In less than three weeks (!), training camps will open across the National Hockey League.
For veterans, it’s a chance to get back in game shape after a long summer while for the younger guys, it’s an opportunity to work their way up the depth chart or in some cases, earn a spot on an NHL roster.
Here in Ottawa, there appears to be a couple roster spots up for grabs both up front and on defence. There are openings among the team’s top six forwards, maybe a spot or two in the bottom six and eight NHL defenceman battling for the six available spots on opening night.
One spot that isn’t in debate however- the first line centre position.
Despite giving up a point-per-game centre in Jason Spezza in an off season trade with the Dallas Stars, the Senators are confident the 25 year old Kyle Turris is ready to step up and fill that void. There will be questions about whether or not Turris is ready for the role but anyone who has watched closely over the last two seasons will know he’s already proven that he’s up to the challenge.
For Turris, it’s now about maintaining that level of production over a full 82 game season.
During the lockout year when Spezza was injured and for long stretches last season, Turris was actually this team’s number one centre. Last season, with Clarke MacArthur and Bobby Ryan on his wings, he was actually drawing tougher defensive assignments than Spezza. That started to shift a little bit once Ales Hemsky was brought in at the deadline but Turris showed for long stretches that he could was able to take on that responsibility.
And he looked damn good in the process…
While the team struggled defensively for most of the season, Turris and his linemates stood out from the crowd. Along with an impressive 58 points in 82 games, Turris carried a team best plus/minus of +22 (compared to a -26 from Spezza). I know there’s a tendency to dismiss the stat these days but the fact that Turris had such a huge lead in this category says something about his play at 5 on 5.
While Turris isn’t expected to be that point a game guy, his hard working two way game fits in well with the identity the Senators will be looking to adopt next season.
It’s going to be interesting to see who MacLean puts with Turris to start the season. The obvious starting point is to go back to that MacArthur-Turris-Ryan combination that worked so well last season but in order to take some of the pressure off of Turris, it might not be a bad idea to start Ryan on the second line with say, Michalek and Zibanejad.
Turris will also be expected to take on a bigger role on the team’s power play. This is probably the part of Spezza’s game the Senators will miss most and they’ll be counting on increased production from Turris to help fill the void. His 14 power play points was third among forwards and eight points behind Spezza. Turris can expect an increase to his 2:24 in power play time a game. Spezza was up above 3 minutes a game last season.
There are a many questions that need to be answered for the Ottawa Senators in training camp and during the preseason games. “Who’s the number one centre?” is not one of them.
Kyle Turris appears ready to take on that role on a full time basis this season.
