GARRIOCH: Ottawa Senators are hopeful that Zach Sanford’s experience will pay dividends

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The Ottawa Senators couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add some experience.

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So when general manager Pierre Dorion and senior vice president Pierre McGuire introduced coach DJ Smith and his staff to the prospect of acquiring winger Zach Sanford from the St. Louis Blues, the conversation turned into action.

That’s why the club sent Logan Brown, a 2016 first-round draft pick, to his hometown of the Blues on Saturday afternoon in exchange for the 26-year-old Sanford. The Senators need to score something upfront and he scored 10 with the Blues in the shortened 56-game 2020-21 campaign.

Finding a spot up front for Sanford won’t be difficult for Smith and the staff.

No, he did not play in Sunday’s preseason opener against the Winnipeg Jets at the Canada Life Center because he had not yet joined the team, but Sanford will remain left when he dons the suit. The expectation is that it will start with Colin White in the center and Nick Paul will skate down the right side.

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That will happen because White and Sanford played a season together at Boston College, so there is a certain familiarity there and Paul can play anywhere. Right now, he’s skating where Brady Tkachuk would normally be, but once he signs, Paul will be back in a third-row spot.

“(Sanford’s) was successful, they won, and they are a great body,” associate coach Jack Capuano said Sunday morning before the Senators left for Winnipeg. “Players I know who have texted me, like Keith Yandle texted me right away and a few other guys, to tell me he’s a great guy, hardworking and that his teammates will love him.

“For me those are the most important things. What happens on ice and DJ expectations, that’s very important, but to get that room together with a team-first mentality, those are the groups that win. You can see the leadership qualities of teams in the past that won the Stanley Cup and the coaches don’t have much to say because the room has taken over.

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“To bring in a guy of that caliber, we know what he’s done in the past.”

Sanford is a solid defensive player who should be able to help the Senators score some goals. He was 16 during the 2019-20 campaign and if he feels comfortable here it could be good for both him and the team. He won a Stanley Cup with the Blues and Capuano said he does not want to miss the opportunity to get those types of players.

A former New York Islanders coach, Capuano has seen firsthand what a Cup ring veteran can add because he saw what Johnny Boychuk (Boston) and Nick Leddy (Chicago) meant to his team.

“I draw on my experience, and I think DJ will tell you to go for it, when you bring in a guy like that, he has seen that culture and he has seen what it takes and more importantly he has seen how difficult it is to win.” Capuano said. “This is a league where there is a 60 minute battle every night. You can talk about it, but it’s hard to win and win consistently.

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“(Sanford) has done that and knows what it takes to do it. We wish Logan Brown the best, but this was an acquisition that DJ and Pierre talked about and if they didn’t feel like he would help and they wouldn’t have made the switch. We are looking forward to it. “

The Blues didn’t want to move Sanford, but they had no other choice. The club was over the $ 81 million salary cap heading into camp, and general manager Doug Armstrong was looking for a way to get some space. Brown grew up in St. Louis and this was an opportunity to give him a fresh start.

Taking Sanford’s $ 2 million salary off the books helps and Brown has a two-year contract.

“It was something that was done out of necessity, not out of desire to (move Sanford),” Armstrong said. “When we made our qualification offers in the summer, we didn’t know what was going to happen to (Tyler) Bozak, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to sign a free agent and what we would trade for (Pavel) Buchnevich.

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“All of those things added to the limit and it’s so much about meeting the limit. By doing that, we wanted to bring back a player with some advantage. Logan is a big man at 6ft 6in and is the No. 11 pick so he has a lot of pedigree. We hope to have you here. “

At some point, Tkachuk will be added to the mix. As a restricted free agent, conversations between Dorion and his Toronto-based agents Craig Oster and Don Meehan of Newport Sports have continued. The two sides have yet to close the gap to reach an agreement and are trying to find common ground for a long-term agreement.

The senators and Tkachuk were hopeful that this agreement would be in place by the time the camp started, but as the season approaches, the level of urgency increases for both parties.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch