TSN: Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion on TSN 1200 radio on pending RFA defenseman Erik Brannstrom and forward Alex DeBrincat.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “Pierre, with the improvement that Erik Brannstrom has made throughout the season, is it more of an interest of looking to bring him back and signing him to a long-term deal?
Dorion: “Well, in that one, yes. I think it’s a two-part question. So obviously bringing him back, yes.
One thing you have to realize, depending where we go with Alex, and we are going to qualify Alex at the end of the year, even if we don’t have a contract, cause we’re going to be a cap team.
So we might have to be a bit creative as far as maybe doing guys on bridge deals. Maybe doing guys on long-term deals but I think we’re just going to have be creative, especially for the 2023-24 year, I think 2024-25 we’ll be alright in our plan if the cap goes up.
But I think with young defensemen, people, I’m not going to say his name, but a really respected GM in the league told me one time in my first few years, you shouldn’t evaluate defensemen until they’ve played about 200 games in the NHL. I think Erik has now played 200 or is closing in on that.
So, and now we’re seeing him, we can’t forget how young he still is. So, he’s only 20-something years old, he’s played 188 games according to Gord, thank you, so I tink he’s really finding his confidence. Skating as well as he skated before. I think with Thomas Chabot’s injury he’s gotten more ice time, especially with Jakob Chychrun’s injury has got him more ice time. With Travis Hamonic’s injury got him ice time. And he’s really shown that he can play those minutes, so that really bodes well for us.
I think one position you can never really have too many is goaltenders and defenseman.
We’d like to bring him back obviously. I don’t know how the contract will look. I’d love to go to arb with (inaudible), it’s something I really enjoy. For all the times they’ve put the gun to your head, so we’ll see what happens but I think we should complement Erik and how he’s played, especially in the second half of the season.”