Ottawa Senators Report Cards: Josh Brown

Brown struggled with consistency in his first season with Ottawa

Acquired by the Senators for a fourth-round pick in last year’s offseason, Josh Brown faced plenty of criticism, most of it warranted due to his poor play however,  he did end off the season with some promising momentum.

Previous Report Cards

Ryan Dzingel | Evgenii Dadonov | Connor Brown | Erik Brannstrom | Drake Batherson

2020-21 Season Stats

26GP, 0G-1A-1P, 8 shots, 71 hits, 14:08 TOI/GP

82-game pace: 0G-3A-3P, 25 shots, 224 hits

Early in the season, the 27-year-old didn’t stand a chance as he was mainly paired with Braydon Coburn when he’d draw into the lineup, the sheer lack of mobility the Senators had on their back end was plaguing the team.

Brown was stapled to the press-box after just 9 games to start the season, missing nearly a month of action, returning on March 12th and he would rarely be excluded from the lineup for the remainder of the season. D.J. Smith trotted out Brown for the remaining 15 games of the season despite drawing the ayre on Senators fans everywhere for not playing Jacob Bernard-Docker (which he should have), but Brown did show signs of improvement in the season’s final stretch.

Despite some of the deficiencies that the former Oshawa General brings to the table, he did play the role that D.J. Smith wanted as the 6’5″ defenceman threw 71 hits which ranked 10th on the Senators despite just playing half the games. His 12.34 hits/60 ranked 3rd on the Senators behind just Austin Watson and Brady Tkachuk, combine that with his 2 fighting majors and it’s quite clear the edge that the defensive defenceman plays with.