Thomas Chabot is now five games into his NHL audition. Sort of. Except, as the season nears the two week mark, Chabot has been on the Ottawa Senators' roster for five games, but has played just a single game.

The Senators need to either play him and let him grow his game while living with the mistakes, or send him back to the Saint John Sea Dogs and grow his game.

Having Chabot sit around and practice can only do so much, he needs game action to get better, regardless of where that action is. He could be well served with a dominant season in the QMJHL and then be ready for prime time next season. If the coaching staff isn't ready to play him every night either as a 7th defenseman, or to play him as a six to bump off one of the duo on a relatively weak bottom pair, then that isn't going to change in practice.

Now I am not sure what the plan is for this road trip, but Phil Varone was put on waivers and will be sent to Binghamton Monday morning, so the Senators will be without an extra forward on the trip unless Curtis Lazar (or another Binghamton forward) is recalled, which is entirely possible if not probable. Matt Puempel would be the 12th forward if another move is not made, or Boucher could go back to the seven defenseman/11 forward alignment.


The bottom line is, like so many players in his position, the ideal spot for Chabot is the AHL but that is not an option. He needs to play, whether that is the NHL or QMJHL level. At this point I would be leaning towards sending him back to get big minutes in the Q and play a big role on Team Canada at the World Juniors again.

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