Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith has introduced to the media, including Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, that defenseman Thomas Chabot will likely be out for four to six weeks with a fractured hand.
This loss is a large one for the Senators and one other occasion of dangerous information in what has been a brutal week for the franchise. It started when one of many workforce’s prime younger facilities, Shane Pinto, was suspended for 41 video games. Then final evening Erik Brännström left the sport on a stretcher due to damage, and now at present it’s introduced that Chabot is going through an prolonged absence after fracturing his hand on a shot block.
The Senators had been taking a look at this yr as a vital one, one the place they’d step out of their rebuild and at last return to the playoffs.
A stable begin was seen as important to the workforce’s possibilities of competing in what will likely be a cutthroat Atlantic Division playoff image, however as of proper now the Senators sit tied for final place with a 3-4-0 file.
Without Chabot, the Senators will want to substitute some crucial minutes on their again finish.
Partnered with Jake Sanderson on the workforce’s prime pairing, the 26-year-old $8M defenseman hasn’t had the strongest begin to the season, although he has weathered main minutes for Smith’s membership.
Chabot presently performs essentially the most minutes on the Senators, averaging 24:19 per evening. That determine consists of over three minutes per evening on the membership’s energy play. He’s confirmed to be able to scoring at a 50-plus level tempo, and even with some defensive struggles he’s inarguably one of many workforce’s most essential gamers.
The lack of Chabot signifies that as a substitute of getting a star blueliner on his pairing, Sanderson will possible have to be paired with a less-accomplished blueliner. The ongoing damage to Artem Zub doesn’t assist issues both, as Travis Hamonic is taking part in top-four minutes consequently.
With Zub out as nicely, it’s possible that the Senators can have to dip into the defensive depth they’ve stashed within the AHL so as to make ends meet on the NHL degree. That possible signifies that a participant similar to Tyler Kleven or Lassi Thomson will land on the NHL roster.
While the Senators nonetheless have fairly a a little bit of expertise on protection even with out Chabot (Chychrun and Sanderson are each wonderful, for instance) this can be a main loss for the Senators, a significant loss at a crucially essential juncture of their season.
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