Ottawa Senators Look Forward to Kyle Turris Returning
The Ottawa Senators have approached this offseason with a calm attitude of conservatism regarding their roster.
Although contract disputes with Mike Hoffman and Cody Ceci have been the biggest obstacles encountered by the team, they have largely maintained their roster from last season.
A big reason why the front office hasn’t felt the urge to make a big splash with acquiring a reinforcement is the return of Kyle Turris.
Turris had an interesting season last year. He missed 6 games with a lower body injury during a stretch that began in late January and ended in early February, and then he missed the last 19 games of the season with a sprained ankle.
Turris started off the season with great productivity, including a 4 game goal scoring streak in late October that stretched into early November.
The last point he registered during the season was on January 9th, though. Even before his injuries, he had entered into a prolonged scoring slump. In his last 10 games before his lower body injury forced him to miss time, he only had 2 assists.
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He went 15 games immediately prior to the injury without scoring a goal, and only had 2 goals in his previous 24 games.
He came back from his lower body injury and played 11 games, failing to register any points. In his final 21 games of the year, he had a total of 2 assists. It deserves an asterisk because of the injury, but it’s still alarming.
In his final 35 games, he had 2 goals. This was a guy who had 24 goals, 40 assists, and 64 points during the 2014-2015 season.
Turris finished last season with 30 points in 57 games. That total is remarkable considering the scoring drought that Turris finished in. At one stage of the season, Turris had 24 points in 28 games.
The Senators are optimistic that he can once again regain that rate now that he will be recovered from his ankle injury.
His point totals with Ottawa had gone from 29, to 29, to 58, to 64 with the Senators prior to last season. His 28 game stretch with 24 points indicated that he looked like he was about to have his best season yet.
Unfortunately, he slowed down even before the injuries hit, and then he wasn’t able to be effective coming back from the lower body injury before finally being sidelined for the rest of the season with the ankle injury.
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Turris is a speedy skater who has proven to be an impressive goal scorer in the past. The Senators will be counting on him to return to his 2014-2015 levels, and that potential has largely held the team back from making any drastic roster transactions.