Battles to Watch for Ottawa Senators’ 2024 Training Camp – Hockey Writers – Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators’ 2024 training camp opens in eight weeks. So now is the time to look to the training camp battles that will be played out at one of the very few spots on the Senators’ opening night roster that isn’t stacked with veterans.

Training camp battles are the stuff of compelling storylines that have gripped fans. The winners of these fights tend to be fan favorites. After all, who doesn’t love the underdog who came out on top?

Tonight’s Depth Chart for the Ottawa Senators is being drawn

On October 10 at 7 pm, the Senators will face the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at the Canadian Tire Centre. On the depth chart below are players who I think are a good lock for opening night.

If I am correct in this guess, there are only three program areas open at this point.

Who Had a Shot at Playing Fourth Center for the Senators?

I think only five players have a chance to walk the center ice on the fourth line as the season opens. These are Adam Gaudette, Jan Jenik, Matthew Highmore, Garrett Pilon and Xavier Bourgault.

Related: 5 Ottawa Senators storylines to watch in 2024-25

While it’s a long shot to make the show, Pilon will be interesting to watch. Now 26 years old, this is one of the few chances he has at cracking an NHL roster. Last season with the Belleville Senators he posted his highest points total in his six American Hockey League (AHL) campaigns. In the league’s Calder Cup Playoffs last season, he registered five points in seven games. If his camp isn’t good enough to earn a spot on the opening night roster at the very least, he’ll want to show that he deserves to be on coach Travis Green’s roster.

The same can be said for newly acquired Xavier Bourgault, whom Ottawa acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in July as part of a trade involving injury-plagued Robbie Jarventie. At just 21-years-old with two AHL seasons under his belt, he is still struggling to play a fourth-line center position.

Still, as my colleague at The Hockey Writers, Jacob Billington, wrote recently, in Bourgault, the Senators are “bringing in a bad player like Jarventie right now. But over the next few years, his very high ceiling could see him take over as a better player.” Bourgault will be aiming to turn heads in training camp and, like Pilon, earn a spot on Green’s roster this season.

Jenik is 23 years old, has played in four AHL campaigns and has 22 NHL games with the Arizona Coyotes under his belt. He has the potential to put himself on Green’s radar in September training camp. He was a respectable scorer in the AHL and shot lights out in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with two points per game in 2019-20 with the Hamilton Bulldogs. The team president and general manager (GM) that season was Senators GM Steve Staios.

Staios said of Jenik at the time, “He’s the best player in the league (OHL) in my opinion” (from, ‘SCOTT RADLEY: Injury to their best player is a disaster for the Bulldogs,’ The Hamilton Spectator, 1/1/20). That’s a vote of confidence that could prove crucial in Jenik’s battle in training camp to win a roster spot.

The sun has almost set on Matthew Highmore’s NHL career, and the upcoming training camp could be his last good chance to play in a Senators jersey. At age 28, he has 146 NHL games under his belt, but most of them were played with the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks from 2019 to 2022. replacement of injured list players. Although he is unlikely to make the team, a good practice could put Highmore high on the call-up list.

I give the strongest odds to Adam Gaudette playing fourth line center on opening night. It is true that his best days in the NHL are probably behind him. His last major league gig came in 2021-22 when he played 50 games with the Senators. Since then, he bounced around the AHL before being picked up by Ottawa on a one-year, two-way contract that will pay him $750,000 if he makes the team and $450,000 if he plays in Belleville.

Still, Gaudette has played 220 games in the NHL and arguably brings more to the fourth line than Pilon and Highmore. As for Bourgault and Jenik, they are young and the Senators may want to see them develop further in the AHL. All of that tells me the edge goes to Gaudette.

Who Could Play Their Way to the Third Pairing of the Senators’ Defense?

Left guard on the third pairing is Tyler Kleven’s job to lose. So thin is the team’s prospect cupboard, that you can make a case that the 6-foot-4, 205-pound bruiser is the most similar to all of the Senators’ depth at that position. Besides, with less than $2 million in cap space, it’s not like Staios can bring in more top-level talent for his blue line.

Related: 3 Senators Prospects Could Run In 2024-25

The competition for the right side of the third defensive pairing will be a dogfight. The contestants will be Maxence Guenette, Travis Hamonic, Jacob-Bernard Docker and Nikolas Mantinpalo.

On most nights, Hamonic will likely be healthy as the seventh defenseman. That’s where he spent most of his time last season. This and injuries – mostly due to his frequent blocking – limited him to just 48 games.

Bernard-Docker must feel pressure to keep his job. After all, the Senators suspended him before the start of last season and the rumors that Staios did not dismiss that he might be included in the trade list during the trade deadline last season. All this means that he is untouchable.

Furthermore, Mantinpalo will not allow Bernard-Docker to be ordained. At 6-foot-3 and 207-pounds the 25-year-old Finn brings the same size to the Senators blue line that Kleven does. Whether he can deliver Kleven’s brilliance is unclear. Still, with only 67 games in one season in the AHL, Mantinpalo may need an extra season in Belleville before making the jump to the big club in Ottawa. However, fans can be sure that at training camp in September, he will want to prove that he belongs in the NHL.

In the end, Guenette will be in a tough fight for a place in the third pairing of the defense. The 23-year-old was one of last season’s training camp finalists who hung around Bytown until Oct. 8 before being sent to Belleville. He saw action in seven NHL games last March as the Senators struggled with injuries. In his three seasons in the AHL, he improved each year. Although a long shot to make the program, with a good camp he could make it difficult for Staios to bring him back to Belleville.

The 2024 Senators’ Opening Night Lineup Is Not Set in Stone

Even though the 2024 opening night schedule looks almost set, that doesn’t mean training camp won’t be interesting to watch. There are still a few spots up for grabs and Ottawa’s long-shot prospects this season will get a chance to turn some heads.