Ottawa Senators: Predicting the Opening Day Roster
By Daniel Bruce
Right Defence
Artem Zub, Nikita Zaitsev, Nick Holden, Josh Brown
Led by the 25-year-old free agent signing by way of Russia in the 2020 offseason, the defensive-minded rearguard made his presence felt last season by being the team’s best defenceman not named Thomas Chabot. Zub was able to thrive regardless of what player he was partnered with, his stabling presence meshed perfectly with Mike Reilly, and the two of them formed a surprisingly efficient second-pairing up until Reilly was dealt to Boston. Following the trade-deadline Zub was paired with the aforementioned Erik Brannstrom, to nobodies surprise the two found success, and both were great during the Senators hot finish to the season. Zub was able to produce offensively too, recording 14 points in 47 games in his rookie NHL season.
Artem Zub, extended 2x$2.5M by OTT, was a quite effective low-event defensive defenceman at even strength and on the PK in his rookie season. #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/FdlDAgeZwz
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 14, 2021
Zub plays a very simple, efficient game and if he can keep playing his low-event, defensive style of hockey he should be a strong compliment to Thomas Chabot.
Entering his third season as an Ottawa Senator, Nikita Zaitsev will find himself playing the role of “shutdown” defenceman on the team’s second-pairing. Zaitsev is always going to be a player that’s never favoured by advanced stats, his decisions with the puck are often questionable and he struggles with consistency at times. Starting Zaitsev on the second-pairing seems like the correct move, allow a much better compliment to Chabot (Zub) take the first-pairing, while he takes the reigns alongside Michael Del Zotto on the shutdown pair.
It seems likely that the Senators will carry 7 defenceman onto the opening-day roster this season, and it appears the bottom-pair may be used in a platoon deployment. Veteran defenceman Nick Holden likely doesn’t factor in as an every game option, and that will likely be the same for Josh Brown. Holden put up very respectable numbers in Vegas last season and is a much better player than Brown:
Nick Holden, traded to OTT, has almost always put up excellent results in depth minutes. Whenever I post his card it really bothers the fans of whatever team he's on so seems to be an eye test vs. numbers thing. #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/fLI3yaQm1i
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 28, 2021
Despite being a left-shot, Holden has the versatility to play on both sides of the ice and up-and-down the lineup, expect to see the veteran defenceman used in multiple different roles throughout the season.