The Senators announced their training camp roster yesterday, a rather large group of 61 players, including all of the players who participated in last weekend's rookie tournament.
However, there were no surprise veteran free agents to be invited on a tryout, which is a very good thing. This team is being built for now and the future, and bringing in a veteran who might be a bit of an upgrade for now but would take away development time from a younger prospect would be counter-productive. There was talk of Martin Havlat joining the club a couple of weeks ago, but thankfully he is heading to Florida's camp instead.
The actual number participating will be 58, as Chris Phillips, Michael Sdao and Buddy Robinson were named but will miss camp with injury.
The players will report for physicals on Thursday and hit the ice on Friday in advance of their home and home split squad games against the Leafs on Monday night.
You can see the complete list of 5 goalies, 21 blueliners and 35 forwards at ottawasenators.com.
It is getting oh so close to real hockey! You can smell it in the air.