NHL Rumors: The Ottawa Senators see Thomas Chabot as part of their future

TSN 1200: Darren Dreger on TSN 1200 radio on the Ottawa Senators and what Thomas Chabot’s future could hold.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Graham Creech: “Just wanted to ask you about Thomas Chabot’s play. He’s, he’s been a guy that has come under criticism of fans and in media and speculation of maybe he’s one of the guys that gets moved here. But I think he’s played real well since returning from injury. Just a thought that what you’ve noticed on his play and, and his potential future, I guess, here on the Sens blue line.”

Dreger: “Well, look, I mean, he’s a beacon right? Sometimes he’s a beacon for positivity and sometimes he’s a beacon of negativity, you know, in the fan market. And I understand that but, you know, management doesn’t see Thomas Chabot’s play the way that I would say is his loudest critics from a fan perspective see him.

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You know, he chews up a lot of minutes. He has tough matchups, and guess what, he plays a hard position. So he’s not going to be flawless every single game and maybe, you know, in certain shifts, there’s a risk and there’s a reward.

But I, I think that he’s done a decent job of kind of smoothing out some of the rough patches of the defensive side of his game. He needs some good luck to shine down on him. He needs a healthy season and he hasn’t been able to do that. And that’s not his fault. Sometimes that’s just how the dice fall.

But I can tell you that you know, amid all of the (Jakob) Chychrun speculation leading up to the trade deadline, there was always kind of at that dark undercurrent that said, ‘They’re trading the wrong guy, Tom Chabot is the guy that they are we should be talking about.’

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Well, that’s fine. You can have your opinion, you know, you’re educated, knowledgeable hockey fan based on a strong Canadian market, but that’s now how management looks at Thomas Chabot. They look at him as being a key part of the future.”