SENATOR PROSPECTS WAIT TO LIVE OUT NHL DREAMS
Hope still reigns for those who toil for Ottawa’s AHL farm team in Belleville
Push the gas pedal a little and dodge the messy snow/freezing rain/flurries that often develop off Lake Ontario, and it’s an easy 2½-hour drive from Belleville to Ottawa.
For the Ottawa Senators’ farmhands toiling here in the American Hockey League, though, the 270-km trip to the NHL is always cloudy, sometimes feeling like it’s a million-kilometre trek.
“I would be lying to you if I said I wanted to play in the American Hockey League my whole life,” winger Ben Sexton said following a spirited late-morning practice at the vastly improved Yardmen Arena earlier this week. “Hopefully, that (NHL) dream comes true sooner rather than later.”
Sexton, 26, the son of former Senators general manager Randy Sexton, has rather quietly been on a roll, spending much of his time on lines with highly touted prospects Colin White and Filip Chlapik.
Since recovering from a concussion that kept him out of the lineup for most of the first half of the season, Sexton has scored seven goals and 10 assists in his past 16 games. He has five goals — including a hat trick — and seven assists in his past eight, and was named AHL player of the week in late February.
The hands are good enough for him to get a look in the NHL. He scored 19 last season with Albany.
The question is whether he needs to add a step or two to keep up to the NHL pace, which becomes faster by the day.
With all the speculation surrounding the Senators before the trade deadline — seemingly half the club’s forwards were included in one trade possibility or another — it would be easy for those in the AHL to lose themselves, wondering and waiting if they might receive a late-season call-up.
Every trade or injury at the NHL level presents a potential opening, which explains the presence of Jim O’Brien and Max McCormick in the Senators’ everyday lineup.
Sexton, though, says thinking too much about all of the above is wasted energy.
“I can’t control the moves they make or don’t make,” he said. “I have to keep developing every day with the guys down here, controlling what I can. I know it sounds cliché, but realistically that’s all you really can do. If you have that mindset, it’s always better.”
In many ways, Belleville’s season has mirrored Ottawa’s.
While Belleville stayed afloat early on, largely thanks to the goaltending of Andrew Hammond — traded to Colorado in the Matt Duchene deal — they’ve been hurt badly by injuries and inconsistency.
They sit last in the North Division with a 20-32-10 record heading into Friday’s game against the loaded Toronto Marlies, who have six players making in excess of $600,000 on guaranteed contracts.
As in Ottawa, it will be an early summer, with no playoff payoff.
Sexton, now in his fifth AHL season, recognizes part of his role is to keep the Senators’ younger prospects from becoming frustrated.
“I’m not old, but I’m not young, either,” he said. “You have to provide good leadership. Even though the year hasn’t gone the way the organization wants, players still have to get better. You work with the young guys, trying to set an example.”
One of those prospects is Gabriel Gagné, the 6-5, 21-yearold winger who leads Belleville with 18 goals. Gagné, drafted 36th overall in 2015, is sidelined with a shoulder injury. But after scoring only two goals with Binghamton of the AHL in his first pro season in 2016-17, he’s progressing well.
“For sure, I think about it,” Gagné said of possibly receiving a promotion to the NHL in the final weeks of the season. “I’m hoping to have my chance. I just need one chance and I’m going to prove to them what I can do. I’ve always scored — in midget, in junior, and I’m pretty sure I can score up there, too. If not this year, then it’s going to be next year.”
Like many young players, Gagné knows he has to improve his defensive game to become a complete player.
“I have to work on some stuff, and they want me to keep pushing myself and they have a plan with me. You just have to work hard and find a way to get (to the NHL).”
I would be lying to you if I said I wanted to play in the American Hockey League my whole life,