “replacement level”, he’s big and there’s not much else to say about him, however, it’s likely he will be more effective than Nikita Zaitsev was last season.

Not known for his offensive acumen, Gudbranson has a career-high of 13 points and has only surpassed 10 points once. A UFA at the end of the season and unless he acts as a surprisingly good partner for Chabot, he’s likely a good trade chip at the deadline.

2020-21 Prediction: 52GP 2G 4A 6P

Nikita Zaitsev

The worst defenceman on the team last season and don’t look for that to change in 2020-21. Zaitsev’s metrics don’t paint a pretty picture and neither does the eye test and at four more seasons at $4.5 million he’s likely not going anywhere.

Zaitsev’s heat map is unsurprisingly poor:

Creating little to no offence while giving up countless scoring opportunities in his own end, I’m not trying to beat a dead horse but I don’t expect things to change this upcoming season (*prays for third-pair minutes*)

2020-21 Prediction: 56GP 1G 7A 8P

Mike Reilly

There’s undoubtedly going to be some jostling on the bottom pair hence why I used “The Rest” as the header. Reilly should be getting a regular shift over Braydon Coburn and should be used as a filler until Erik Brannstrom can make the jump permanently to the NHL.

Reilly was fine last season after he joined the Senators, producing 12 points in 30 games and actually filled his role quite admirably. Regardless he’s a player who doesn’t move the needle and will likely be pressed for playing time as the season winds on.

2020-21 Prediction: 34GP 2G 6A 8P

 Braydon Coburn

Making the official roster as the likely 7th defenceman, Coburn offers veteran leadership, size and not much else. While he did win the cup last season with Tampa Bay he was a non-factor in the playoffs, routinely being a healthy scratch.

Look for Coburn to play sparingly, likely filling in for any injuries on the back end.

2020-21 Prediction: 10GP 0G 0A 0P

Erik Brannstrom

Brannstrom did miss the original roster, but the fact that he missed basically the first week of training camp as a bubble player didn’t do him any favours. It would surprise nobody if he tears up the AHL and ends up coming back up to the NHL to take one of the players listed above spots.

His play in Switzerland while on loan was outstanding and I can’t see Brannstrom lasting more than 15 or 20 games with Belleville.

2020-21 Prediction: 22GP 3G 9A 12P

Taxi Squad: Jonathan Aspirot, Artem Zub