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Sens Gameday/Vegas players to target?!

January 13, 2022, 1:35 PM ET [48 Comments]
Kevin Francis
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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We finally get to watch the Ottawa Senators play a game tonight! It'll be their first game since Jan. 1st and only their 2nd game since December 18th. I will be back with a postgame blog as always and it will be very interesting to see what DJ Smith does with TOI for his blueline. It's something I'll be watching closely to see if DJ and Pierre Dorion were truthful in saying it was youth movement time last month.

This brings me to a couple of personnel topics for Sens fans. With the Vegas Golden Knights needing to shed salary in the next month for salary cap reasons, now that Jack Eichel is officially taking part in team activities, who would you want to possibly acquire? Naturally, Vegas would love to unload Dadonov but Ottawa won't be helping them on that one. Brayden McNabb at 2.5 million left this season before becoming a UFA would be ideal in terms of seeing if he would fit in on the blueline past this season. He wouldn't be a veteran that was past his prime, he could actually help the youth coming up within the organization. Reilly Smith would be the most ideal player to acquire, a forward who can play multiple positions and he would fit into the top 6 with the Sens. Thoughts Sens fans?

I've been looking back to the UFA signings that Sens GM Pierre Dorion has made in almost 6 years as GM of this team. Over the past few years, to say his track record is dreadful would be an understatement. Evgeny Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk, Michael Del Zotto, Ron Hainsey, when Matt Murray was acquired Dorion gave him a ridiculous contract a year before he became a UFA, instead of waiting to see if he would be a good fit. He did sign Artem Zub, so we have to give him credit for that successful signing but you can't have one good UFA signing for every five bad signings, not in this league when you are graded on success. I'm sure Sens fans can post in the comment section other UFA signings that come to mind by Dorion!

With only a few Sens games over the last month, it got me to think what players have been either a disappointment or a surprise this season in Ottawa.

Surprises so far -
Anton Forsberg - A career journeyman who has been waived 3 or 4 times I believe. He played well enough last year after being claimed off waivers and he's coupled that into a nice start to the year this season.

Drake Batherson - After signing the 5 year extension, he has taken another jump in his development in leading the team in scoring!

Tyler Ennis - signed for one year off his PTO, he knows his role, knows his strengths and doesn't operate outside of that realm. Does anyone realize he's 7th in scoring on the team with 12 pts?!

Disappoints so far -
Connor Brown - Back-to-back 20 goal season in Ottawa, he's going to have a hard time duplicating those numbers.

Matt Murray - This one goes without saying.

Nick Paul - After a strong season last year, he's struggled big time and at one point hadn't scored in 17 games.

Chris Tierney - Most of his offensive production came in October and since then, he's been awful!

Players that are who we thought they would be - Nikita Zaitsev
Sens fan, who would you add to these lists. I'm also curious to hear from Sens fans in the comment section about what they expect to see tonight with the current lineup?

Thanks for reading and enjoy the game tonight.

Kevin
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