Steve Staios’ Decisions Have Led to a Shallow Defensive Group

Last season, Ottawa Senators defensemen scored an impressive 47 goals. The problem is that the Senators allowed the seventh most goals in the NHL. They struggled in their own zone, they had a bottom five penalty kill, and they didn’t make things very hard for their opponents in the dirty areas. Steve Staios made a few offseason decisions to try to move the Senators defense in the right direction. 24 games in, it hasn’t exactly worked out. Let’s dive into Steve Staios’ d-men decisions.

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Jensen In, Chychrun Out

This trade has worked out for both teams. Chychrun has scored eight goals and 15 points in 19 games this season. Jensen has often been the Senators best defenseman. He’s given the team much needed help on their right side,  providing the work ethic and physicality that was missing last season. His steady presence has been great for Thomas Chabot. Some people would’ve preferred trading Chychrun for futures, and then signing a right shot d-man, like Matt Roy, in free agency. The two problems with that are assuming that the top free agents were interested in Ottawa, and that the price tag for the top d-men in free agency was a decent amount higher than the $4.05 million that Jensen is making for this year and next. Given the Senators tight cap, this turned out to be a solid move by Staios.

Kleven in, Brannstrom Out

When Steve Staios chose not to qualify Brannstrom, it was no surprise. It’s also not a surprise to see Brannstrom playing well in a depth role with the Vancouver Canucks. He had been a decent depth player for the Senators over the last few seasons. Keep in mind, that the qualifying offer for the Senators would’ve been $2 million, while the Canucks are paying him $900,000. Staios was looking for a bigger, tougher, better defensive player to play on the left side of the Senators third pair.

The risk he took here was inserting Kleven, a rookie defenseman, into an every game role, with no real competition. It wasn’t like the reports from Belleville last season were that Kleven was too good for that league. Now, it seems like Kleven’s game has slipped. He’s making too many mistakes, whether it be missed coverages or bad turnovers. He provides very little offensively, so he needs to play the role of the physical, defensive d-man. As of now, Green doesn’t even use him on the penalty kill, and he’s not being trusted with many defensive zone starts.

Not Buying Out Hamonic

Had Staios bought out Hamonic, it would’ve been about a $370,000 cap hit for each of the next two seasons. You then have to factor in a replacement, likely costing around $1 million. So this wouldn’t have ended up being a move to save money, seeing as Hamonic earns $1.1 million. The idea would have been to try to find an upgrade on their veteran depth d-man. Hamonic was coming off a poor season where he struggled on the ice and with injuries. Thinking that he would rebound at this point in his career was optimistic.

Hamonic is what he is at this point. He’s willing to battle, but offense dies on his stick, he’s a step too slow, and he’s currently being overplayed by Travis Green. After playing under 15 minutes per game last season, he’s up around 17 minutes this season. That ties into the next issue.

Heavily Relying on Zub, Sanderson, and Chabot

Relying on three defensemen that eat up over $20 million of the team’s cap isn’t the least bit strange. The risk here, was that both Chabot and Zub have battled through their share of injuries, combining to miss 87 games over the previous two seasons. The surrounding depth didn’t inspire a ton of confidence. Kleven’s a rookie, Hamonic was bad last season, and Bernard-Docker is a young player who was put on waivers at the start of the last season. Jensen has worked out well, but even he was a 34 year old coming off a lesser season than normal.

That put a lot on Sanderson’s plate, who unfortunately hasn’t met expectations. Sanderson would likely own up to his own faults this season, but part of the problem is that Zub hasn’t been in the lineup much, which sets up Sanderson to be paired with Hamonic. Would a veteran on a short term, low money contract have made a big difference? Maybe not, but the Staios had a few options that he chose not to take.

Sending Yakemchuk Down

Yakemchuk is one of the best offensive-defenseman prospects in hockey. He showed that in the preseason when he scored two goals and seven points in four games. He’s continued to show that in the WHL, scoring nine goals and 23 points in 20 games. I never thought he would stick around all season, but I felt he earned a few games. Who knows, maybe the added competition could’ve been good for guys like Bernard-Docker and Kleven. Perhaps he could’ve helped out in the early going when Zub went down. The Senators have managed just four goals from their defensemen, putting them on pace for 14. Staios wanted a better defensive group, but that drop-off in offense has been a big problem.

Putting Free Agent Money Into the Forwards

Perron, Amadio, Gregor, and Cousins were all signed in the offseason, eating up $8.25 million of the cap. They’ve combined to score six total goals. Gregor and Cousins both earn less than a million this season. Perron and Amadio, however, were prioritized by Steve Staios. Looking at that now, he would’ve been better served to put more money into the defense.  Here are some of the d-men from this summer’s free agency that signed in the $3-4 million range: Brenden Dillon, Alec Martinez, Joel Edmundson, TJ Brodie, Matt Dumba, Sean Walker, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Ian Cole. Here are some that signed for even cheaper than that: Matt Grzelcyk, Vincent Desharnais,  Brendan Smith, Nate Schmidt, and Calvin de Haan.

Make of that list what you will as I’m sure plenty of those signings would’ve frustrated the fans just like the Perron and Amadio contracts have. The point is, Staios chose to come into this season with a shallow group of defensemen. Given the lack of offense from this group, plus once again struggling with goal prevention, it seems like Steve Staios made a few missteps in the building of his defense. He needs to actively pursue help for the Senators defense before it’s too late.