With a deeper blue line, it will be interesting to see how the Ottawa Senators use Jake Sanderson this season.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk may be only 23, but with five full NHL seasons under his belt and 359 games played, he's very quickly moving toward veteran status in the NHL. Tkachuk knows the league and its players, so when he hands out praise, it's meaningful.
Appearing as a guest on the "Dropping the Gloves" Podcast with former NHL enforcer John Scott, Tkachuk was asked to choose the most underrated player in the league. The one rule was that he couldn't select a teammate. Tkachuk laughed and chose one anyway, insisting that the correct answer is Jake Sanderson.
"Sorry! I'm breaking the rules," Tkachuk said.
It's not that Sanderson went completely unnoticed. With 32 points in 77 games, Sanderson, now 21, was voted to the NHL's all-rookie team and finished sixth in voting for the Calder Trophy. But Tkachuk thinks that was less than Sanderson deserved.
"Sandy's first pro season, what he did for our team right from game one, how much he made our team better – just the impact he had, the minutes he played, I just couldn't believe he wasn't even in the running for the Calder," Tkachuk said. "This guy's one of the most important players on our team.
"I'm excited to see what he's going to do for us this year because he's going to be an awesome player for us."
And one of the interesting things to watch this year is how head coach D.J. Smith plans to deploy Sanderson, especially with two other very good defencemen on top of the depth chart in Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun.
This just in: They can't all play 28 minutes and run the first unit power play.
We already know the Sens love Sanderson as a shut down guy. Averaging 3:17 a night on the penalty kill, Sanderson finished fifth in the NHL in that category, which was a lot to ask of an NHL rookie.
Meanwhile, Chabot is almost never used on the PK, and he's unlikely to start now. On the power play, the Sens like to roll with four forwards and a D, so the Sens generally save Chabot for that.
But it's fair to ask if Sanderson, the 5th overall pick out of North Dakota, might now be an even better option in that role.
As a skater and puck handler, Sanderson is at least Chabot's equal. In the offensive zone, Sanderson quarterbacks well with better pace, a better shot, and an incredible ability to hold the blue line, even when there's almost no room to do so.
No matter how he's ranked, how his minutes are divvied up, or whether he's underrated or not, Sens fans have a lot of reasons to be excited about Jake Sanderson, especially in a contract year.
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