Weekend News and Notes: Kleven Signs, Injuries, Ownership, Subsidized Rink,
When the University of North Dakota’s season ended, it created some unnecessary handwringing over Tyler Kleven’s future with the Ottawa Senators. Media-driven concerns over the defenceman’s handedness and the Senators’ depth at the left defence position fuelled this idea Kleven may elect to return to UND for a fourth year and pursue unrestricted free agency.
Those fears were put to bed when the defenceman formally agreed to a three-year entry-level contract with the Senators Thursday.
Kleven was the 44th overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft and spent three seasons at UND where he tallied 20 goals and 15 assists in 95 games.
In the official press release, general manager Pierre Dorion outlined his reasons for excitement in bringing Kleven into the fold.
"He's a big, rangy, hard-nosed defender who maintains a physical presence while on the ice and an ability to hammer the puck with his shot. We've been especially impressed with his overall development dating to his draft year."
It never really made sense that Kleven would pursue other avenues. The Senators have an emerging young core with many of Kleven’s former teammates — Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson, and Jacob Bernard-Docke — already in the fold. If Kleven is talented enough and has a unique skill set, the organization will make room for him — through trade or by moving some of their depth to play their off-side. Jake Sanderson, Jake Chychrun, and Erik Brannstrom all have experience playing their off-side.
As the new and shiny toy, fans will understandably be excited to see Kleven get into some games down the stretch once the Senators have been mathematically eliminated from the postseason, but the defenceman’s arrival is a compelling story — even if it may not necessarily be a consequential one right now.
Like other NCAA defencemen, stepping from the collegiate ranks right into the NHL is not an easy transition. It often takes time for these players to develop and find their game at the professional level before becoming impactful players. Case in point, Jacob Bernard-Docker has spent parts of three seasons in the professional ranks. Despite being a more well-regarded prospect at the time of his selection at the NHL Draft and when leaving college, Bernard-Docker still has not developed into an NHL regular at this stage of his career.
Kleven has always projected as a safe floor third-pairing defenceman who brings a physical edge and has a hard shot. These elements are certainly in contrast with Ottawa’s other left defencemen and are easily observed, so they are qualities that even the most casual of fans can observe and appreciate.
In saying that, Kleven’s development and success will largely hinge on the subtleties of the game, however. Can he defend with his ranginess, gap control and active stick? Can he move the puck efficiently and quickly at the professional level where he will be forced to make decisions at a much faster pace than he is used to?
The answers to those questions will decide when he arrives at the parent level. As much as fans want to see what he can bring now, they should be patient and keep expectations in check. Development takes time and he should be afforded as much time as he needs in Belleville. The Senators’ depth at this position should help. It should afford the organization the flexibility it needs to be patient.
Injuries to Greig and Chychrun
In some horrendous news, D.J. Smith announced yesterday morning that Jake Chychrun would miss the next few weeks with a lower-body injury and that Ridly Greig would miss the remainder of the season with a sternum injury.
Just from a competitive and entertainment standpoint, it is never great to have talented players land on the shelf. It is important for a young prospect like Greig to get reps and develop at the NHL level, but in Chychrun’s case, the remainder of the season should have been used as an opportunity to experiment. By mixing up the team’s top two pairings, small sample size be damned, the Senators could have gleaned some important insight into which defenders should be playing with whom and which players are best suited to play their off-side.
That won’t happen now. At a time when creating chemistry and familiarity is important, Chychrun missing the next few weeks limits that opportunity and puts the team in a situation where these questions will, unfortunately, carry over into training camp or the preseason.
In a more positive piece of news, Mathieu Joseph is nearing a return.
The winger hopes to return and play this week. He has been dealing with another sprain that was similar to the one he suffered earlier this season in December.
Ownership Picture Getting a Little Clearer
During Thursday’s broadcast, Bruce Garrioch noted that the prospective owners would be touring the Senators’ facilities and LeBreton Flats yesterday. The parties would also be treated to presentations from Anthony LeBlanc, Erin Crowe and general manager Pierre Dorion on their vision for the organization moving forward. Garrioch ended his segment yesterday by noting that we should know who the next ownership group will be by mid to late April.
No specific party has really come to the forefront during the early stages of the process, but that is to be expected when the league is holding the cards so tight to its vest.
Elliotte Friedman indicated on the recent ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’ that he believes Neko Sparks had the highest submission during the first round of bidding. As the process unravels, some of the investors involved will be revealed and with Sparks’ entertainment background, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to see him be linked to some pretty big names. The ‘Coming in Hot’ podcast’s Brent Wallace linked Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as belonging to Sparks’ ownership group.
Without knowing the intricacies of the bids or the parties themselves, it is pretty difficult to have an informed opinion on who the best or most viable ownership group is, I do think what will really help whatever group ultimately wins is to have an understanding and deeper connection to this market.
During his ‘32 Thoughts’ segment on last night’s broadcast, Friedman acknowledged that bidders visited Ottawa Friday and would continue to over the coming days and weeks. Before adding, the lowest bidders during the first round of the bid submission process have been told to step up their offers.
Sutcliffe Quiet on Prospect of Subsidizing an Arena
Ahead of his meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Monday, Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe was mum on whether the Senators’ prospective new owners could rely on public money to help fund a new barn at LeBreton Flats.
Despite the appeals from Eugene Melnyk for public subsidy, Sutcliffe’s predecessor, Jim Watson, routinely asserted that public money would not be available for the arena’s construction. With the substantial evidence proving that sports arenas and stadiums do not spur economic growth, Sutcliffe’s unwillingness to rule out the possibility of public money being used to finance an arena raised eyebrows.
Looking past the headlines, however, Sutcliffe’s reflections were pretty innocuous.
"There's no question the city's budget is tight, and there are lots of other priorities, so I'm not a fan of putting city money into an arena, but it depends on so many factors," he told a news conference.
"We don't even know who the new owners are going to be, we don't know if they want to build a new arena, we don't know if they would want to do it on LeBreton Flats or they would want to do it somewhere else. There's a lot of hypotheticals here.”
Sutcliffe acknowledged that there is a role for the city to play in the process, but would not commit to dedicating public funds to the project.
When the federal land will essentially be given to the organization at no cost and the bidding process is expected to net multiple offers near the $1 billion mark, it’s hard to believe the public will have a large appetite to help finance the construction of an arena itself.
That is not to say that a downtown arena will not have a public benefit, but fans need to stop handwringing and perpetuating these myths that the team will leave if the city does not bend over backwards to accommodate a bunch of millionaire (or billionaire) investors. The league has already ensured through the bid process that any incoming owner has to be committed to keeping the team in Ottawa, so the fearmongering needs to end.
As Sutcliffe said, the city has a role to play in facilitating the transition to and development of a downtown rink. A large component of that will be in the continued development of the infrastructure around the rink to enrich the atmosphere and game day experience. Off the top of my head, perhaps it makes sense to construct a tunnel that runs from the LRT line directly into a prospective new rink to allow attendees to never have to brave the elements during the winter when it is -20 to -30 degrees outside.
Erik Brannstrom Taking Steps
After scoring a highlight reel goal and recording the first multi-point game of his season Thursday night against Tampa, it is time to give Erik Brannstrom a little credit for his performance this season.
As a puck-moving defenceman, Brannstrom’s modest point totals certainly leave something to be desired. And, his size and physicality will never endear him to the traditionalists who yearn for big-bodied defencemen who play mean and punish the opposing forwards in front of the net and along the boards.
The undersized defender relies on skating, gap control and his stick to disrupt the opposition’s possession of the puck which aligns him more with the modern state of the game — one that relies less on using the body to separate players from pucks.
There definitely is a debate to be had about how efficient a player like Brannstrom can be in the postseason where the games are tighter, the competition is better, and more time is spent battling in the dirty areas of the ice, but with Tyler Kleven’s signing and fans projecting defensive pairings, it’s not rare to see referendums on Brannstrom’s future with the organization be played out on social media.
After spending many words discussing the Senators’ left side earlier in this piece, I will not revisit it again in this space now, but Brannstrom does deserve a lot of credit for having a strong (and largely unheralded) season.
Hockeyviz looks at the isolated impacts of Brannstrom offensively and defensively and its data views the player as having a positive impact on the rate of expected goals the Senators create and prevent when he is on the ice.
In other words, when Brannstrom is on the ice, good things tend to happen. NaturalStatTrick’s data backs this up. When Brannstrom is on the ice, the Senators have largely been on the right side (50%+) of the shot and expected goal metrics. In fact, Brannstrom leads the Senators’ blue line in the percentage of total shots (CF%), percentage of total shots on goal (SF%), expected goals for (xGF%), and the total percentage of total scoring chances for (SCF%).
Despite these strong metrics, the on-ice results have not mirrored these numbers. The Senators have actually given up more than 50-percent of the goals (47.76 GF%) when Brannstrom is on the ice at five-on-five. Like many of Ottawa’s other defencemen, he has suffered from poor goaltending. Ottawa’s goalies have simply not bailed their teammates out often enough.
JFreshHockey’s data is less flattering on the surface when it comes to Brannstrom’s defending, but keep in mind, this work uses a three-year weighted average to calculate its percentile rankings.
What is important from the visual is that Brannstrom has markedly improved this season. His even-strength offence and defensive contributions are both trending up. If the Senators had better finishing and luck at five-on-five, Brannstrom’s numbers might take another step.
Now 23 years of age, Brannstrom will likely never fulfill the lofty projections that prospect analysts had when he was an amateur or when he was viewed as the centrepiece of the Mark Stone trade return. But, for a short while, you could not blame anyone for wondering whether Brannstrom would have a lengthy NHL career at all.
As a restricted free agent and with the organization’s depth, it is hard to say whether the organization envisions him as part of the team’s long-term (or even medium-term) future, but worst case, he has rebuilt his trade value after having it crater as a prospect. Brannstrom deserves a lot of credit for his strong season.
Other News and Notes:
The Athletic ran a poll to rank and determine which organization has the best goal song. The Senators came in with the second-most popular song, Blur’s ‘Song Two’, trailing the Seattle Kraken’s ‘Lithium’.
Dylan Ferguson’s new gear arrived and he was wearing it at practice today.