Again in 2019, the Senators thought they had been including a core piece of the long run once they picked up defenseman Erik Brannstrom from Vegas as a part of the Mark Stone commerce. Whereas he has labored his manner into a daily function, he hasn’t been anyplace close to as impactful as they had been hoping for.
With the group seeking to shake issues up in Steve Staios’ first summer season as GM, it seems as if Brannstrom is among the gamers whose future with the group is in some query. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Sens aren’t positive if they may tender him his required qualifying supply this summer season.
It’s an identical scenario to the one they discovered themselves in a 12 months in the past, albeit with a better price ticket this time round. At the moment, the qualifying supply was tendered with an settlement just about achieved in precept, finalized on July 1 with a contract that greater than doubled his wage to $2M for 2023-24. That determine is now the qualifying supply, whereas he could have arbitration rights, as properly.
Brannstrom performed in a career-best 76 video games this season, selecting up three objectives and 17 assists. He was primarily restricted to enjoying on the third pairing, whereas interim head coach Jacques Martin elected to deploy him as a winger on the fourth line briefly as properly.
These numbers alone may not look nice for arbitration functions however with 69 factors in 266 profession NHL contests, the longer observe file would bolster his case in a listening to.
For the time being, Ottawa already has over $27M dedicated to 6 defensemen for subsequent season, per CapFriendly, with Jake Sanderson’s new contract kicking on this summer season. Ought to they be allocating at the least one other $2M (and sure extra to keep away from a listening to) to that place, or would they be higher off utilizing that cash elsewhere?
Having stated that, in the event that they elect to maneuver a blueliner — Jakob Chychrun has been in commerce hypothesis relationship again to the commerce deadline — then it is likely to be extra justifiable to attempt to give Brannstrom yet one more probability.
As issues stand, they’ve just a little over $12M in room for subsequent season with a handful of roster spots to fill. Pending RFA middle Shane Pinto figures to take a superb chunk of that, so if Staios needs to attempt to add an impression piece to his roster, it might be tough to take action and maintain Brannstrom on the roster with out making some form of different change first.
Accordingly, it is a resolution that might come right down to the wire on the June 30 qualifying supply deadline.
