Player Discussion Erik Brännström |5'10, 181lbs | Left Handed Defenceman

[bert]

If he has the talent to be a top PMD, then he will find a way through any situation he is in.

I havent seen elite ability from him, thats the thing that worries me. Id expect to atleast see flashes. I am not expecting a developed player, just hoping to see something special in his game and i havent.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I havent seen elite ability from him, thats the thing that worries me. Id expect to atleast see flashes. I am not expecting a developed player, just hoping to see something special in his game and i havent.

Agreed. He has decent hands ..good skater not fast but good edges .. smart but too slow ... he needs to work on that #1 and he needs to work on it hard to get to a level where he can be effective.. I don't think we see elite out of him personally

 

[supsens]

The main return for Stone being a bust would be pretty terrible. I really hope he doesn't bust.

Stone was a lucky lucky draft pick, things seem to even out. Doahh
But he is a smaller Dman and they take a few years to learn NHL, a few don’t but most do. I wouldn’t worry too much about first year players. He might bust but the entire hockey world would have been fooled by that one so it would be tough to blame it on a bad move.
Keeping Stone would have been nice but he doesn’t have the years to wait out a rebuild and I wouldn’t wish that on him.

 

[Sensmileletsgo]

tough to watch him tonight. by far his worse game, the type of game that gets you sent to the minors.

 

[SensFactor]

Dorion got hosed on that Mark Stone trade if Brannstrom doesn't show signs of improving. Not saying he can't but I don't see high end draft pick from Brannstrom.

 

[Micklebot]

I saw more upside in his 2 games last year than i have in all his games this year. Got to admit i was expecting more.

 

[Alex1234]

I saw more upside in his 2 games last year than i have in all his games this year. Got to admit i was expecting more.

Absolutly
And I saw more upside in Lajoie game last year then in Branstromm this year
Lajoie just faded away du to workload
Might be time for a swap

 

[Micklebot]

Absolutly
And I saw more upside in Lajoie game last year then in Branstromm this year
Lajoie just faded away du to workload
Might be time for a swap

Yeah, I'd do it. Realistically, we planned on having Wolanin in the mix and Brannstrom having to force his way onto the Sens, I imagine Brannstrom would be in the AHL if Wolanin was healthy.

I was pretty high on Brannstrom's ability to transition to the NHL game from what I saw last year, and while he surpassed my expectations in some regards, the offense just isn't there which is what I thought would be the easier part for him. I'd send him down to get big offensive mins.

 

[Sweatred]

EB is making that decision easy for the Sens. I think he had been decent, underused a bit on the PP, definitely showing his game needs to grow.

We are sitting at 27/28 GP and I like the idea of 40 games in the NHL and a half season + potential playoffs in the AHL.

That schedule works well with Wolanin and EB should go down recognizing his game needs work with the goal of improving for 2020.

 

[bert]

tough to watch him tonight. by far his worse game, the type of game that gets you sent to the minors.

Yeah he was really bad. One game but I think that he isnt being put into a position to succeed at the moment.

Its not fair to put it on him in regards to being traded for Stone as thats out of his control but wow does it look like a horrible trade. Getting thomson and brannstrom for Stone and Duchene is just so terrible.

 

[BatherSeason]

Its not fair to put it on him in regards to being traded for Stone

In my opinion, this is the only reason that he is still up here. PD desperately wants his "I told you so moment".

 

[Larionov]

Yeah he was really bad. One game but I think that he isnt being put into a position to succeed at the moment.

Its not fair to put it on him in regards to being traded for Stone as thats out of his control but wow does it look like a horrible trade. Getting thomson and brannstrom for Stone and Duchene is just so terrible.

The problem with trading pending UFAs is that you have no leverage, particularly with players like Duchene who won't sign an extension with their new team. We got lucky with Stone in that he was willing to sign one, and now unlucky in that the "blue chip" prospect we got in return is showing signs of not quite being as advertised.

Brannstrom is just showing everyone the harsh truth of how hard it is to evaluate prospects. We weren't the only ones high on him - every team in the league and player prospect geek had him ranked very highly. Again, he's only 20, and we need to remember that Mark Stone didn't turn into the guy we all know and love until he was 22 and played his first full season here after a couple of seasons in Bingo. Brannstrom needs to take the summer of 2020 to get with a trainer and do the Gary Roberts style, "seaweed shakes and hill training at 6 am" thing. Then let's see where he's at...

 

[bert]

In my opinion, this is the only reason that he is still up here. PD desperately wants his "I told you so moment".

Yeah, PD is the issue right now you cant blame Brannstrom for his mismanagement.

 

[BatherSeason]

The problem with trading pending UFAs is that you have no leverage, particularly with players like Duchene who won't sign an extension with their new team. We got lucky with Stone in that he was willing to sign one, and now unlucky in that the "blue chip" prospect we got in return is showing signs of not quite being as advertised.

Brannstrom is just showing everyone the harsh truth of how hard it is to evaluate prospects. We weren't the only ones high on him - every team in the league and player prospect geek had him ranked very highly. Again, he's only 20, and we need to remember that Mark Stone didn't turn into the guy we all know and love until he was 22 and played his first full season here after a couple of seasons in Bingo. Brannstrom needs to take the summer of 2020 to get with a trainer and do the Gary Roberts style, "seaweed shakes and hill training at 6 am" thing. Then let's see where he's at...

I am looking forward to what Ray Shero is able to do with Taylor Hall, so we can have a good idea of what Dorion could have gotten for Stone. Its hard to evalutate the Duchene and Stone trades because there haven't been any comparables in a long time. If the return on Hall is close to what we got for Stone, then I guess we can call Brann and a 2nd a win, but somehow I get the feeling that Shero will handle the situation properly and move his player for the best possible return and not leave it to the last minute.

As for being high on Brannstrom, the org was selling him through the media as the next EK to try to soften the backlash from the fanbase, which is completely unfair to the player. I am sure that Sens fans were much higher on Brannstrom than the rest of the league was.

 

[slamigo]

The problem with trading pending UFAs is that you have no leverage, particularly with players like Duchene who won't sign an extension with their new team. We got lucky with Stone in that he was willing to sign one, and now unlucky in that the "blue chip" prospect we got in return is showing signs of not quite being as advertised.

Brannstrom is just showing everyone the harsh truth of how hard it is to evaluate prospects. We weren't the only ones high on him - every team in the league and player prospect geek had him ranked very highly. Again, he's only 20, and we need to remember that Mark Stone didn't turn into the guy we all know and love until he was 22 and played his first full season here after a couple of seasons in Bingo. Brannstrom needs to take the summer of 2020 to get with a trainer and do the Gary Roberts style, "seaweed shakes and hill training at 6 am" thing. Then let's see where he's at...

This. The problem is that you can't really train properly like that during the season so it'll have to wait until summer 2020 like you say. The demands of playing the games are too much for the body's CNS to also add a serious weight training program. In fact, I believe a lot of players lose weight during the season.

 

[Answer]

He will be a solid Dman for sure, but I have to admit that I haven't see any signs of high-end skill from him, offensively, yet

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

This mistake stands out. He tries to beat the man at center when he has an easy off the boards and up play.

 

[GCK]

Can we hold off on judging Brannstrom as a finished product. He just turned 20 a couple months ago. Thomas Chabot was playing in the Q at the same age.

 

[stempniaksen]

I think maybe people around here expectations may have been too high in regards to EB's offence honestly.

The best comp I've seen for him is Kimmo Timmonen, and outside of going absolutely bonkers the year after the lockout, he was a consistent 40-50 point guy. If Brannstrom can turn into that type of slick, two-way defenceman I doubt anyone here will complain too much. Of course we all want to see more flashes of skill from the kid, and they'll come, but him being fairly solid defensively has been more impressive to me than anything, and gives me hope that he can more than "just" some PP threat moving forward.

To me, Chabot has that PP1 spot locked down for the next 8+ years anyways, if Brannstrom ends up being a bit better defensively than expected while being a bit worse offensively I still view that as an absolute win.

 

[Sensmileletsgo]

Can we hold off on judging Brannstrom as a finished product. He just turned 20 a couple months ago. Thomas Chabot was playing in the Q at the same age.

This should be stickied to the top of the page. Yes he’s struggling but he is far from the player he will end up being.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

People here are judging Brannstrom too soon. The guy JUST turned 20.

 

[Melgene Eunyk]

He needs to be sent down to retrieve his confidence. I wish they would have played him on the first powerplay with Chabot. Potting one and getting comfortable offensively would have made a difference, I feel.

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

I don't think he'd be ruined if he stays up the whole year. It will be a good learning experience, and it's not like he'd forget about his past offensive ability. That being said, I think Belleville could use him more.

 

[God Says No]

People here are judging Brannstrom too soon. The guy JUST turned 20.

I don't understand this. This is a discussion board. If we hold off sharing our opinions on players, then this place will be pretty quiet.

I share the same sentiments as everyone else. He just doesn't look elite in anything, which is concerning. Doesn't matter if he's 18, 20 or 30. There is nothing he's shown this year that screams 1st line pairing. The worst part is that the Habs got a better return for Pacioretty than we did for Stone. It was similar scenario too, except the Habs traded Pacioretty at the beginning of the season instead of at TDL.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

I don't understand this. This is a discussion board. If we hold off sharing our opinions on players, then this place will be pretty quiet.

.

I didn’t say “you people”. Maybe I should have prefaced it with “some people”


The hockey writers are still high on him and I think we can make further judgements they same time next year.

He should be in B-town for now.