{"id":138590,"date":"2023-07-01T11:16:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=138590"},"modified":"2023-07-01T11:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:16:36","slug":"ottawa-senators-defenceman-erik-brannstrom-signs-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/01\/ottawa-senators-defenceman-erik-brannstrom-signs-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators Defenceman Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m Signs an Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/senators\/\" target=\"_self\">Ottawa Senators<\/a> have signed RFA, left-hand shot defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/branner01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m<\/a> to a one-year $2 million contract. General Manager Pierre Dorion announced to wrap up an extra layer of insulation of defence. For Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m, he seemed to show a glimpse of the skating abilities everyone had hoped for in the latest NHL season. You may recall Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m was the key return in the 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stonema01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Stone<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/02\/25\/ottawa-senators-trade-mark-stone\/\" target=\"_self\">deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m Signs Extension with the Ottawa Senators<\/h2>\n<p class=\"x_p1\"><span class=\"x_s1\">Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m was originally a 15th overall draft pick by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/vegas-golden-knights\/\" target=\"_self\">Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> in 2017. He made his NHL debut as a member of the Ottawa Senators back in 2018-19. Since that time he has amassed 190 career games, registering four goals, and 45 assists for 49 points. One may point to his lack of production. However, consider through his career he only has 273 career power-play minutes. As an extreme counter-example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/karlser01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erik Karlsson<\/a> tallied 278.4 minutes for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/sharks\/\" target=\"_self\">San Jose Sharks<\/a> last year. It is a general consensus, given Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m\u2019s skating, he would produce much more given power play opportunity. Hopefully with the assurance of this contract, the team feels confident giving Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m the opportunities and he takes advantage of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"x_p1\"><span class=\"x_s1\">What Does This Mean in the Organization<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"x_p1\"><span class=\"x_s1\">For the Ottawa defence corps, \u201cBranny\u201d as he is affectionately known is a versatile, role piece. The news that Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m signs is underrated. He is a strong skater, not afraid to take a hit, and great at puck retrieval. Therefore, he helps supplement some of the more defensive types like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zubar01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Artem Zub<\/a> or youngster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/klevety01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Kleven<\/a>. The Ottawa D is now loaded with star power since the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/03\/01\/jakob-chychrun-traded-arizona-coyotes\/\" target=\"_self\">2023 trade deadline acquisition<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/chychja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jakob Chychrun<\/a>. Furthermore, the signing of Branny helps to shore up the depth. It gives the Sens at least seven solid options ahead of training camp. Having depth on the backend is a must for teams thinking of the postseason, and the Sens fit that description.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ottawa Senators have signed RFA, left-hand shot defenceman Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m to a one-year $2 million contract. General Manager Pierre Dorion announced to wrap up an extra layer of insulation of defence. For Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m, he seemed to show a glimpse of the skating abilities everyone had hoped for in the latest NHL season. You may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":138661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4547,34,4548],"tags":[1586,871,70,1166],"class_list":["post-138590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senators","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-erik-brannstrom","tag-mark-stone","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-pierre-dorion"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}