SENATORS' ROOKIE CAMP AS NORMAL AS POSSIBLE IN PANDEMIC, SAYS SCOUT
Development a warm-up for back-to-back road games against Montreal Canadiens
Frosh week will get started Saturday for the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators unveiled their roster for their combined development and rookie camps that will get underway on the weekend at the Canadian Tire Centre, with 24 players participating.
Three first-round picks — defencemen Jacob Bernard-Docker and Lassi Thomson along with forward Ridly Greig — will be among the participants in the camps that will end Sept. 20. Centre Shane Pinto, who finished last season with the Senators after signing from the University of North Dakota, will also be on hand.
Nine of the players taking part spent time with the club's AHL affiliate in Belleville last season.
Once the development portion of the camp has been completed the rookies will play two games against the Montreal Canadiens. The first is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18 at home, and the second for Sept. 20 at 4:05 p.m. at the Habs' practice facility in Brossard, Que.
The Senators are excited to get the opportunity to see where some of their prospects stand. Last year they weren't able to have one because of COVID-19, so this is a good opportunity to catch up with the players in the organization.
“It's important to have some sort of development camp, and even though it's not normal it feels like a return to normal,” chief scout Trent Mann said on a Zoom call from his New Brunswick home Tuesday. “It's important for our staff to get to know these players a little bit better.
Zoom and phone calls are great, but to get to spend face-to-face time is important to start building these relationships.
“That way we can better help in their development plans and … they can feel more comfortable with the people that are helping them in their development moving forward.”
Of course, this version is scaled down. Top prospects like Jake Sanderson, Tyler Kleven and Tyler Boucher are unable to attend because they're attending NCAA programs and can't miss school to attend a development camp. Talks were held with European players but their training camps are well underway and exhibition games are already being played.
“That's the downfall of not having something normal,”
Mann said. “Normally, we'd have something right after the draft, and the draft would be at the end of June and we'd get to spend a week with them to get both sides comfortable with where we're going and put in a plan in place” for the next season.
“It makes a little bit more difficult. It would be great to have them here, but that's just not the case right now. We just have to find different ways to make sure we're connected with those players. This year, we'll get a chance to watch them live and to spend a little more time with them as well.”
Eighteen of the players attending the camp were drafted by the Senators, and the club has also extended invitations to six free agents.
Four of the six players the club selected in the 2021 NHL draft in July — Carson Latimer, Zack Ostapchuk, Ben Roger and Chandler Romeo — will be on hand, and a total of 10 were selected in the last calendar year. Goaltenders Mads Sogaard, Kevin Mandolese and Leevi Merilainen are among the participants, along with forward Egor Sokolov.
Many eyes will be on Pinto. He suited up for 12 games at the end of last season after leaving the University of North Dakota, showed tremendous maturity in his role as a second-line centre and has a chance to win a job coming out of camp. He finished with one goal and seven points but also looked comfortable at both ends of the ice.
Those two games against the Habs' rookies will give Pinto, Bernard-Docker and Thomson an opportunity to get ready for main camp, which gets underway Sept. 22. Of that trio, Pinto has the best chance to be in the opening-night roster against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 14 at home.
Pinto dominated in the faceoff circle, and that makes him a valuable commodity. Unless the Senators make a deal, Pinto has a job to lose going into camp. General manager Pierre Dorion and coach D.J. Smith were both pleased with the way he finished the season, so he has to pick up where he left off.
Mann doesn't believe that's going to be an issue.
“The one thing I know about Shane is he battles every day to get better,” Mann said. “He's intrinsically driven to be better and better every day. He's bugging — and I mean this in the most positive way — the development coaches and he's talking to the coaches to have more strength coaches to improve.
“Knowing Shane, he's done his homework and he'll know certain tendencies of certain players
(in the faceoff circle) that you
It’s important for our staff to get to know these players a little bit better.
play against, and he'll continue to learn because there's a lot of players he didn't play last year. … He's a bright kid, he understands where he's at and the areas where he lacks. The work ethic is there and he'll gain the experience over time.”