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Matt Duchene: Good Guy
Sometimes when you hear about what a professional hockey player (or any professional athlete) has done off the ice, it can be disappointing. We pretend like these guys are perfect and we revere them too much while also having too high standards. We know that there are some legitimately great people in the game though, and Matt Duchene is seemingly one of them.
That is a great story to hear, and everything I hear about him as a person has always been positive. In an off-season full of negativity and uncertainty, hearing this brought a smile to my face. He didn’t even have to do that much, but it made this person’s day. Good on him.
Farm System in a Good Place
I’ve been writing about the Senators farm system over the past week or so, and it’s making me reflect on where it stands amongst the league’s best. I don’t think it’s quite at the top because they don’t have a can’t miss prospect like Connor McDavid or Patrik Laine, but they do have quite a lot of depth, with the top-10 looking very solid. I’d say they are well above average compared to other teams, and without fully analyzing everything, I’d guess they would rank somewhere in the 7-10 range.
The Athletic’s Corey Pronman has been ranking each team’s farm system, and for what it’s worth,
he just ranked them at 13th, but this includes all players under 23 so if you take out players at the NHL level I think they'd do better. At least for this one publication, the Senators are at
worst slightly above average. This is the best they have looked since 2012 when it had players like Jakob Silfverberg, Mika Zibanejad, Robin Lehner, Matt Puempel, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, etc.
At least we should see a lot of younger players integrated into the lineup over the next couple seasons.
Exciting Battles to Watch in Camp
It’s still the middle of August, but we can get excited about roster spot battles for training camp. At forward, the locks are Mikkel Boedker, Matt Duchene, Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingel, Bobby Ryan, Marian Gaborik, Zack Smith, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Tom Pyatt, and Magnus Paajarvi. That covers 10 spots, although there’s a decent chance that Gaborik might not be healthy.
If we assume he’s healthy, then there are three spots open, with one of those spots being the 13th forward. Max McCormick is on a one-way deal, so there’s a decent chance he makes the team, plus Paul Carey spent the entire season in the NHL last year so they might have him penciled in for the 4C spot.
Besides that, there are a ton of youngsters battling against each other like Colin White, Filip Chlapik, Logan Brown, Brady Tkachuk, Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson. That looks like eight forwards vying for three spots, which will be incredibly fun to watch. If it were up to me, I think I would have White, Brown, and Tkachuk in the lineup and Chlapik ready to come up if Tkachuk only ends up getting a 9-game trial. No matter what, there will be plenty of competition.
Mike McKenna Brightens up the Room
If you don’t follow Mike McKenna on Twitter already, you should. Sure, he’s “only” the Belleville goaltender, but he is a great personality and really lightens the mood.
He also loves to get the fans involved, and even got them to help design his new equipment.
Just like Duchene, he reminds us that hockey players are regular people too, and he bridges the gap between fans and players. McKenna makes you forget that he’s a professional hockey player and not your buddy that you follow on Twitter:
If only more players were like that.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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