The Ottawa Senators might not win too many games during the 2019-20 season, but fans should be optimistic. Here are five players worth getting excited about.
The Ottawa Senators are likely going to be a terrible team in 2019-20. Perhaps not as terrible as they were in 2018-19. But still, it will be by design. The Senators are rebuilding. Right now, they simply don’t have what it takes to keep up with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, and Toronto Maple Leafs
However, their rebuild is going along fairly well. They have one of the best prospect pipelines in the NHL and have a plethora of draft picks in the upcoming drafts. The Senators have five picks in the first 62 selections of the 2020 NHL Draft and four in the top 62 in 2021.
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Even though the 2019-20 season will likely feature a lot of losing, as they say, “no pain, no gain”. There are still players worth getting excited for. The Senators have players who they should be able to build a competitive team around in the near future. Let’s take a look at five players Sens fans should be excited about.
Thomas Chabot
Thomas Chabot eased the Senators pain after the Erik Karlsson trade. The trade allowed him to get more playing time and he ran with it. With 55 points last season, Chabot finished 10th in points among defensemen. At 22 years old, he was the youngest defensemen in the top 10 in points by three years.
Furthermore, Chabot was effective even when he didn’t have the puck. His relative underlying numbers were among the best in the NHL, meaning he tilted the ice in the Senators favor whenever he was on the ice.
While Chabot will likely face some regression in 2019-20 (the Senators had a 10.48% shooting percentage at five-on-five with him on the ice last season), his underlying stats prove that he’s the real deal.