Claude Giroux
Giroux is a 38-year-old depth winger for Ottawa, and for now he is a third-line player with second power-play-unit time, though his slot has changed often since the season began.
Role
Daily Faceoff's Senators page (fetched Nov 2, last updated Nov 1 evening UTC) lists him third on the forward lines and on the second power-play unit. That unit also has Greig, Pinto, Zetterlund and Chabot. The page is a flattened list, so I am inferring his slot from its order. Inside the Rink's Nov 1 preview at Anaheim projects Greig-Giroux-Amadio on line 3, with Giroux on the second power play. The first power play is Batherson, Halliday, Cozens, Stützle and Sanderson. I have no reliable current ice-time figure. One site's early-season average of 19.5 minutes is undated, and I could not confirm it, so I am not using it. Last season's 270 minutes over 16 games works out to about 17 minutes a night, but that came from a different role. He shares the right side with Batherson, Amadio and Zetterlund.
Optimists point to his history of playmaking on the third line with Pinto and Amadio. A Silver Seven Sens piece from the offseason credited that trio with a strong goals-for rate among lines that played 200 or more minutes. He still gets power-play time, and injuries to Burakovsky, Foegele and Eklund (ESPN's page) leave a thin forward group. He has repeatedly been moved up beside Stützle, as in the Oct 21 lines from Graeme Nichols and the Oct 28 SensChirp page. If that continues, his offensive ceiling is higher than a third-line role suggests.
Skeptics say he has lost a step and cannot carry a top-line role. The same Silver Seven Sens piece noted that his 262 minutes with Stützle and Batherson ended 10 goals for and 10 against. The Nov 1 projection and Daily Faceoff both have him on the third line and second power-play unit. Last season he had 10 points in 16 games with 1 power-play point, so the numbers we hold do not show a big production base. He is 38, and the lines keep changing.
Where analysts split
The open question is whether he stays on the third line or moves back up to Stützle's wing or the second line with Pinto. Different pages from this season show all three. SensChirp (Oct 28) and the Oct 21 lines had him with Stützle. The Nov 1 projection and Daily Faceoff have him with Greig on the third line. Early-October pages put him with Pinto and Amadio. Whether he holds a top-six role or stays in the bottom six depends on how the coaches fill the gaps left by the injured forwards.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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