Placing Ottawa Senators Skaters Into Tiers

Great

Players: Tim Stützle, Drake Batherson, Connor Brown, Artem Zub

Out of these four players in the “great” category, you can realistically expect a couple of them to make the jump to “elite” as soon as next season.

Tim Stützle likely has the most talent on the Senators roster, but he isn’t quite ready to be regarded as an elite player, he has to fine-tune the rest of his game, and then he can be discussed among the Tkachuk’s, Chabot’s and Norris’s. Stützle had an up-and-down season where at times he looked fatigued while showing some glaring holes in his defensive game, something that he worked to clean up as the season winded down. With all of that being said, the 19-year-old still scored 12 goals and put up 29 points in 53 games, cementing himself as a top-contributor this early into his career.

Drake Batherson, who’s one-third of the Senators’ top-line that includes Josh Norris and Brady Tkachuk, looks to have cemented himself as the top-option coming off the left-wing. Concluding the season with 17 goals and 34 points in 56 games and the team-leader in power-play points with 16, Batherson gave us a nice glimpse into his future with the Senators, likely as a top-six scoring winger.

Easily the most defensively inclined out of the forwards in the “great” tier, Connor Brown was one of the better surprises of the season and contributed in a variety of roles for D.J. Smith. Relied upon on both the power-play and the penalty-kill, Brown was able to put up a team-leading 21 goals (thanks to his 8-game goal streak) and 35 points in 56 games. The 27-year-old also added an NHL-high 5 shorthanded goals to his efforts, he and Nick Paul made a formidable duo while a man down.

Maybe a bit of a surprise to appear this early on the list, Artem Zub’s consistent, calm play warranted his inclusion in the “great” tier. He was able to stabilize whichever partner he played with, this includes his great run with Mike Reilly up until the trade deadline, then Zub and Erik Brannstrom were able to create a very solid second pair. Also relied upon significantly on the penalty-kill, Zub consistently flashed his great defensive game combined with the physical style he plays with every night. With all that being said, my favourite aspect of Zub’s game is the calmness he has with the puck in his own end, he seems to make the correct outlet every time and the Senators were able to break the puck out a lot more effectively in large part because of Zub.