When DJ Smith spoke earlier this week at the Ottawa Senators’ annual golf tournament he told reporters that he envisioned there being one or two sports available on defence, with probably two or three available upfront. I’m assuming it’s fair to take the head coach at his word on this, but I did some checking anyways.
A simple roster analysis shows that this is in fact accurate. As things stand right now I think it would be safe to assume that Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Connor Brown, Anthony Duclair, and Chris Tierney are locks to be playing in a top-6 role on the opening night roster.