Other than goaltending, the centre ice position seems to be the clearest part of the Senators line up with the start of a new season rapidly approaching.
Kyle Turris. Mika Zibanejad. David Legwand. Zack Smith.
Yet, in a recent interview on TSN1200, Zack Smith talked about where he sees himself fitting in next season and mentioned that in the season ending discussion with Head Coach Paul MacLean, the two of them discussed the possibility of Smith playing the wing.
He did it from time to time last year and could be asked to fill that role at times again this season.
As a centre, Smith often found himself with Greening and Neil on his wings and it dramatically limited his offensive potential. If Smith can take the odd shift on the wing, it may give him the opportunity to play with more talented players and improve on the 13 goals and 22 points he put up last season.
Despite the limited offensive production, Smith averaged 15:31 of ice time a game last season. With Turris, Zibanejad and Legwand ahead of him on the depth chart, he could be hard pressed to reach those same ice time totals this season. Although as we saw during the 2013/2014 campaign, MacLean is a big fan of Smith and usually finds ways to get him out there. After a goal against, on the penalty kill, faceoff in the left circle- all times when MacLean had a tendency to lean on Zack Smith. The addition of another defensively responsible left shot centre in David Legwand should give MacLean another option in those situations.
Having Smith as a winger could also open up a spot for Jean Gabriel Pageau, who has sort of become the forgotten man heading into training camp. He was last year’s Lazar, the young player that the Senators had to make a spot for. This year, Pageau and his two way contract appear destined to get caught up in a numbers game.
My guess is Smith starts the year as the fourth line centre. Things already look pretty busy on the wings with ten guys (MacArthur, Stone, Michalek, Ryan, Hoffman, Chiasson, Greening, Condra, Neil, Lazar) fighting for the eight spots. With that said, having Zack Smith as an option on the wing should give Paul MacLean more options throughout the season.
Loading …-A reminder that tickets for all individual games went on sale this morning at 10:00 AM. This is your best chance to get great seats at affordable prices to the games of your choice. Head over to Capital Tickets to get your hands on some seats for next season (which starts in like a month, by the way!). You know if the Senators really wanted to create some buzz today, maybe they could announce a signing of some kind? Just an idea.
-This is a big weekend for the Sens Foundation as they host their yearly bottle drive. The Returns for Rogers House campaign is this weekend (September 6th and 7th). 100% of the proceeds from all returns to The Beer Store are being donated to Roger’s House. You can find out more about this great initiative over on the Sens Foundation website and in the video below.
