Should Erik Brännström play more?
In our (belated) weekly question, we ask: should the Sens’ young prospect be given more ice-time?
My apologies, friends, for the tardiness of this week’s edition of our Weekly Question. It will return to its regular Saturday posting next week.
This week we ask: should Erik Brännström be playing more?
Despite making the team out of camp, the young defenseman has failed to really earn DJ Smith’s trust. Brännström’s averaging a meager 13:46 a night, by far the lowest total among the regular defensemen (Mark Borowiecki is next lowest at 16:31). He hasn’t been spectacular, but it’s hard to argue he’s been bad either. The Sens are getting just over 48% of the shot attempts when he’s on the ice, and friend of the blog Micah McCurdy’s model at hockeyviz.com has him looking this:
He’s basically been totally average in every component. He’s not the world beater we’d hoped for, but he’s also probably been better than maybe Smith is giving him credit for. I will note that he played a season-high 16:44 in Buffalo on Saturday.
So, back to this week’s question: should Brännström be playing more than he is?
Should Brännström be playing more than he is?
| Yes, absolutely! | 50 |
| Yes, but maybe only 16-18 minutes | 109 |
| No, but he looks close to breaking out | 40 |
| No, he needs more seasoning; preferably in the AHL | 145 |