Goaltender Chris Driedger Sent To Binghamton

After getting a taste of the NHL as serving in the role of back up to the most popular goaltender on the planet this past month, 20-year-old Chris Driedger will be in nets for the Binghamton Senators during their final stretch of the season.

With the recent success of Andrew Hammond for the Ottawa Senators, in the shadows lurking was Driedger as he saw some late game action in a mop up duty last Thursday against the New York Rangers making 10 saves in under 23 minutes of play in a 5-1 loss.

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Although he was forced and not necessarily based on merit, Driedger made the rare leap from the ECHL to his NHL debut becoming the first player to do it for the IceMen as Craig Anderson was sidelined with a hand injury, along with Robin Lehner out with a concussion.

The native out of Winnipeg, MAN was a third round draft pick by the Senators in 2012 and 76th overall has been buried in the Senator’s organization playing for the IceMen of the ECHL in Evansville, Indiana in the first year of an agreement with Binghamton. Driedger has a 8-27-4  0.885 Sv% and a 3.78 GAA in 40 games for Evansville, not exactly spectacular numbers to brag about, but neither did Hammond for Binghamton.

However, the team ended up dead last in the ECHL representing the North Division with only 36 points in 65 games, while going through 53 roster moves as they are wrapping up their season. Now Chris will be asked to make adjustments once again as he’s been in-between the pipes in all three leagues including two games earlier on in Binghamton.

This leaves the Senators with three goalies now for the final nine games, with Scotty Greenham and veteran Peter Mannino, as the club took a gamble on the 31-year-old on the downside of a 11 year career tending net in front of a very porous defense. Binghamton can only look forward to next season full of anticipation in who will be re-signed or let go as they should bring back Greenham and ride Driedger, and let Mannino walk as this latest experiment can now be put to rest.

The B-Sens are on an unfortunate path of not making the post season for the first time under the guidance of head coach Luke Richardson in his third season at the helm. Too much has been lost with the likes of Mike Hoffman, Stephane Da Costa, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Mark Stone, Mark Borowiecki, Cody Ceci and now Matt Puempel from last years squad. That’s some serious holes to fill and still remains.