Two pre-deadline day deals signal the arrival of the Senators youth movement
In two moves made late last night #PierreAfterDark struck once again when he dealt his two veteran defencemen for draft capital in the 2022 NHL Draft.
The Trades
Mike Reilly was one of the more polarizing Senators prior to the trade deadline since there were rumblings of a potential extension to keep the 27-year-old defenceman in Ottawa, but that never materialized.
This move is one of the rare instances where Pierre Dorion displayed good asset management as he acquired Reilly for a 5th round pick last season and in a year’s time was able to flip him for a 3rd round pick. The ability for Dorion to get a year of solid play from Reilly and then proceed to get a net positive in terms of draft capital is exactly the philosophy the team should have used at this timeline in the rebuild.
Reilly was quietly having a really strong season for the Senators and formed a sound duo with his partner Artem Zub:
Mike Reilly, acquired by BOS, is a quite effective offensive defenceman who has had pretty remarkable underlying results since joining the Ottawa Senators. His transition skills are strong, awesome offence-driving and primary assist rates too. #LetsGoBruins pic.twitter.com/4K8TnOHBmX
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) April 12, 2021
His 19 assists rank him within the top-40 among all NHL defensemen combined with his top-tier on-ice metrics made him the Senators 2nd best defender this season.
But, Reilly was never going to be part of the Senators core for the future as Thomas Chabot and Erik Brannstrom are much more valuable pieces and with Jake Sanderson likely coming in late next season they’re all better, younger options. However, for the remainder of the season, the Senators will likely need to acquire another competent NHL left-shot defenceman and everyone has their eyes on the recently waived Montreal Canadien rearguard Victor Mete as a potential fit.
Braydon Coburn 36, was acquired prior to the 2020-21 NHL season by the Senators and played a steady role in the 16 games he appeared in, accumulating 2 assists.
Fans won’t have to worry about Coburn seeing the ice instead of Erik Brannstrom anymore either, so this trade is a win in more ways than one.
These two moves pave the way for Erik Brannstrom and the recently signed Jacob Bernard-Docker to hold down prominent roles on the backend for the remainder of the season, a must for a Senators team trying to see what they have in their young prospects.
After Bernard-Docker gets some NHL games under his belt hopefully D.J. Smith can try these pairings:
Thomas Chabot-Jacob Bernard-Docker
Erik Brannstrom-Artem Zub
Victor Mete-Nikita Zaitsev
With only 14 games remaining on the NHL schedule for the Senators if they can get a sense of whether Chabot and Bernard-Docker have the makings of a future number one pairing.