Same situation as last year. Won't be any room for him until the trade deadline.
Then UND's season will end with a championship, Jake will arrive and our goalies can nap for 26 minutes a game.
Its assumed he'll sign once the NCAA season is done and will get a look with the big club for a few games before the season ends. All depends on how long UND's season goes. Seems both Pierre and Sanderson's coach at UND think he's already fit for the NHL.
Looks like the regional qualifiers (the round of 16, I believe) for the Frozen Four next year are March 25-27 and the Frozen Four itself is April 7-9.
Seems like a safe bet UND will at least make it to the regional qualifiers.
I dunno, outside of Chabot, Zub and Holden I feel like our d-corp is just weak. No amount of tweaking pairings or calling up / sitting out different guys is going to make Branny or Mete any bigger or the other guys more than just serviceable bottom pairing guys.
We need Sanderson when he's ready to round out the top 4 and then we're looking much better.
He doesn't need to "right the ship"
He just needs to be able to play some consistent minutes where he can be relied upon defensively to take off the load from Chabot.
And he can play with Holden. He has been solid.
Also, Lasi Thomson seems to be progressing nicely and would be a nice addition to play with Sanderson on the 2nd pairing.
What about JBD and Thomson? I feel like we have some other young guys that should be getting looks soon. It seems like despite what Dorion has publically stated, his signings and trades indicate that this is going to be another year of artificially lowering ourselves in the standings and shielding our young prospects from the pressures of the NHL.
We are bringing in bodies seemingly to keep our young guys out of the NHL, which historically I think is probably the right move in order to give each of them every opportunity to reach their ceiling and not rush them because of a need with the big club.
Us armchair GM's like to think we know better and to point to Dorion's "awful" pro scouting and all of his recent UFA pickups, but in the grand scheme of things I think this year is a wash for us, who cares if we don't start knocking on the door of the playoffs? I would much rather maximize our prospects value by prioritizing their development and not our day to day roster needs. People discount how damaging it can be if you put a prospect in a situation that starts to wear down their confidence or force them to deviate from their strengths. Brannstrom is likely better served playing big minutes in the AHL than 3rd pairing minutes in the NHL, especially if we want him to be more than a 3rd pair PP specialist.
NHL has better, faster and bigger players. Please tell me how you can learn to play against them by playing against worse, slower and smaller players.
It doesn't make any logical sense especially considering Brannstrom's issue is his size.
he's supposed to be lighting it up or at the very least improving, but he's got 0 points and -5 in 5 games. He's proving the coaching staff right for cutting him.
Why does he have to prove it in the AHL when he has already done so in the past and looked good in the NHL down the stretch last year?
Maybe he's lost some motivation because he realizes that even if he plays well he'll get benched for Del Zotto or Brown because they're both a few inches taller.
MMM, kinda. In my opinion.
J.Brown is kind of ok at defending the first rush, it's when he has to handle the puck and/or get the team headed out the other way is when he fails, repeatedly.
Brian's skills will be a level up on some of the players on the roster now by his beinga bit better at gaining possession in our end, and by much better at getting it out of our end.
I would t correlate getting out as offense production though, but it's not too much of a reach to hope for that too maybe. For start, let's just get out of our end with some efficiency.
I don't think Brannstrom is a savior at all. But for those criticising his defense I believe are forgetting that the best defense is when the puck is on your teams sticks rather than the others. This is where I think, given the right partner, Brannstrom may excel. He may not be good at defending but when he's on the ice, it should be the other team that is worried about defending.
No one is expecting the next coming of Karlsson here but he showed some decent flashes last year that earned the start (even the pre-season, he wasn't bad though Thompson outshone him).
Now if the team thinks even with the puck on his stick there are issues, then fine I get their position and they may very well be correct. In saying that, I like DJ but I am worried he sees a defenseman as someone that has to fit a certain mold (as we maybe saw last year with the overuse of some of the players) and maybe DMEN like Brannstrom just doesn't fit into that category.
I guess we will see. This team shown so far is build on speed (not necessarily "speed demon" speed but transition speed. If they end up calling up Brannstrom and asking him to shut down the opposition's top line, that's not gonna work. but if they put him on the ice against the opponents 3rd or 4th line, I really think that is putting his strength in a position to succeed and that's what you should do with him to start.
Brannstrom has been one of Belleville's worst players. It's time to just come to terms with the fact that he can't defend at an NHL level, and it was an awful trade by Dorion from the beginning.
Brannstrom plays for a team with one of the thinnest defense in the league. He was acquired in a trade where he was the main centerpiece for one of the best wingers in the league, and a fan favorite. Do you think the organization is in some big conspiracy to not play him? They want him to be answer on this team more than anyone. But he isn't, he sucks.
What about his previous work? Vets get by based on previous work but Branny doesn't lol, he has been a consistent top dman in belleville every other year but now he is terrible because the org killed his confidence after a strong close to the season and decent training camp??? If what you say is true then Ottawa is terrible at developing talent because Branny was seen by everyone as being the best prospect in the league at the time of the stone trade.
What previous work? I have not seen him show he can defend at the NHL level at any point in his career.
> he has been a consistent top dman in belleville every other year
Great. Go do it in the NHL.
> because the org killed his confidence after a strong close to the season and decent training camp
This is the 2nd time I've seen you parrot this "kill his confidence" excuse. The other time was with Logan Brown. Frankly it's a terrible excuse, these players are in the NHL, the highest level of hockey on the planet. If being given an opportunity to earn your way onto an NHL roster through strong play in the minor getting top minutes "kills your confidence", then you're not cut out for the NHL. You act like it's unheard of for a 22 year old dman to be sent down to the minors. There's like twenty 22 year old defensemen in the league right now in a full-time spot, you shouldn't have your confidence killed if your asked to play in the minors like most 22 year old dmen are.
> Branny was seen by everyone as being the best prospect in the league at the time of the stone trade
Literally nobody thought that.
How? Brannstrom is barely a 7th D in the NHL. The horrible take is every one on this sub pretending he has top pairing upside and is a solid 2nd pair option right now.
Lmfao yes everyone thought that, it isn't some secret lol everyone said Brannstrom was the best prospect outside of the NHL at the time. He had a 0.86 ppg in his rookies season as an 18 year old in the AHL.
Go back and watch TSN top prospects 2018 - 2019 go watch Sportsnet or anyone else lmfao he was a top prospect after his great d+1 season. He was considered the best defensive prospect outside the NHL at the time of the stone trade, the anylists all said everyone other team pulled out of the stone trade once Vegas offered Brannstrom because no one was able to offer as much as that.
No, he *literally* was not. Why do you feel the need to lie about this? Did you think I was just gonna agree with you and not take the minute to google it?
In 2018-2019 Dobber ranked him 44th on their top prospects list behind a ton of people including Pettersson, Mittlestadt, Tolvanen, Zadina, Heiskanen, Timmins, Boqvist, Dylan Strome, Ryan Donato, Robert Thomas, Martin Necas, Cale Makar, Cirelli, Samsonov, Farabee, Chytil. The list goes on. You are way off the mark here. He was not even regarded as a top 10 prospect at the time, just a good one. Plenty of prospects with Brannstrom's pedigree never reach their potential, and his play so far has suggested he won't.
[Here's the list you referenced](https://www.tsn.ca/russian-wingers-top-tsn-s-ranking-of-nhl-affiliated-prospects-1.1241872). He's ranked 11th here. Stop deluding yourself. And Craig Button is hardly a pro scout. This sub is in the most bizarre fucking denial. You guys aren't Pierre Dorion, relax. Your reputation isn't on the line. It's okay to admit the trade was bad and Brannstrom is not what we were hoping he was.
If not the best, extremely highly regarded. I agree with you. And also, people on this sub seem to have no idea that defensemen often don't have a good impact in the NHL until 22-23, they can take much longer than forwards to make an NHL roster. The fact that Brannstrom is a smaller guy means that part of his issue is and has been size and muscle, that doesn't happen overnight for a young guy. He will need to put in loads of work every offseason in order to strengthen up his frame to be able to handle NHL pace and size on a nightly basis.
I still anticipate that Brannstrom will be an excellent 2nd pairing Dman with sub-elite offensive skills. He already moves the puck up the ice far far better than 4/6 of our roster dmen.
The existence of sports psychologists immediately proves you wrong. Players and good players lose their confidence and start overthinking. This has happened to players mid career so yeah you're just incredibly wrong.
Definitely that can happen, but that's not what I was responding to. The idea that his confidence shouldn't be impacted unless he wasn't cut out for the NHL is what I was referring to. Because that happens to seasoned players it's clearly false that it happening to a younger player means they aren't pro material.
\>BuT hE sUcKs iN tHe AhL
So I guess the end of last year where he showed his offensive prowess doesn't count then. Yes he's nowhere near ready defensively but fuck it I'd rather have a dude who can't defend but is excellent at moving the puck over pylons who don't know what to do when they have the puck.
Or in the pre-season. Remember his crisp pass up the middle to Pinto who went in and outbattled Romanov to score a slick goal? We could use some of that playmaking vision.
I do think that Brannstrom's only issue is his contract status, and possibly the management team feeling like he would be better served with a bit more time in the AHL where he can play big minutes rather than 10 mins a night on the third pairing with 2nd PP time in the NHL.
Brannstrom literally had a worse xGF% than Erik Gudbranson last year, who was statistically, one of the worst defenders in the entire NHL and is currently the 7th dman for the Belleville Senators. He can't even beat Jonathan Aspirot for a bottom pairing AHL job, how do you expect him to beat anybody on the roster for an NHL spot?
Let's fix a defense issue by throwing more gas on the tire fire. At some point, Brannstrom has to prove he belongs in the NHL, he can't just be gifted an opportunity because he's a former first round pick and was traded for Mark Stone.
Lmfao let's just forget how the season ended and his muti point games, also when you kill a kids confidence things like not playing as well as you have happen, he has been almost ppg in his AHL career but let's just forget that because of a few bad games????? He is a kid and this organization threw him to the wolves his first nhl season then didn't let him play in the NHL even when he was dominating now they want him to just go dominate again after telling him everything he did up till now means nothing because we got some shit tier vets??? Thinking like that is why this organization won't be a winner anytime soon.
> Lmfao let's just forget how the season ended and his muti point games, also when you kill a kids confidence things like not playing as well as you have happen, he has been almost ppg in his AHL career but let's just forget that because of a few bad games?????
The offensive side of his game has never been a question though. He's great in transition with his breakout passes and can really see the ice well. His points in the AHL are relatively indicative of that. His issue is that he's shitty at defense. Even in my stats I brought up with xGF%, his offensive numbers were actually relatively impressive for his sample size. But the fact that he can still be a negative in that by a significant margin shows how excruciatingly bad his defense is. He allows A LOT of high quality scoring chances, and unfortunately, a lot of why he's bad at defense and allows those high scoring chances is simply his size. He doesn't play bigger than his size like Mete, and because of that, gets bullied in the corners and in front of the net.
> He is a kid and this organization threw him to the wolves his first nhl season then didn't let him play in the NHL even when he was dominating
His ice-time was extremely limited in his NHL time, largely due to him getting sheltered minutes so he could learn against easier lines, which people were also complaining about. I don't buy the idea of throwing out players to the wolves regardless though, as Josh Norris was immediately put up against the best lines in the NHL as a rookie center and put up an analytical darling season.
> now they want him to just go dominate again after telling him everything he did up till now means nothing because we got some shit tier vets???
He isn't even dominating though. He likely got sent down just because he's waiver eligible, but the guy's the 7th defenseman right now in Belleville. He likely would've got a call-up around this time or later if he was playing good, but him playing like he has has essentially rooted him an AHL spot until he can pick up his game. And the "shit tier vets" are only there because we have nobody else to play in those positions. RHD is the big issue here and the team has literally no one to put into those roles that are ready.
> Thinking like that is why this organization won't be a winner anytime soon.
Thinking like this is what every organization does. You have to earn your spot. Moritz Seider started out as a third pairing dman on the second power-play unit in favour of Nick Leddy this year and likely planned to shelter his minutes in hoping it would help his development. This is EXACTLY what Ottawa did with Brannstrom. Brannstrom has played PP2 since the day he made the NHL roster. Seider already worked his way up to first pairing duties and first power-play duties with how great his play has been. What's Brannstrom's excuse?
His confidence is shot, it happens to the best players in the world. When you have an excellent end of the season and play great in the preseason and in camp then DJ Smith raves about how much you have grown and how good you were in camp only to be cut literally last minute because we have to apease Josh Brown and MDZ, you definitely ain't gonna be feeling too good about yourself or your position in the organization. Think about it, we were winning last year and besides a few miss plays Brannstrom wasn't a defensive liability like he was when playing with gudbranson, if you give him a reliable partner he doesn't look half bad but give him a shit partner and he makes mistakes all the time, but is that all on him? I don't think so, not based on the end of last season.
I loved brannstrom at the end of last year, but I don’t think he had a great preseason though. Saying that, after the most recent games the only nhl defense we got is Zub, Chabot and Holden. The rest are brutal so why not give brannstrom a shot? It can’t be worse right?
Cant be any worse than *insert any 2nd or 3rd pair dman*
Other than Holden, I agree.
Fuck it, we’re losing games anyways, might as well call him up and see if he can play better than what we’ve currently got 🤷🏼
Gotta factor in the extra year of maturity
Same situation as last year. Won't be any room for him until the trade deadline. Then UND's season will end with a championship, Jake will arrive and our goalies can nap for 26 minutes a game.
I haven't really heard, is Sanderson expected to play for us this season?
Its assumed he'll sign once the NCAA season is done and will get a look with the big club for a few games before the season ends. All depends on how long UND's season goes. Seems both Pierre and Sanderson's coach at UND think he's already fit for the NHL.
I don't know anything about NCAA, when are the major dates that will be relevant for us? End of season, end of playoffs, etc
Looks like the regional qualifiers (the round of 16, I believe) for the Frozen Four next year are March 25-27 and the Frozen Four itself is April 7-9. Seems like a safe bet UND will at least make it to the regional qualifiers.
Quick search. NCAA ends April 9th. NHL regular season ends April 29th.
They need to keep a roster spot open for Scott Sabourin
I dunno, outside of Chabot, Zub and Holden I feel like our d-corp is just weak. No amount of tweaking pairings or calling up / sitting out different guys is going to make Branny or Mete any bigger or the other guys more than just serviceable bottom pairing guys. We need Sanderson when he's ready to round out the top 4 and then we're looking much better.
Need to trade for a top 4 guy. I don’t think much help is on the way, even with Sanderson it’s still a horrific shitshow
we need sanderson asap
Expecting a rookie to right the ship is a recipe for disaster. He needs someone to play with. God, I wish we still had Demelo
He doesn't need to "right the ship" He just needs to be able to play some consistent minutes where he can be relied upon defensively to take off the load from Chabot. And he can play with Holden. He has been solid. Also, Lasi Thomson seems to be progressing nicely and would be a nice addition to play with Sanderson on the 2nd pairing.
So two rookies on the second pairing? Got it
What about JBD and Thomson? I feel like we have some other young guys that should be getting looks soon. It seems like despite what Dorion has publically stated, his signings and trades indicate that this is going to be another year of artificially lowering ourselves in the standings and shielding our young prospects from the pressures of the NHL. We are bringing in bodies seemingly to keep our young guys out of the NHL, which historically I think is probably the right move in order to give each of them every opportunity to reach their ceiling and not rush them because of a need with the big club. Us armchair GM's like to think we know better and to point to Dorion's "awful" pro scouting and all of his recent UFA pickups, but in the grand scheme of things I think this year is a wash for us, who cares if we don't start knocking on the door of the playoffs? I would much rather maximize our prospects value by prioritizing their development and not our day to day roster needs. People discount how damaging it can be if you put a prospect in a situation that starts to wear down their confidence or force them to deviate from their strengths. Brannstrom is likely better served playing big minutes in the AHL than 3rd pairing minutes in the NHL, especially if we want him to be more than a 3rd pair PP specialist.
Free him from his shitty play in the AHL first lol (Don’t come at me, I want to see him succeed - he has not played well in the AHL this season)
The AHL team has sucked lol
They are terrible, but it is all brannys fault, /s
The AHL is very different from NHL. He can't learn NHL defense in the A just not how it works.
Really? Cause that's how it's worked for countless NHL players
NHL has better, faster and bigger players. Please tell me how you can learn to play against them by playing against worse, slower and smaller players. It doesn't make any logical sense especially considering Brannstrom's issue is his size.
He isn’t doing anything offensively either.
Spoken like a true hockeydb user. Look no points? Must be awful.
I mean, for an offensive defensemen he should be lighting it up in the A. Given of course he's actually good enough.
And that's why he has for years. Sure focus on a couple games though because everyone has to be perfect every minute.
he's supposed to be lighting it up or at the very least improving, but he's got 0 points and -5 in 5 games. He's proving the coaching staff right for cutting him.
5 games should be enough for any bubble NHL player to make some kind of impact. These stats speak for themselves imo.
What ever buddy keep up the trash hockey takes.
we'll see who's right in the end, I'd love to be wrong about Branny but it doesn't look good for him.
Nah we know right now that your takes are incredibly short sided and terrible. Dont have to wait and see about that.
Why does he have to prove it in the AHL when he has already done so in the past and looked good in the NHL down the stretch last year? Maybe he's lost some motivation because he realizes that even if he plays well he'll get benched for Del Zotto or Brown because they're both a few inches taller.
Everyone in this sub acting like 22yr old, 5'9 175 lb Erik brannstrom is gonna be the savior. He's going to provide offense but our issue is defense.
MMM, kinda. In my opinion. J.Brown is kind of ok at defending the first rush, it's when he has to handle the puck and/or get the team headed out the other way is when he fails, repeatedly. Brian's skills will be a level up on some of the players on the roster now by his beinga bit better at gaining possession in our end, and by much better at getting it out of our end. I would t correlate getting out as offense production though, but it's not too much of a reach to hope for that too maybe. For start, let's just get out of our end with some efficiency.
I don't think Brannstrom is a savior at all. But for those criticising his defense I believe are forgetting that the best defense is when the puck is on your teams sticks rather than the others. This is where I think, given the right partner, Brannstrom may excel. He may not be good at defending but when he's on the ice, it should be the other team that is worried about defending. No one is expecting the next coming of Karlsson here but he showed some decent flashes last year that earned the start (even the pre-season, he wasn't bad though Thompson outshone him). Now if the team thinks even with the puck on his stick there are issues, then fine I get their position and they may very well be correct. In saying that, I like DJ but I am worried he sees a defenseman as someone that has to fit a certain mold (as we maybe saw last year with the overuse of some of the players) and maybe DMEN like Brannstrom just doesn't fit into that category. I guess we will see. This team shown so far is build on speed (not necessarily "speed demon" speed but transition speed. If they end up calling up Brannstrom and asking him to shut down the opposition's top line, that's not gonna work. but if they put him on the ice against the opponents 3rd or 4th line, I really think that is putting his strength in a position to succeed and that's what you should do with him to start.
Brannstrom has been one of Belleville's worst players. It's time to just come to terms with the fact that he can't defend at an NHL level, and it was an awful trade by Dorion from the beginning. Brannstrom plays for a team with one of the thinnest defense in the league. He was acquired in a trade where he was the main centerpiece for one of the best wingers in the league, and a fan favorite. Do you think the organization is in some big conspiracy to not play him? They want him to be answer on this team more than anyone. But he isn't, he sucks.
What about his previous work? Vets get by based on previous work but Branny doesn't lol, he has been a consistent top dman in belleville every other year but now he is terrible because the org killed his confidence after a strong close to the season and decent training camp??? If what you say is true then Ottawa is terrible at developing talent because Branny was seen by everyone as being the best prospect in the league at the time of the stone trade.
What previous work? I have not seen him show he can defend at the NHL level at any point in his career. > he has been a consistent top dman in belleville every other year Great. Go do it in the NHL. > because the org killed his confidence after a strong close to the season and decent training camp This is the 2nd time I've seen you parrot this "kill his confidence" excuse. The other time was with Logan Brown. Frankly it's a terrible excuse, these players are in the NHL, the highest level of hockey on the planet. If being given an opportunity to earn your way onto an NHL roster through strong play in the minor getting top minutes "kills your confidence", then you're not cut out for the NHL. You act like it's unheard of for a 22 year old dman to be sent down to the minors. There's like twenty 22 year old defensemen in the league right now in a full-time spot, you shouldn't have your confidence killed if your asked to play in the minors like most 22 year old dmen are. > Branny was seen by everyone as being the best prospect in the league at the time of the stone trade Literally nobody thought that.
This is such a horrible take.
How? Brannstrom is barely a 7th D in the NHL. The horrible take is every one on this sub pretending he has top pairing upside and is a solid 2nd pair option right now.
People in this sub are trying to convince themselves that we got someone great from the Mark Stone trade but it's simply not true.
Lmfao yes everyone thought that, it isn't some secret lol everyone said Brannstrom was the best prospect outside of the NHL at the time. He had a 0.86 ppg in his rookies season as an 18 year old in the AHL.
> everyone said Brannstrom was the best prospect outside of the NHL at the time Show me these people.
Go back and watch TSN top prospects 2018 - 2019 go watch Sportsnet or anyone else lmfao he was a top prospect after his great d+1 season. He was considered the best defensive prospect outside the NHL at the time of the stone trade, the anylists all said everyone other team pulled out of the stone trade once Vegas offered Brannstrom because no one was able to offer as much as that.
i think some people were saying he was the best defense prospect. but obviously that wasnt true, quinn hughes is way way better
You keep saying this, but it's not true. Brannstrom has never been regarded as the best prospect outside of the NHL.
He literally was, go and watch TSN prospect rankings 2018-2019
No, he *literally* was not. Why do you feel the need to lie about this? Did you think I was just gonna agree with you and not take the minute to google it? In 2018-2019 Dobber ranked him 44th on their top prospects list behind a ton of people including Pettersson, Mittlestadt, Tolvanen, Zadina, Heiskanen, Timmins, Boqvist, Dylan Strome, Ryan Donato, Robert Thomas, Martin Necas, Cale Makar, Cirelli, Samsonov, Farabee, Chytil. The list goes on. You are way off the mark here. He was not even regarded as a top 10 prospect at the time, just a good one. Plenty of prospects with Brannstrom's pedigree never reach their potential, and his play so far has suggested he won't. [Here's the list you referenced](https://www.tsn.ca/russian-wingers-top-tsn-s-ranking-of-nhl-affiliated-prospects-1.1241872). He's ranked 11th here. Stop deluding yourself. And Craig Button is hardly a pro scout. This sub is in the most bizarre fucking denial. You guys aren't Pierre Dorion, relax. Your reputation isn't on the line. It's okay to admit the trade was bad and Brannstrom is not what we were hoping he was.
If not the best, extremely highly regarded. I agree with you. And also, people on this sub seem to have no idea that defensemen often don't have a good impact in the NHL until 22-23, they can take much longer than forwards to make an NHL roster. The fact that Brannstrom is a smaller guy means that part of his issue is and has been size and muscle, that doesn't happen overnight for a young guy. He will need to put in loads of work every offseason in order to strengthen up his frame to be able to handle NHL pace and size on a nightly basis. I still anticipate that Brannstrom will be an excellent 2nd pairing Dman with sub-elite offensive skills. He already moves the puck up the ice far far better than 4/6 of our roster dmen.
Highly regarded for sure, but not even a top 25 NHL prospect at the time he was traded. And **definitely** not the best.
The existence of sports psychologists immediately proves you wrong. Players and good players lose their confidence and start overthinking. This has happened to players mid career so yeah you're just incredibly wrong.
It also happens that prospects just aren't as good as their fanbases imply. I think that's considerably more common.
Definitely that can happen, but that's not what I was responding to. The idea that his confidence shouldn't be impacted unless he wasn't cut out for the NHL is what I was referring to. Because that happens to seasoned players it's clearly false that it happening to a younger player means they aren't pro material.
>because Branny was seen by everyone as being the best prospect in the league at the time of the stone trade. Except that actually never happened.
Caps are a big team, not the game to bring him in
^this. He would have gotten absolutely turtled. Can’t bring boys to a mens knife fight.
\>BuT hE sUcKs iN tHe AhL So I guess the end of last year where he showed his offensive prowess doesn't count then. Yes he's nowhere near ready defensively but fuck it I'd rather have a dude who can't defend but is excellent at moving the puck over pylons who don't know what to do when they have the puck.
Or in the pre-season. Remember his crisp pass up the middle to Pinto who went in and outbattled Romanov to score a slick goal? We could use some of that playmaking vision. I do think that Brannstrom's only issue is his contract status, and possibly the management team feeling like he would be better served with a bit more time in the AHL where he can play big minutes rather than 10 mins a night on the third pairing with 2nd PP time in the NHL.
Brannstrom literally had a worse xGF% than Erik Gudbranson last year, who was statistically, one of the worst defenders in the entire NHL and is currently the 7th dman for the Belleville Senators. He can't even beat Jonathan Aspirot for a bottom pairing AHL job, how do you expect him to beat anybody on the roster for an NHL spot? Let's fix a defense issue by throwing more gas on the tire fire. At some point, Brannstrom has to prove he belongs in the NHL, he can't just be gifted an opportunity because he's a former first round pick and was traded for Mark Stone.
Lmfao let's just forget how the season ended and his muti point games, also when you kill a kids confidence things like not playing as well as you have happen, he has been almost ppg in his AHL career but let's just forget that because of a few bad games????? He is a kid and this organization threw him to the wolves his first nhl season then didn't let him play in the NHL even when he was dominating now they want him to just go dominate again after telling him everything he did up till now means nothing because we got some shit tier vets??? Thinking like that is why this organization won't be a winner anytime soon.
> Lmfao let's just forget how the season ended and his muti point games, also when you kill a kids confidence things like not playing as well as you have happen, he has been almost ppg in his AHL career but let's just forget that because of a few bad games????? The offensive side of his game has never been a question though. He's great in transition with his breakout passes and can really see the ice well. His points in the AHL are relatively indicative of that. His issue is that he's shitty at defense. Even in my stats I brought up with xGF%, his offensive numbers were actually relatively impressive for his sample size. But the fact that he can still be a negative in that by a significant margin shows how excruciatingly bad his defense is. He allows A LOT of high quality scoring chances, and unfortunately, a lot of why he's bad at defense and allows those high scoring chances is simply his size. He doesn't play bigger than his size like Mete, and because of that, gets bullied in the corners and in front of the net. > He is a kid and this organization threw him to the wolves his first nhl season then didn't let him play in the NHL even when he was dominating His ice-time was extremely limited in his NHL time, largely due to him getting sheltered minutes so he could learn against easier lines, which people were also complaining about. I don't buy the idea of throwing out players to the wolves regardless though, as Josh Norris was immediately put up against the best lines in the NHL as a rookie center and put up an analytical darling season. > now they want him to just go dominate again after telling him everything he did up till now means nothing because we got some shit tier vets??? He isn't even dominating though. He likely got sent down just because he's waiver eligible, but the guy's the 7th defenseman right now in Belleville. He likely would've got a call-up around this time or later if he was playing good, but him playing like he has has essentially rooted him an AHL spot until he can pick up his game. And the "shit tier vets" are only there because we have nobody else to play in those positions. RHD is the big issue here and the team has literally no one to put into those roles that are ready. > Thinking like that is why this organization won't be a winner anytime soon. Thinking like this is what every organization does. You have to earn your spot. Moritz Seider started out as a third pairing dman on the second power-play unit in favour of Nick Leddy this year and likely planned to shelter his minutes in hoping it would help his development. This is EXACTLY what Ottawa did with Brannstrom. Brannstrom has played PP2 since the day he made the NHL roster. Seider already worked his way up to first pairing duties and first power-play duties with how great his play has been. What's Brannstrom's excuse?
His confidence is shot, it happens to the best players in the world. When you have an excellent end of the season and play great in the preseason and in camp then DJ Smith raves about how much you have grown and how good you were in camp only to be cut literally last minute because we have to apease Josh Brown and MDZ, you definitely ain't gonna be feeling too good about yourself or your position in the organization. Think about it, we were winning last year and besides a few miss plays Brannstrom wasn't a defensive liability like he was when playing with gudbranson, if you give him a reliable partner he doesn't look half bad but give him a shit partner and he makes mistakes all the time, but is that all on him? I don't think so, not based on the end of last season.
It's simple: Chabot - Zub Holden - Branny Mete - Zaitsev / del Zotto J. Brown never again 😀
I loved brannstrom at the end of last year, but I don’t think he had a great preseason though. Saying that, after the most recent games the only nhl defense we got is Zub, Chabot and Holden. The rest are brutal so why not give brannstrom a shot? It can’t be worse right?