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The "Snakes and Ladders" Of Senators Training Camp |
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Ek's note:
Jared Crozier is a lifelong fan of the game of hockey and has participated in the sport as player, coach, fan, certified official, parent, and journalist. A native of the Ottawa Valley, he was a fan of the Calgary Flames prior to the arrival of the Ottawa Senators, dating back to their 1986 Finals loss to the Habs. He became a Senators fan when the team came into the league in 1992-93 and waited through the lean years and enjoyed more recent successes of the franchises.
Jared is a graduate of the Honors Bachelor of Commerce (Sports Administration) program from Laurentian University (class of 1998) and has covered the Senators for almost 4 years as a writer and editor of SenShot.com. He currently resides in Aylmer, Quebec.
Every year at training camp players can make a name for themselves, or they can go the other way make themselves almost redundant. They can surprise or they can disappoint.
I call it Snakes and Ladders, based on the once popular kids board game (I don't know if anyone plays that any more, but I am sure there is an online version somewhere). Players can either climb their way up the board, or the depth chart as it may be, or they can misstep and slide their way down to the point they have to climb back up.
I am not saying that many of these players will claw their way onto the opening night roster, or off it for that matter, but they have certainly put themselves into a larger spotlight and gained notice either for good or for bad.
From what I have seen as the Senators camp has broken up into largely NHL and AHL rosters, and what I have heard, here are some of my risers (ladders) and fallers (snakes):
Ladders
Matt Puempel - All the guy does is score goals. He did it at the rookie camp, he did it in the intrasquad game in Newfoundland and he has done it in exhibition play. He got 30 goals in Binghamton last year and if he can prove he can skate at the NHL level, he could be an answer for any offensive woes that the Senators might come upon. He is looking more like a Dany Heatley (in his prime) type sniper. He might not get 50, but in the right situation could get 30-35.
Frederik Claesson - With the injuries to Marc Methot and Eric Gryba that have kept them out of some or all of training camp, Claesson has had the best opportunity to get involved in better situations and by all accounts has helped his status with the club. He isn’t going to wow you with flash and dash, but is a steady and reliable blueliner.
Nick Paul - He was returned to his North Bay junior club early on, but after the St. John's trip coach Paul MacLean singled him out as an impressive performer who legitimized his recent skyrocketing profile. We will certainly be hearing more about him in the coming years.
Snakes
Shane Prince - Although he scored against the Leafs, Prince hasn't had the kind of show-me camp that many expected the super-skilled winger would have entering his third pro season. Maybe it is because I covered his Ottawa 67’s team for two seasons and I saw his quick maturation at that level and I expected a faster rise. He has just kind of been there, and hasn't stood out like I would have hoped and anticipated.
Eric Condra - The more people that jot their lines down on their cocktail napkins, the less Condra figures into the mix in any way. It's not necessarily for anything he has or hasn't done himself, but simply because there are so many players who can do what he does, contribute more offensively and might be cheaper. He has been injured for much of camp so he hasn’t got much opportunity to show his development. He is a UFA at the end of the season, and there has been no talk about re-sigining him like the “big 4” and if the Senators can find someone to take that last year of his contract off their hands I am pretty sure the Senators would like to move him.
Patrick Wiercioch - The emergence of Cody Ceci and his puck moving ability combined with Wiercioch's lack of consistent play resulted in Wiercioch finding a seat in the press box more than he would have liked last season. Wiercioch hasn't done a lot this pre-season to put himself into the category of "must dress" on a nightly basis and like Condra could find himself on a one-way ticket out of town at some point.
As I said earlier, this doesn't necessarily mean the players in question will or will not be on the roster when it is settled later this week (and maybe as early as later today), but changes could come sooner rather than later if the desired results aren’t there.
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