Deep down we knew it was going to happen, but it was still annoying to see Nikita Zaitsev paired with Nick Holden to start training camp while Jake Sanderson was paired with Travis Hamonic; suggesting that both Zaitsev and Hamonic are projected to be on the opening night roster. That alignment doesn’t exactly inspire confidence given that it’s very similar to the one they ended last season with (Sanderson of course being the wildcard here), but let me provide a little bit of optimism.
The Sens currently have six defensemen on one-way contracts plus Sanderson, so I’m guessing Brännström will start out as the seventh defenseman and be rotated in if anyone gets injured or falters.