Fantasy Take: Sens Strengthen Depth Scoring with Perron and Amadio
Brennan Des
2024-07-01
The Ottawa Senators added some scoring depth on Monday, signing David Perron for two years and Michael Amadio for three.
Amadio is one of those players that will probably have more of an impact in real life than he will in fantasy leagues. He can play all positions and he's solid at both ends of the ice, but he seems destined for a bottom-six role given Ottawa's talent up front. As a result, it's unlikely he holds much fantasy value with the Senators.
Perron on the other hand has more potential for fantasy relevance, although he also seems destined for a bottom-six role next year. As it stands, Ottawa's top-six will be filled out by Brady Tkachuk, Shane Pinto, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, Tim Stützle and Claude Giroux. All six of those players seem like better options than Perron at this stage of his career. However, there is potential for Perron to break into that group as rumours swirl that Pinto wants out of Ottawa. Even if Pinto stays put, opportunity might come up through injury absences. Josh Norris has battled through many shoulder injuries in recent years, so it's plausible he misses time this season, potentially opening the door for Perron.
All that said, if the current top-six remains intact, I have a hard time seeing how Perron can be relevant in fantasy leagues while playing on Ottawa's third line. During his most productive years from 2017 to 2022, he was seeing 17-18 minutes of action a night, with a significant role on the power play. At 36 years of age, I don't think he'll be seeing such a high volume of action at this stage of his career. He managed a 50-point pace during these last two seasons in Detroit, but that was largely thanks to a prominent power-play role.
Although there are other forwards in Ottawa that would make more sense on the team's top power-play unit, Perron does bring a long track record of experience and success on the man advantage. For all the Senators' scoring talent, they finished 23rd in the league with an 18% PP success rate last year. Don't be surprised to see them test out new configurations early in the year, with Perron getting a look with the top group. A third-line/top-PP role might make sense, because you can't pay a player $4 million a year to just play in the bottom-six. Based on the size of his contract, there has to be more they're expecting from him. It's also worth mentioning that with Perron leaving Detroit's power play, Lucas Raymond should have less competition for top-unit time.
Aside from depth scoring, Perron brings a veteran presence that could help Ottawa's young core break into the playoffs for the first time.
Players this Helps
Ridly Greig (Better Linemates)
Players this Hurts
Dependent on Ottawa's Power-Play Lines