The Daily Faceoff Show: Brent Wallace talks about the Ottawa Senators current situation
The Ottawa Senators have plenty of decisions to make at both the trade deadline and the offseason, as they look to try and finally turn the corner and become a competitive team.
Frank Seravalli and Chris Gear brought on Brent Wallace to talk about that and more on today’s Daily Faceoff Show.
Frank Seravalli: “You think about the Sens as they get closer to the deadline, and what stands out to you as their number one priority? You heard Pierre Dorion mention they’re not sure how much they want to be involved in the sellers game, but when you look at it, it seems like Nick Paul’s a guy who really stands out. Staying or going?”
Brent Wallace: “Obviously it’s the biggest question. Pierre Dorion has talked a lot about how Nick Paul does everything, he’s a disciple, he’s exactly what we want, we can move him anywhere in the lineup.
Are they going to pay him? He’s a UFA, are they going to give him roughly maybe $3 million a year? I don’t know. But, I don’t know if they got anybody in the lineup right now or on their roster that can fill that spot. He does a lot of things. He’s very valuable to this team. He’s the longest serving Senator at the moment.
If they can find someone to fill his spot in their organization, then fine, but I’m not sure they can. I’d like to see them keep Nick Paul. I can understand if they move on based on the dollar amount.”
Chris Gear: “Frank referenced the Pierre Dorion quote about how they want to see this as the last year where they might have to be a seller. We know Ottawa’s got a great young core, with Tkachuk, Batherson, Norris, and Chabot. What do they need to do in order to take that next step so that next year they’re actually a competitive team and on the cusp of getting into the playoffs, versus another season where they’re looking to be sellers?”
Brent Wallace: “It’s going to start on the blue line. They just don’t have a physical blue line. They’ve got talent coming in Jake Sanderson, and possibly Tyler Kleven and Jacob Bernard-Docker, but, as I use my partner on the show here, they don’t have a Marc Methot. They don’t have a guy who’s going to thump you around and make you think about coming down the left side, which they used to always have. That’s a big issue for Ottawa, they’re soft on the back end.
They’re also questionable in goal. Matt Murray hasn’t been very good. He’s played better as of late, but he certainly hasn’t been what they were expecting when they signed him. And now they have a question about Anton Forsberg and now as the trade deadline approaches, he’s an RFA. He has the most wins, he’s got 11 of their 19 wins. Do they try to sign Anton Forsberg, or because they’ve got Filip Gustavsson next year on a one-way deal, are they going to have to go with Matt Murry and Filip Gustavsson, and let Anton Forsberg go? That’s a big question mark.
They need better goaltending, they need someone on the back end, and they need a top six forward. So really, they don’t need much.”
Frank Seravalli: “Pierre Dorion did say a couple weeks ago that another one of his goals for the deadline is to try and get this roster as reasonably set as possible for next year. He felt like some of the turnover maybe contributed to the team’s tough start this year. What would you like to see from this group, not in terms of acquisitions or setting the roster, but what needs to happen in order to get this team in that competitive spot?
Because you look at just the way this season has unfolded, these last six weeks it feels like they’re kind of turning the corner, but every time you say, they win two, there’s a two or three game losing skid, I guess that’s just the nature of where the Sens are at at the moment? But what needs to change, what do you need to see?”
Brent Wallace: “It’s interesting that you talk about that start when they had a healthy lineup minus Shane Pinto and Colin White. Now at the end, when they’re actually playing .500 hockey, they’re without Drake Batherson and Josh Norris, two of their top players, and they didn’t have Thomas Chabot for four games, and over a 13 game stretch, they were .500 hockey.
So, I’m not sure you can use those injuries at the beginning, and you look at Matt Murry who was out at the beginning, as excuses. I think they’ve got a pretty good core. They’re going to get Colin White back here shortly, probably within the next week or so. Drake Batherson is scheduled to return within a month. Josh Norris is skating, but I don’t know how close he is. They need to see those guys, and where they all fit in, but they still have a void in a top six forward as I mentioned.
And I don’t know what they’re going to do with Erik Brannstrom on the back end. I don’t know that they keep him, because I don’t know that they have a spot for him. So are they going to see Jake Sanderson come into this lineup this year and play, and see where he fits in, and does Erik Brannstrom either go down to the AHL, or is he going to get moved?”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, I’d love to see Jake Sanderson get in the lineup, but tough Olympics for him, with COVID and the injury that he sustained right as soon as he got to Beijing.
Quickly on Matt Murray, his play has turned around of late, obviously dealing with some personal stuff again. Just on a scale of one to ten, what’s you confidence level in Murray?”
Brent Wallace: “That’s the million dollar question, because he can look really good, and he can look really pedestrian very quickly, and he hasn’t had a stretch here this year for the most part where he’s been consistently in the lineup for a really long time. He’s had a concussion, COVID, personal issues, his wife just had a second child, that’s why he missed the last start.
There always seems to be something that keeps him out of the lineup, there just isn’t that consistency. I don’t know that they’re going to get that from him anytime soon. I’d like to see him down the stretch and put it all together, but that’s a huge question mark, and we just haven’t seen it in the first two seasons that Matt Murray’s been an Ottawa Senator.”
Frank Seravalli: “It’s not the one million dollar question, it’s the $6.25 million question for the Sens, and definitely their cap moving forward with Matt Murray. It impacts what they do with Forsberg and others when it comes to the deadline.”
You can listen to the full episode below.