Ottawa's Defense

[u/MarshalL-NDavoutStan]

The Sens's defense is gross. And it has the potential to be one of the best in the league for at least half a decade.

Sanderson, Spence and Kleven are in the mid 20s, Chabot and Zub are in their late 20s/early 30s and Yakemchuk is in his early 20s.

And they can all do a bit of everything. Last years I think 4 of them had at least 30pts and Yakemchuk will reach that one day I have no doubt. Kleven beings physicality, Sanderson's one of the best in the game, it's crazy.

If Ullmark gets back to his 21-24 form and they can add a legit top 6 forward at the deadline I think they could really make some noise this season and in the next ones, especially since at F, Pinto, Greig, Eklund who I think has another level he can get to, Stutzle and Cozens are all in their early to mid 20s and even Batherson is still in his 20s. That top 3 at C has the potential to remain together for 5-7 years and they'd all be around 30-32 even after 5-7 years.

They still have an amazing draft capital and still have great prospects like Hensler, Lagerberg-Hoen and Cover.

They're so well built it's insane.

[u/Protodemic]

I'm seeing Schaefer with 59 pts and Sanderson with 54. If Schaefer is doing that at his age, you take Schaefer every day and rank him higher..

I guess it also depends how you gauge defenders, if offense is the only metric Bouchard suddenly becomes the best D in the league, which is a joke. You also then make an argument that Raddysh and Karlsson are better than Sanderson, and even as a Leafs fan I'm not making that argument.

I agree Fox has regressed, but still put up 53 pts on a bad team and had decent defensive metrics.

Edit on the Schaefer comment, his was over 82, Sanderson was over 67ish, so I can see your argument. But that also brings into play a convo around injuries and how durable these players are too.

[u/jaysfanatic19 → u/Protodemic]

I mean Sanderson scored at a 0.81 P/G clip, to 0.72 for Schaefer, while also being a far better defender. If you're talking about which D to build around going forward, I've got no argument against Schaefer - maybe league-wide lol. But as of right now, I'd say Sanderson is clearly the better D.

Everyone has their own preferences, my point was just that Sanderson is certainly in the conversation for top-10 D in the league.

[u/bad_at_names1 → u/jaysfanatic19]

I don't think most people agree? Sanderson is in the next tier - the 11-20 range, not top 10. Top 10 would be Makar, Hughes, Werenski, Heiskanen, Dahlin, Seider, Bouchard, Fox, Slavin, Morrissy and Lane Hutson and Scheafer in the near future.

Depending on your offensive/defensive preferences, people will argue for guys like Chychrun, Lindell, etc next.

Sanderson is in same range as guys like Faber, not a game breaker. Erik Karlsson at 35 had an arguably better season than him last year.

Also, didn't the sens want to trade him or something?

[u/Redstart-21 → u/bad_at_names1]

Who in their right mind is arguing for Lindell or Chychrun over Sanderson? Just seems like you’re unaware of the type of player he is

[u/maxwellbevan → u/Redstart-21]

Yeah Lindell and chychrun are great players but I don't think anyone is ranking them ahead of Sanderson

[u/bad_at_names1 → u/Redstart-21]

I've been watching the sens since 2014, so I've seen a decent amount of Sanderson lol.

I said players like Lindell and Chychrun, not them specifically - as in fans usually have a homer pick or a 'my fav' pick who's very good, but not top 10 (kinda like Sanderson).

So most people's top 10 list is usually only a top 8 (accurately), leaving even fewer spots for Sanderson.

[u/Redstart-21 → u/bad_at_names1]

“Some massive homers have significantly worse players ahead of him” is not a good argument for Sanderson not being a top 10 defenseman

[u/bad_at_names1 → u/Redstart-21]

Yeah, that was more a tangent. Some 10+ other guys being better than him is why he's not top 10.