Training camp starts this week.
Perhaps you didn’t hear me. I said, TRAINING CAMP STARTS THIS WEEK!
After a seemingly endless summer, the start of a new NHL season is almost upon us. The Senators will begin training camp with a golf tournament tomorrow, medicals on Wednesday and their first on-ice session on Thursday. As always, training camp will be a bit of a whirlwind with the first preseason game(s) on Monday night. They’ll kick things off with a split squad game in Toronto and here in Ottawa.
And with the hockey news starting to pick up in the last few days, let’s do a quick round up of all the Sens related news and notes.
-The Senators wrapped up their annual Rookie Tournament yesterday afternoon with a 2-1 win over the rookies from the Montreal Canadiens. Matt O’Connor stole the show stopping 47 of 48 Montreal shots. Obviously that’s a great sign for O’Connor heading into the main camp this week. Right now it looks like O’Connor and Chris Driedger will battle for the next in Binghamton most of the season. I would give O’Connor a slight edge at the number one spot down there but Driedger is expected to push him for playing time all year.
-Perhaps more than any other player, Max McCormick really turned heads at the three game weekend tournament. He finished the tournament with 2 goals and 2 assists and showed exactly why the organization likes him so much. He’s an energy guy that’s seems close to being ready to play at the NHL level. Obviously there’s a bit of a logjam in front of him right now but don’t be surprised if McCormick continues to impress during the main camp and preseason. He’s pretty high on the organization’s list of potential call ups in 2015/2016.
-While I really liked what I saw from some of the more mature prospects like McCormick and Lindberg, I actually came away pretty impressed with Thomas Chabot as well. The first round pick in this year’s draft looked surprisingly comfortable playing against a lot of older players and showed flashes of why the Senators scouts thought so highly of him. Chabot is such a smooth skater and moves the puck so well. Going to fun to watch him develop over the next couple seasons.
-Bruce Garrioch had an interesting article this morning which featured a sit down with Senators General Manager Bryan Murray. Lots of interesting stuff in there including notes on the team’s attempt to add a forward this summer, the negotiations with Mike Hoffman and expectations for Jared Cowen this season.
-Also interesting to note that in a separate article, Garrioch suggested that Bryan Murray has not completely ruled out returning as General Manager beyond this season. Murray’s current contract as GM ends after this season at which point he is expected to take on a role as Consultant. Murray indicated that while he still expects that’s the route he’ll go, he’s going to have a chat with Eugene Melnyk about his plans in the near future.
-There had been plenty of talk about the possibility of Martin Havlat signing a tryout agreement with the Senators leading up to training camp but obviously Havlat has decided to go in another direction. While the Senators did indeed talk to Havlat’s agent about the possibility of a PTO, Havlat must have felt like he had a better shot of making the team in Florida. I’m pretty biased on this one because Havlat is one of my all-time favourite Senators but it would have been pretty cool to see Mach 9 back in a Sens uniform. Realistically though, the Senators would have had a hard time finding room for him.
-Speaking of bringing back fan favourites, the Senators are closing in on a decision for exactly what role Daniel Alfredsson will take on with the team next season. It’s expected the role will be “part-time” for the next year, as Alfredsson will spend another year living in Detroit before officially moving back to Ottawa. An announcement on Alfredsson’s role is still anticipated prior to training camp.
