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Senators Roster Beginning to Take Shape

September 23, 2018, 2:35 PM ET [47 Comments]
Trevor Shackles
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You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS

With the regular season just 11 days away, we still don’t know exactly who will be making the Senators opening night roster. However, we’re one step closer to knowing, as they released a plethora of players down to Belleville this morning:




All of the seven players on waivers should clear pretty easily, and it was no surprise that Jack Skille ended up getting released from his PTO. Most of the 15 players assigned to Belleville (but not put on waivers) were always going to get sent down, although there are three players of note, and that is the first three names listed: Rudolfs Balcers, Drake Batherson, and Logan Brown.

I didn’t think Batherson had much of a chance to make it right out of the gate just because of the amount of rookies he was competing against, but now it is official that he’ll be in the AHL for at least a bit. Balcers surprised me a tad because although I initially thought he’d be spending the beginning of the year in Belleville, I changed my mind a couple days ago when writing about him, because he’s a damn good player and seems more NHL-ready than some of their other prospects. Brown is also a bit of a shock because he had a massive opportunity to take a 2nd or 3rd line centre role immediately with Jean-Gabriel Pageau out and a dearth of options at centre. Nevertheless, I don’t mind them seeing what Brown can do in the AHL first before calling him up later because they don’t need to rush him. I still think he will end up playing most of this season in the NHL anyway.

So now the Senators roster looks like this:

Forwards (15): Mark Stone, Bobby Ryan, Matt Duchene, Mikkel Boedker, Zack Smith, Chris Tierney, Ryan Dzingel, Tom Pyatt, Colin White, Magnus Paajarvi, Paul Carey, Max McCormick, Brady Tkachuk, Alex Formenton, Filip Chlapik (with Marian Gaborik, Clarke MacArthur, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau on IR).

Defense (9): Cody Ceci, Mark Borowiecki, Chris Wideman, Christian Wolanin, Dylan DeMelo, Thomas Chabot, Ben Harpur, Christian Jaros, Max Lajoie.

Goalies (3): Craig Anderson, Mike Condon, Mike McKenna.
The goalies are set in stone, and it’d be stunning if one of Wolanin or Harpur didn’t make it over Jaros or Lajoie, even though I don’t believe that Harpur should have that spot. For the forwards though, it’s a bit more intriguing. The Senators list 18 forwards left, but three of them are injured, so there will actually only be two more cuts (but potentially three). It looks like there are four spots available for six players, but some of them seem like more sure-things than others. I’d say Tkachuk, Formenton, White, Chlapik, Carey, and McCormick are in this battle, and in an ideal world they would keep those first four exciting prospects. However, McCormick has a one-way deal and I feel like they are going to keep him.

I really think that Tkachuk will stay with the team, and it looks like the organization is in love with Formenton as well. And who wouldn’t? His speed is electric, and putting him with Dzingel and Duchene would be a nightmare for opponents. However, I’m not sure if I would keep Formenton with the team as a 19-year-old, but it’s looking like a good possibility that they will. Carey is the most likely to get sent down, but that still leaves one more player to be sent down if we think that Ottawa is going to use McCormick as a Chris Neil replacement. Cutting any of Tkachuk, Formenton, Chlapik, or White could be rationalized, but as I said before, they are all much more talented and valuable than McCormick.

Who will it be that gets sent down then? It’s incredibly tough to say. I think Carey and White will be the ones to go, with White being the first one called up if need be. There’s a chance that Formenton just gets 9 games and is then sent back to London anyway, so I don’t think White will be in Belleville for that long. Having said that, I’ve been wrong already on a few roster predictions, because I thought Brown would make the team right away. There’s a definite logjam up front, and although the group isn’t very good per se (just yet), there are some interesting players to watch every night.

With two pre-season games left, Tkachuk, Formenton, White, Chlapik, Carey, and McCormick have to prove to the team why they should be in Ottawa and not Belleville.
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