It was a black Friday for 20 Ottawa Senator hopefuls as head coach Travis Green cut deeply into his training camp roster.
Players assigned to Belleville Senators AHL camp on Friday include notables like Angus Crookshank, Stephen Halliday, and former first-rounder Tyler Boucher. Boucher got through camp in one piece and now goes to work in the AHL on a development that’s been stunted by injuries.
They’re joined by the likes of Wyatt Bongiovanni, Xavier Bourgault, Jake Chiasson, Phillippe Daoust, Jorian Donovan, Tomas Hamara, Oskar Pettersson, Michael Simpson and Djibril Toure. Bourgault is also a former first-rounder, who came from Edmonton in the Roby Jarventie deal. Jarventie still hasn’t recovered fully from February knee surgery.
Players placed on waivers include AHL all-star Max Guenette, along with Jeremy Davies, Nikolas Matinpalo, Garrett Pilon, Jamieson Rees, Cole Reinhardt and Hayden Hodgson. If they clear waivers, they’ll be assigned to Belleville camp. Keean Washkurak has been released from his PTO contract and will be assigned to Belleville camp.
So let’s divide what’s left of the Senators main camp roster into four groups: The absolute 100% locks to make the team, the probables, the possibles, and the others.
* indicates an injury concern
Locks
Linus Ullmark
Anton Forsberg
Jake Sanderson
Thomas Chabot
Nick Jensen
Artem Zub*
Tyler Kleven
Brady Tkachuk
Tim Stutzle
Claude Giroux
Drake Batherson
Josh Norris*
Shane Pinto
David Perron
Ridly Greig
Michael Amadio
Nick Cousins
Noah Gregor
The Probables
Travis Hamonic
Jacob Bernard-Docker (7th defenceman)
The Possibles
Adam Gaudette
Zack MacEwen
Nikolay Kulemin
Jan Jenik
Zack Ostapchuk
Carter Yakemchuk
Filip Roos
The Long Shots
Leevi Merilainen
Mads Sogaard
Calen Addison
Donovan Sebrango
Matthew Highmore
That’s still a lot of bodies for very few openings in Ottawa. Head coach Travis Green reminded the players that call ups happen all the time.
“If you look around the NHL, sometimes players just get a bounce and maybe someone gets hurt or someone doesn’t play well and you get called up,” Green told the media. “That’s how a lot of guys end up playing in the NHL, because training camp is short. You don’t get a lot of looks at a player and the games are all different in their own way with lineups that you have.
“So it’s a fine line between playing in the NHL and not.”
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