Senators opt for experience over youth on Opening Night roster

Experience over youth. 

That was the decision the Senators made on Monday when settling in on their Opening Night roster. The team’s young breakout star, 19-year-old defenceman Carter Yakemchuk, was sent down to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League, along with 21-year-old forward Zack Ostapchuk, who was assigned to the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League.  

On the team to start the season are veterans such as 31-year-old Nick Cousins, 28-year-old Adam Gaudette, 34-year-old Travis Hamonic and 28-year-old Zack MacEwen. 

It’s evident that general manager Steve Staios wants to surround his team’s relatively youthful core with veterans. Most of the team's stars, including Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Jake Sanderson, Drake Batherson and Josh Norris, are under the age of 26.  

Over the summer, Staios acquired Stanley Cup winners David Perron, Nick Cousins and Michael Amadio, who will be placed up and down the lineup on opening night. 

“As I watched our team last year, I felt like maybe we needed more of that (experience) at times,” Staios said this summer about his off-season acquisitions.

Sending Carter Yakemchuk back to the Hitmen is part of the plan for Staios to allow his younger players to mold into winning players.   

Yakemchuk turned heads in pre-season, scoring highlight goals, dishing out beautiful passes and using his physicality to move bodies out of the way. He led the Senators in scoring in the pre-season with seven points. But that wasn’t enough.  

“Carter had a tremendous training camp, but we made this decision in the best interests of his long-term development,” said Staios. 

Travis Green said the decision not to give the kid even a twirl in the NHL — at least so early in the season — wasn’t easy. He called it a long, thought-out process.

“Within our whole organization we went back and forth on it a lot," said the head coach. "It was not an easy decision to make.

"He probably just needs to mature and get older. He’s going to be a point guy; we foresee him being a top defenceman in the NHL."

Yakemchuk is on the cusp of the NHL. He already dominated in junior last season, scoring 30 goals in 66 games. In a perfect world, he might have been sent to the Belleville Senators in the AHL, where he could potentially develop more quickly by playing against faster, stronger and more mature players. But he won’t be eligible to play in the AHL until he is 20. 

Ottawa fans will likely see the young star shortly, when he plays for Team Canada at this year's World Juniors Championship in Ottawa. There is potential that if Yakemchuk continues to stand out in junior, he could be with the Senators by season’s end. Cale Makar and Charlie McAvoy were both called up as rookies to join their teams during the playoffs and had an instant impact after developing in the minors. 

The theme of experience over youth also shaped the Senators’ decisions for their fourth line heading into opening night. Surprisingly, the Senators waived Adam Gaudette on Sunday, even though he lit up the pre-season with four goals in five games. He was waived to get the Senators underneath the salary cap. In a surprise move on Monday, Green announced that having cleared waivers, Gaudette would start the season as the fourth-line centre.

“He’s played a lot of centre in the NHL, he had a good camp and deserves to be there,” said Green. 

Green will also keep the gritty, tough and experienced Zack MacEwen on the roster as the 13^th forward for insurance.

The result is that two younger players, Zack Ostapchuk and Jan Jenik, who performed well in the pre-season, will be sent down for now.  

Now that the roster is set let’s quickly dive into the lines and pairings.  

Forwards

Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux 
Greig-Norris-Batherson 
Perron -Pinto-Amadio
Gregor-Gaudette-Cousins
MacEwen 

Defence

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-Hamonic
Bernard-Docker 

All signs point to Green maintaining the Stutzle-Giroux-Tkachuk line. Last season, they played 305 minutes together with an expected goals percentage of 53 per cent (according to moneypuck.com), which was the best of any line that played over 200 minutes together for the Senators.

Nonetheless, Green says he’s prepared to mix and match. 

“I don't believe that players have to play with each other for a long period,” he said. 

Green jumbled the partners for his defensive stars, Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, during the pre-season. However, it looks as though Sanderson will start the season playing with Artem Zub, slotting Chabot over to be paired with Nick Jensen. The battle for the final spot on the bottom pair seems to have been won by Travis Hamonic, who took the majority of the reps at practice on Monday with Tyler Kleven.

“A veteran presence with an understanding of the game” was the way Green described Hamonic’s pre-season. “He came into camp in probably better condition than maybe years past. He's put the work in to rejuvenate his career, and he's had a good camp, too.” 

The blend of early-career stars and older, steadier veterans will be on display this season in Ottawa, aiming to transform a perennial loser into a winner.