Senators head coach D.J. Smith won't have an easy time keeping everyone happy and fed this season.

In the early days of their incessant rebuild phase (as I flex my flair for understatement), Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith didn't quite have the power play artillery he does now.

In Smith's first game as head coach in 2019, his first unit power play was anchored by Thomas Chabot, with Brady Tkachuk running amok at the net. Smith rounded out his top unit that night with Colin White, Anthony Duclair and Connor Brown.

Four years later, Smith has a lot more ammo – a lineup loaded with gunners who'd look just fine on any power-play unit. The question is, how will he now deploy his upgraded troops?

Smith usually favours a 1-3-1 power play setup, as a lot of coaches do, with a single defenceman up top, three forwards lined up across the middle (one on each wing, one in a bumper position in the slot, and one down low at the net).

Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko, Shane Pinto, and Dominik Kubalik will all see power play time, but there's only room for four of the eight on the first unit.

Things are even more interesting on the back end. Assuming they stick with a one-D, four-forward setup, it's at least possible one of their top three defencemen won't get much, if any, power play time at all. With Chabot, Jakob Chychrun and Jake Sanderson, Smith must feel like a football coach with three legitimate starting quarterbacks. 

When healthy, Chabot has been the number one guy in Ottawa for a long time. But Sanderson's emergence as a star-in-the-making and Chychrun's arrival from Arizona are both sure to challenge the status quo.

What will happen and what should happen might be two different things here. Chabot is the beloved incumbent, the longest serving active Senator, who's being paid the most, by far. So, out of the gate, the 26-year-old has the edge. But we're banking on Sanderson wrestling the spot away from Chabot sometime this season, if not by opening night. Sanderson is that good.

With Chychrun on board as well, power play leashes will be short. When you have the extra man, how in the world do you keep a shot like this on the bench?

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tafHjV1Zxw[/embed]

As an aside, the Senators also have a surplus of skilled, left-shot forwards who like to be in that one-timer position, setting up shop on the right wing near the faceoff dot. That's going to be a key position once again in Ottawa's setup. For their three left shot defencemen, making a natural forehand pass to the right is easier, quicker, less predictable, and more accurate.

Stutzle often played that right wing spot on the PP last season. But now the Sens have Josh Norris returning and he's been historically excellent there as well. The Sens also have newcomers Vladimir Tarasenko and Dominik Kubalik who both thrived in that exact spot on their former teams.

It's tough to be a top scorer in the league – and get paid the really big money – if you're not getting the lion's share of power play minutes. So, for D.J. Smith, it's going to be an ongoing challenge to keep everyone happy. 

It's a relatively new concern for Smith and it's a problem he's thrilled to have.

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