Hands, legs, shot are all ‘100 per cent,’ Stone says as he prepares for camp
For the most part, summer hockey is shinny, a fear cry from the intensity and demands of a National Hockey League training camp.
Just the same, Ottawa Senators right winger Mark Stone is feeling the pull of main training camp, now only three weeks away. On Thursday, the Senators also released the 24-player roster which will head to London, Ont., for a rookie tournament Sept. 11-13. Optimism is in the air. “When you look now, you sort of see September coming up pretty quick, so I’m feeling pretty excited,” says Stone, who has also been part of the club’s travelling RV to cities and communities outside Ottawa.
“You see more and more (players) filing back into the season and there’s more enthusiasm towards the season.”
It’s foolhardy to read too much into anything that’s going on during informal scrimmages, but if there were any question marks about the state of Stone’s wrist — the sound and fury of P.K. Subban’s playoff slash was heard all the way from Montreal’s Bell Centre to the Canadian Tire Centre — he answered them Thursday.
“I’ve felt great out there, the last couple of skates,” Stone says. “The shot feels good, the hands feel good, the legs are starting to come along. I’m 100 per cent.”
The start of the summer was a busy one for Stone.
He finished a close second to Florida’s Aaron Ekblad in the Calder Trophy balloting for rookie of the year in June and he signed a three-year, $10.5 million contract extension.
“It’s a good chance to prove what I can do not only for one year, but for three years,” he says. “It’s a good term, good dollars.”
Stone ended up with 26 goals and 38 assists in 80 games last season, but the bulk of that production came in the final two months of the season as the Senators made that unlikely run to a playoff spot. In the first two months of the year under former coach Paul MacLean, Stone was juggled from line to line, without a set spot.
His game jumped to a higher level once he became a permanent winger for centre Kyle Turris.
From the start of February to the end of the regular season, Stone (14 goals, 22 assists) and Turris (15 goals, 21 assists) combined for 72 points in 34 games.
Barring an injury or a shocking development, the duo will be together when the 2015-16 season begins.
“We’re both pretty smart players, we see each other really well,” said Stone. “We had a few different (left wingers) due to injury, but we were still able to have success. It’s exciting. He’s a guy I enjoy playing with, a guy I enjoy being around.” Rookie roster set: The Senators rookies will play Toronto Maple Leafs rookies Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at London’s Budweiser Gardens. On Sept. 12 at 4 p.m., they’ll meet Pittsburgh prospects and on Sept. 13 at 4 p.m., they’ll go head-to-head against Montreal Canadiens hopefuls.
The Senators roster includes goaltenders Chris Driedger and Matt O’Connor, defencemen Chris Carlisle, Thomas Chabot, Marcus Crawford, Ben Harpur, Chris Rumble, Troy Rutkowski and Mikael Wikstrand, along with forwards Filip Chlapik, Vincent Dunn, Ryan Dzingel, Travis Ewanyk, Gabriel Gagne, Alex Guptill, Tobias Lindberg, Max McCormick, Nick Paul, Ryan Penny, Francis Perron, Matt Puempel, Buddy Robinson, Alex Wideman and Matthew Zay.