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Thomas Chabot Needs To Have A Statement Year

October 26, 2022
Jack Richardson

   Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot officially began his 6th full NHL season when the puck dropped in Buffalo a few weeks prior. In those 5 seasons, the Senators haven’t so much as sniffed the playoffs, being a lottery team each year.

   But with expectations higher in the Nation’s Capital than ever before in his career, Chabot will need to be a catalyst for the group if they’re to have any hope of ending the longest playoff drought in franchise history. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why the 2022-23 season is a statement year for Thomas Chabot:

Ice Time Management

   As mentioned before, Chabot is currently the longest-serving Senator with 5 seasons under his belt.

   He spent much of his rookie season paired with Erik Karlsson, a pairing that signaled the changing of the guard on the Ottawa blueline.

   Since that season, Chabot has been the #1 guy on the back end. According to Quanthockey.com, Chabot ranks 10th all-time among active NHL defensemen in ice-time per game at 23:55 for his entire career. Last season, Chabot was 1st in the NHL for average TOI at even strength with 22:32, a full minute more than second-place Roman Josi.

   That’s a lot of hockey for a young defenseman to play, especially on a rebuilding team. Now that things are starting to turn around on paper, a headline for the season will be whether or not he can play the same minutes on a playoff team. With more options on the blueline this year, Chabot will have to start earning those minutes as opposed to being the default option.

   Can he handle a large workload when winning is imperative? It will certainly be a storyline to watch this year.

Apparently A “Bad” Contract

   A few weeks ago, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun sat down with Senators GM Pierre Dorion to discuss his busy summer. In the article, LeBrun speaks anonymously with league executives about the Senators for an outside perspective on how the team is being constructed.

   One quote stood out in particular, regarding Chabot’s contract: “The Tkachuk extension looks good, and he will be underpaid. The Chabot extension not so much. They’d like a do-over on that one.” The full article can be accessed here.

   Sens fans were quick to discredit the executive, as Chabot’s deal is on the lower end of some other young, top-pair defensemen around the league. I don’t agree that it’s a bad contract and that the Senators would like a redo, but I will say this: as of right now, Chabot hasn’t outplayed his deal.

   His contract was so important when it was signed and that fact has probably been lost over time. Chabot’s 8-year-extension happened in September 2019, the first long-term deal of the rebuild. It showed fans that the players really did believe in the process being put in place and that management was intent on keeping their promise to the fans.

   On top of that, Chabot is only the 17th highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. I’d argue he’s in the 9-12 range when it comes to ranking all the defensemen in the league, so from a certain point of view, he is underpaid.

   3 years after signing, Chabot can officially silence any doubters with a big season.

Powerplay Battle

   The best way for an offensive defenseman to produce is on the powerplay. Much has been made of the Senators’ new powerplay lines, and Chabot’s name is brought up in most debates about who should play where. Some have suggested that Head Coach DJ Smith should load up the top unit with 5 forwards and exclude Chabot entirely.

   Since Erik Brannstrom somewhat solidified himself as a regular during the shortened 2021 season, I thought he should take over for Chabot on the top unit. Aside from giving Chabot some well-earned rest, Brannstrom has also proven he’s better suited for a powerplay role at times. His puck movement at the top of the umbrella makes the powerplay harder to defend against and opens up more options for those around him.

   Sometimes it feels like Chabot is a split second slower than he needs to be. It probably seems more apparent now because of the way Tim Stützle sets the pace, but Brannstrom seems to meet that pace when he’s paired with the top unit. Jake Sanderson is another player who could inject himself into the mix eventually as well. He looked pretty good on the 2nd unit during the preseason and will only get better moving forward as he acclimates to the NHL level.

   The powerplay is a great way for Chabot to strengthen his offensive production and eclipse his career-high 55 points from 2018-2019. There’ll be no shortage of weapons this year and he should benefit from them.

The Backbone

   Make no mistake, Chabot has been this team’s MVP for the past few seasons. He’s had virtually no help on the backend while being paired with less-than-adequate partners. But now that reinforcements have arrived, he needs to take his game to the next level.

   Thomas Chabot has been through hell for this franchise and he needs to be the catalyst for that turnaround Senators fans have been longing for. He knows how important this year is:

-Jack Richardson

Twitter: @jackrichrdson

Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.