One big question about Alex DeBrincat with the Ottawa Senators
By Jim Lynch
The Ottawa Senators tried their best to make their team a playoff team this offseason when they traded for Alex DeBrincat and signed Claude Giroux. With those two moves, the team instantly became better. Are they good enough to make the playoffs and contend for a championship? That question is still up in the air.
Another big question still up in the air revolves around the Senators’ big addition of Alex DeBrincat this past offseason. We have seen DeBrincat score many great goals, throughout his career so far, and at just 24 years old, DeBrincat still has a lot of great hockey ahead of him. However, this is one thing to worry about going into this upcoming season.
Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane had some great chemistry on the ice this past season. The duo combined for some highlight reel goals and they made each other better. We have seen Kane lead a team without DeBrincat in the past, and we have seen Kane make his linemates look better than they truly are just by being on his line. Now the question remains whether or not DeBrincat can lead a line without Kane.
Alex DeBrincat has scored 160 goals in his NHL career thus far.
Of those 160 goals over the course of 368 games, Patrick Kane has assisted on 72 of them. That comes out to 45 percent of DeBrincat’s goals in his NHL career being assisted by Kane.
Now there is a chance that all this fear could be for nothing if he goes into Ottawa and replicates his success in Chicago. However, considering DeBrincat scored 45 percent of his goals with Kane impacting the play does bring about some fear about whether or not he can do it again.
Luckily, we won’t have to wait too long before we see DeBrincat in action, considering the preseason starts off later this month. One reason to not worry about DeBrincat is considering the same questions that have been raised about another one of Kane’s linemates in the past in Artemi Panarin.
Panarin left the Blackhawks and was just as good if not better than he was in Chicago. If DeBrincat can continue to be a 30 to 40-goal scorer, then this was a good trade for the Senators to make their team as good as possible.