Speculation: Early Predictions: Who Surprises in Training Camp/Preseason?

[Erik Alfredsson]

Joseph is old news, the people still debating that we should've kept him need to let go. He was not a Steve Staios pick, Perron, Amadio, Gregor, and Cousins are. Time to see how they perform in this lineup.

 

[Good in Osgoode]

Joseph is old news, the people still debating that we should've kept him need to let go. He was not a Steve Staios pick, Perron, Amadio, Gregor, and Cousins are. Time to see how they perform in this lineup.

'Need to let go'??

Your preaching to a bunch of people that are still saying "what if" about a player that only played 47 games for us over 4 seasons over 10 years ago:

 

[Tuna99]

Not sure why Cousins is being compared to Joseph.

We didn't make the decision to dump Joseph, replace him with Cousins and re-allocate the cap savings elsewhere.

Traded a 3rd to dump a perfectly good player to spend the money on Amadio/Perron instead, for better or for worse.

Cousins and Gregor should be upgrades on Kelly/Kastelic at LW/C. Neither should play above the 4th line unless there are injuries.

Can’t go one for one on Joseph Cousins but all the guys that have come in have jam and Joseph left town with all the peanut butter.

The makeup of the forward group is so much better, defined rolls and players who are happy to play those rolls.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Ham on ic

 

[GCK]

I like your optimism but I don't see Tyler Kleven ever being as good an offensive player as Jake Sanderson was this year (38 points), especially given that Kleven will have way less offensive opportunity than Sanderson.

Kleven has never produced offense like that at any level of hockey above Bantam. I just don't think he will all of a sudden do it at the NHL level. And I don't think he'll be asked to. He likely lands somewhere between Boro and Meth, IMO, which could be a very useful player.

Kleven was over .5 points a games in his Junior season at UND and .38 points per game in his rookie AHL season. Guy has far more upside than you are suggesting. Give him 3 or 4 years and I’m convinced he will be a 35-45 point D man.

 

[RickyLafleur]

Kleven was over .5 points a games in his Junior season at UND and .38 points per game in his rookie AHL season. Guy has far more upside than you are suggesting. Give him 3 or 4 years and I’m convinced he will be a 35-45 point D man.

That would be tremendous production for a guy who's maxiumum upside is likely on the 2nd pairing in a defensive role.

 

[BondraTime]

Kleven was over .5 points a games in his Junior season at UND and .38 points per game in his rookie AHL season. Guy has far more upside than you are suggesting. Give him 3 or 4 years and I’m convinced he will be a 35-45 point D man.

It's not that easy to hit 35 as a D, especially with no PP time, and what will likely be non-offensive minutes.

Only guys to score 35 for the Sens since 2006/7 (05 had 4, which is a complete anomoly) were guys who all recieved significant PP time, as well as being the offensive guys on their pairing.

EK 7 times
Chabot 4 times
Gonchar/Chych/Sanderson/Kuba/Redden/Mez 1 time

I'm not sure there is going to be any meat on the bone for a guy like Kleven to be scoring 35 points in the NHL

 

[Micklebot]

It's not that easy to hit 35 as a D, especially with no PP time, and what will likely be non-offensive minutes.

Only guys to score 35 for the Sens since 2006/7 (05 had 4, which is a complete anomoly) were guys who all recieved significant PP time, as well as being the offensive guys on their pairing.

EK 7 times
Chabot 4 times
Gonchar/Chych/Sanderson/Kuba/Redden/Mez 1 time

I'm not sure there is going to be any meat on the bone for a guy like Kleven to be scoring 35 points in the NHL

I think a lot will depend on who his partner ends up being. The only way I see him hitting 35 is if down the road he ends up paired with Yakemchuk (or some other offensive minded RHD). If he's on a shutdown pair, or he's on the third pair, it's not happening.

Even then, it's far from certain, last year, only 41 Dmen hit 35 pts. I think Slavin was the only one that wasn't getting PP time.

 

[BondraTime]

I think a lot will depend on who his partner ends up being. The only way I see him hitting 35 is if down the road he ends up paired with Yakemchuk (or some other offensive minded RHD). If he's on a shutdown pair, or he's on the third pair, it's not happening.

Even then, it's far from certain, last year, only 41 Dmen hit 35 pts. I think Slavin was the only one that wasn't getting PP time.

Even then, those guys "generally" aren't putting up those kind of numbers (Demelo/Methot/Zub/etc.) even when paired in the top 4 with our/an offensive guy.

I think 15-30 is a more likely landing spot for Kleven, a Ceci/Demelo/Methot/Zub type area for a guy who brings something other than offense as his primary attribute

 

[bert]

Kleven was over .5 points a games in his Junior season at UND and .38 points per game in his rookie AHL season. Guy has far more upside than you are suggesting. Give him 3 or 4 years and I’m convinced he will be a 35-45 point D man.

I don't really care if he scores 20 points. I see him as very similar to Methot. I want a rock d man that is mobile and miserable for the opposition to play against. That logs heavy PK minutes. I actually think he will be an unreal fit with Yakemchuk when he finally arrives and will let him do his thing offensively. What I'm hoping for is basically 2 first pairs. The other one will have Sanderson who can carry whoever they put with him. Not sure where that leaves Chabot but I think Kleven definitely had top 4 upside in a shut down defensive D man role. His first pass is very underrated from what I have watched, I was shocked by his puck poise when he came up at the end of the year. This hypothetically allows him to play with an offensive guy.

 

[GCK]

I don't really care if he scores 20 points. I see him as very similar to Methot. I want a rock d man that is mobile and miserable for the opposition to play against. That logs heavy PK minutes. I actually think he will be an unreal fit with Yakemchuk when he finally arrives and will let him do his thing offensively. What I'm hoping for is basically 2 first pairs. The other one will have Sanderson who can carry whoever they put with him. Not sure where that leaves Chabot but I think Kleven definitely had top 4 upside in a shut down defensive D man role. His first pass is very underrated from what I have watched, I was shocked by his puck poise when he came up at the end of the year. This hypothetically allows him to play with an offensive guy.

I project Sanderson and Kleven as our top 4 LD once Chabot’s contract ends.

Sanderson / Zub or Zub replacement
Kleven / Yakemchuk

 

[Micklebot]

Even then, those guys "generally" aren't putting up those kind of numbers (Demelo/Methot/Zub/etc.) even when paired in the top 4 with our/an offensive guy.

I think 15-30 is a more likely landing spot for Kleven, a Ceci/Demelo/Methot/Zub type area for a guy who brings something other than offense as his primary attribute

I think a bigger Zub is a good comp

Zub put up 25 in 69 games last year, so about a 30 pts pace, but playing the shut down role with Sanderson. That seems like a good projection for Kleven imo.

 

[bert]

I project Sanderson and Kleven as our top 4 LD once Chabot’s contract ends.

Sanderson / Zub or Zub replacement
Kleven / Yakemchuk

I think he will be there way before Chabots contract is over. Which could put the sens in a tough position as to make a decision. Chabot will have trade protection at that point.

 

[BondraTime]

I think he will be there way before Chabots contract is over. Which could put the sens in a tough position as to make a decision. Chabot will have trade protection at that point.

Chabot has trade protection now, or as much protection as he will ever get on this contract

 

[StoicSensFan]

'Need to let go'??

Your preaching to a bunch of people that are still saying "what if" about a player that only played 47 games for us over 4 seasons over 10 years ago:

View attachment 904857

I feel personally attacked.

 

[WallyD]

Its pretty obvious this team wanted rid of Joseph and were willing to pay someone a 3rd to take him for nothing.
I have zero insight into what the reasoning behind it is... other than they needed to clear space and they likely thought he was not playing up to his contract.
When we acquired Joseph I thought we'd see more tenaciousness to go along with the speed. Dorion was hoping again that what we saw regarding production in the top 6 when he 1st got here we would see more of . In the end Joseph could have brought more than he did shift in shift out, game in game out. That may have been enough to cut bait. We often hear players talk about not having their A game and being able to contribute in other ways.

Agree on all points… something was off-putting for the team based on what went down.

I note your choice of words here, "cut bait”… Sounds like you are already mentally in fishing week mode! Enjoy it! Nice time of year for that.

True but Cousins spent a fair amount of time with Tkachuk and Bennet on the second line.

Yikes, that is one nasty line when you consider those players. No shortage of sand paper there!

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

'Need to let go'??

Your preaching to a bunch of people that are still saying "what if" about a player that only played 47 games for us over 4 seasons over 10 years ago:

View attachment 904857

the thing about SDC was that the week before he was banished he was one of our best players.

in his last 5 nhl games he had 3 goals 4 points +3 from the 4th line on an anemic offensive team. he visually looked like he was stepping up too.

but instead of seeing what he could do with better linemates he never sees an nhl game again lol.

even if he wasn't nhl quality the timing was so wild. like just when he was starting to make an impact, bam banished!

i will never let it go! :p

 

[bert]

Chabot has trade protection now, or as much protection as he will ever get on this contract

Which literally just happened 4 days ago.

 

[bicboi64]

Kleven has a bomb of a shot. He's going to put up Sheldon Souray type PP goals watch

 

[WallyD]

Which literally just happened 4 days ago.

Correct… just to add some particulars, I believe he has a 10-team no-trade-list, not a full no-movement-clause. If teams are going to negotiate these restrictions I far prefer NTL to NMC! At least the team retains some wiggle room.

 

[LiseL]

They are going to honour Hamonic’s deal. There is no chance that Staios does anything super lame or disrespectful.

He may not like the deal, but Dorion gave it to him, and it was contingent on him being able to have some stability for his family. It will be honoured.

For a team like us, we need to make sure we have an excellent reputation amongst the players in terms of how we treat them if we want veteran players to sign with us in the future.

Hopefully he’s healthy and hungry and is ready to be that vet 7D

Isn't it possible that Hamonic was nursing an injury last year and comes back in relatively good shape (close to 2022)? If so, he'd be a great mentor for Kleven. Sanderson had great things to say about how much he learned from him. Also wouldn't need to play him every game, can switch between him and JBD but let him show Kleven the ropes for a period of time. At worse, he can mentor him off-ice and during practices.

 

[LiseL]

jospeh had some hilites but everything about him was overpaid and overrated. The speed gets you excited but the guy went like 30 games without being noticed and that was from a team desperate for someone to do something special. Joseph just isn’t impact, he’s an NHL’er but a soft one with little impact and losses steam as the season goes on

Also totally disappeared when JM took over. It sounds like Green will try to install a similar style to JM (compete levels, put puck in safe areas, 5 man units) so Joseph may not have been very effective anyway.

 

[LuckyPierre]

'Need to let go'??

Your preaching to a bunch of people that are still saying "what if" about a player that only played 47 games for us over 4 seasons over 10 years ago:

View attachment 904857

In 13/14 I know what I saw. SDC was buzzing, slicing through multiple layers of defense, and running give and goes with EK. He had handles, and hockey sense, and had figured out how to support and break out.

Was not a Bryan Murray type player, but was definitely showing flashes of a middle 6 NHL talent.

 

[LuckyPierre]

Anyhow I too vote Hamonic. Defensive depth is a concern, and like it or not, he could be a part of the solution.

His game was good relative to his abilities two seasons back. With rest here and there, would be great to see him get in 50 games, and tilt the ice towards the opposing netminder rather that towards ours.

How he starts the year will give every indication as to whether he has gas left in the tank.

 

[HSF]

curious to see how Halliday and Boucher look