With a perfect road trip through Western Canada in the books, the Ottawa Senators made a couple roster moves ahead of their upcoming five game homestand.
First, they announced that 18 year old Alex Formenton is being returned to London of the Ontario Hockey League. It’s a move that we all knew was coming at some point but the only question was how long the Senators wanted to keep the kid around.
A 2nd round pick in the 2017 Entry Draft, Formenton came out of nowhere during Training Camp and Preseason and forced his way onto the roster. Formenton clearly has NHL speed and he combines that with a relentlessness and determination well beyond his years.
Formenton appeared in just the one regular season game, becoming the youngest player in franchise history in the process. While it was clear that Formenton wasn’t going to be here all season, he should gain some valuable experience being around the team for the last couple weeks. Those NHL pay cheques won’t hurt either.
Formenton now goes back to London, where he’ll join a Knights team that has struggled badly in the early going. They are 1-8-1 through their first 10 games and have been outscored 40-18. It will be interesting to watch Formenton’s progression as a player this season.
The other decision was likely a little more difficult for the organization. Thomas Chabot has been returned to Belleville of the American Hockey League after a pretty strong showing during the three game road trip.
Chabot registered 2 points in the 3 games out West, was a +4 and averaged 13:40 a game.
It was never the organization’s intention to call up Chabot this early but injuries forced their hand. With Erik Karlsson now seemingly ready to return, Chabot and his two way contract became the odd one out. For now, anyway. It’s only a matter of time before he’s back here with the big team. Either because of additional injuries or because they move out a defenceman to make room.
These last few games proved that Chabot can play at the NHL level.
| Player of the Game Voting | 1st (3 pts) | 2nd (2 pts) | 3rd (1 pt) | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Anderson | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Derick Brassard | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Mike Hoffman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mark Borowiecki | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mark Stone | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Kyle Turris | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Cody Ceci | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Dion Phaneuf | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Bobby Ryan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Freddy Claesson | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mike Condon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The Senators are on the ice for practice this morning and as expected, they’ve been officially joined by a familiar face.
He’s back. The coach confirms that Erik Karlsson will play tomorrow against Vancouver. #Sens pic.twitter.com/AkalqiIBop
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 16, 2017
Here’s how Boucher has his team lined up this morning.
Ryan-Brassard-Stone
Smith-Turris-Dzingel
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Thompson-Brown-Burrows
Phaneuf-Karlsson
Oduya-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Borowiecki
Craig Anderson gets the start tomorrow night.
