Sens rookies get ready for camp
Prospects will get chance to impress NHL brass at September tournament
The Senators’ recess is almost over.
From the final day of summer development camp, their off-season will be just 66 days old when it officially comes to an end next week.
The team announced on Monday that 23 players have been invited to its rookie camp, which begins Sept. 7 at Bell Sensplex, and the annual rookie tournament runs from Sept. 8-10 at Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum and also features prospects of the host Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.
First-round draft picks Thomas Chabot, Colin White and Logan Brown headline Ottawa’s collection, which will practise at Sensplex on the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before heading to Toronto.
Guiding the group will be Belleville Senators head coach Kurt Kleinendorst, assistant coach Paul Boutilier, Senators player development coach Shean Donovan and Belleville video coach Dylan Crawford. Ottawa’s hockey staff will attend the rookie tournament to finalize the list of players that will be invited to the Senators’ main camp, which starts Sept. 14.
The rookie tournament schedule will open when Montreal plays Toronto on Sept. 8 (7 p.m.) and continue with the Senators facing the Canadians on Sept. 9 (7 p.m. and conclude with Ottawa playing the Leafs on Sept. 10 (4 p.m.)
Thirteen of the 23 rookies were drafted by the team, one was obtained in a trade, three were signed as free agents and six are on tryouts.
The goalies will be Marcus Hogberg (third round, 2013) and Jordan Hollett (sixth round, 2017).
The eight defencemen include Charles-David Beaudoin (free agent), Chabot (18th overall, 2015), Cody Donaghey (trade), Andreas Englund (2nd round, 2014), Macoy Erkamps (free agent), Christian Jaros (5th round, 2015), Maxime Lajoie (5th round, 2016) and Jordan Murray (tryout).
The forwards will be Drake Batherson (4th round, 2017), Brown (11th overall, 2016), Filip Chlapik (2nd round, 2015), Bobby Dow (tryout), Alex Formenton (2nd round, 2017), Gabriel Gagne (2nd round, 2015), Matteo Gennaro (7th round, Winnipeg, 2015), Parker Kelly (tryout), Francis Perron (7th round, 2014), Jack Rodewald (free agent), Pius Suter (tryout), Jordan Topping (tryout) and White (21st overall, 2015).