Just in my opinion, Brannstrom has never been given a good opportunity with Ottawa to excel yet. I find it unfair to call the Stone trade a bad one (even though I do believe more should have come Ottawa's way) because Stone had no intentions of signing in Ottawa and was a free agent that year. On top of that, the article says that other, better offers had been placed on the table but what were they? And maybe they would have been busts.
After watching every single Sens game this past season, I found that when given the opportunity, Brannstrom was the best defenseman on the ice; even more so than Chabot to be honest. I think the coaching staff needs to get their heads out of their asses and start trusting these young guys, like they did at the end of last season (10-3-1 to finish out the season), and Dorion has to stop bringing in washed up veterans. Let the boys play and grow and let Brannstrom show us what he can do because he is a very good hockey player.
Also, I hate the +/- stat, but for anyone who does like it, Brannstrom was a +3 on the season for a (generally) losing team.
- Sage

Fair enough! I just think for a smaller player, he needs to win more 50/50 puck battles, while advancing his skating and puck handling ability on the rush. If he can make more consistent/better decisions he might get that chance that he hasn't received from DJ Smith on a nightly basis.

Brannstrom was drafted 15th overall, not 3rd.
- PavohnDatsvares

Yes you are correct! Miro Heiskanen was 3rd overall that year, with Cale Makar at 4th.

What is crazy from that 1st round is that Vegas had three 1st round picks that year and all 3 have been traded away. Cody Glass at #6, Nick Suzuki at #13, Brannstrom at #15. Plus Josh Norris went #19, now a Sen!

Ottawa also drafted Drake Batherson that year in the 4th round!!

Zibanejad was the worse trade in my opinion
Pageau was a one of the top trades a 1st 2nd and conditioning 3rd for a 3rd line Center 😯

Just think we could of had 😯

Tkachuk Zibby Batherson
Stutzle Norris Sokolov
Paul Tierny Brown
Formenton White Watson

Since that won’t happen now we trade these for Eichel

White
Brannstrom
L.Brown
2022 1st 2023 2nd
Conditioning 2022 3rd if make playoffs
Conditioning 2023 1st if we win cup

Tkachuk Eichel Batherson
Stutzle Norris Sokolov
Paul Teirny Brown
Formenton Greig Watson

Chabot Del Zotto
Mete Zub
Holden Brown
- sens4life1971

Agreed on Zibby and Pageau! But please, not a chance Ottawa trades for Eichel, I just dont see it.

As we all know, PD’s background and strength is drafting, and I’d say that his best trades were the ones that resulted in draft selections. His assessment of existing players always seems odd to me, seems he undervalues players on the team and over values other teams players - especially vets with a reputation of being good (even if it’s in the past). Perhaps this is why PM was brought in to help with. Time to build a winner and PD will need A few experienced NHLers to surround the young core. Bad trades moving forward will hurt at this point.
- CaliNewf

Well said! No doubt Dorion excels in drafting. He has whiffed on some free agent signings too, where he valued players that weren't worth the contracts they signed. Having McGuire in the fold should only help Ottawa!

Yes you are correct! Miro Heiskanen was 3rd overall that year, with Cale Makar at 4th.

What is crazy from that 1st round is that Vegas had three 1st round picks that year and all 3 have been traded away. Cody Glass at #6, Nick Suzuki at #13, Brannstrom at #15. Plus Josh Norris went #19, now a Sen!

Ottawa also drafted Drake Batherson that year in the 4th round!!
- Kevin Francis

In 2014 the 1st four picks were Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl and Bennet. Panthers are ready for prime time. How long before the Panthers try and make make a pitch for Draisaitl to finish off the complete sweep?

Agreed on Zibby and Pageau! But please, not a chance Ottawa trades for Eichel, I just dont see it.
- Kevin Francis

I agree on Eichel. But, because of their cap space and depth of prospects, I do see a strong possibility of Ottawa being the third man in on a three way deal where Eichel gets moved to another team (eg. Rangers, Anaheim, Calgary).

I'm warming up to the idea of Eichel playing for the sens as long as the sens can get Buffalo to retain 2 mil on his contract.

If you give Tkachuk the C and Chabot and Paul the A's and just let Eichel be a dominant 1st line center for the senators with no pressure to lead the team emotionally he would be great for us.

I think Eichel is the best chance Ottawa has at getting a great 1st line centre given that Buffalo has so little leverage and Ottawa has so many pieces they can trade away that would be legitimately good for Buffalo to pick up for their future.

Agreed on Zibby and Pageau! But please, not a chance Ottawa trades for Eichel, I just dont see it.
- Kevin Francis

I don't know... even Garrioch was writing about the Senators starting to inquire about Eichel on the weekend, and I don't agree that it's anywhere close to "not a chance" territory. You really have to look at the team's expected competitive window. They have maybe a 5yr window in place, before even well-planned bridge contracts won't be able to delay long-term decisions (and necessary trades, in some cases) for players like Stutzle, Norris, Bernard-Docker, Sanderson, Pinto, and Formenton. That just happens to be exactly the length of Eichel's contract, meaning that he would provide maximum roster quality for the entire duration of that initial competitive window, and quite frankly might even turn what is now their biggest roster weakness into one of their biggest strengths.

It may not be likely, but I think dismissing it out of hand is quite wrong.

New piece up! I will try to reply to comments tonight. Thanks!

As for Dorion's major trades...

- they may have botched the "buy" when it came to Brassard, but they nailed the "sell"... getting both Gustavsson and Bernard-Docker was a very solid return, and remain key pieces of the rebuild

- the Duchene trade didn't turn out well, but at least Dorion took a shot... at the end of the day (from the Senators' perspective), it was really Duchene for Byram, where they got 2yrs of Duchene, plus Thomson

- the Karlsson deal became lopsided when one of the 1st/2nd/2nd round picks became early picks in those rounds... a #3 overall pick that was known to be Byfield/Stutzle would have been a quality return on its own, especially given Karlsson's decline and the remaining 6yrs of $11.5M AAV

As was noted, Dorion's best play was not to over-commit to any of these players, and get into the trap of 7yr/8yr deals that are already problematic... even Stone, who as much as everyone likes him, may not wind up being good value for the money in the last 6yrs of his deal at $9.5M AAV.