The Ottawa Senators have made their final cuts of training camp, setting their roster ahead of the opening night of the regular season.
The Ottawa Senators today announced that Logan Brown, Vitaly Abramov and Christian Jaros have been assigned to the Belleville Senators, effectively setting their opening day roster ahead of the 2019/20 NHL season.
This leaves the Senators with 24 players in their training camp roster, including both Rudolfs Balcers and Christian Wolanin, who will miss a significant portion of the season due to injuries.
There has been a wide range of reactions to the team’s decision to send down Brown, with players such as Scott Sabourin, Cody Goloubef and Filip Chlapik all remaining on the team’s opening roster.
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Brown, the 11th overall selection by the Senators in the 2016 Draft, had a strong season in the AHL in 2018/19, registering 14 goals and 42 total points in 56 regular-season appearances.
With the Senators looking to rebuild through youth, it is unsurprising that a number of their top young talents have been sent back to the minors for further seasoning.
Brown and Abramov join the likes of Max Veronneau, Nick Paul, Maxime Lajoie, Parker Kelly, Alex Formenton and Josh Norris as the top young prospects expected to play big minutes with the Belleville Senators next season.
While not openly talking about it, the Ottawa Senators will be determined to bottom-out this season to give themselves the very best chance at landing the first-overall pick in the 2020 Draft, with the top prize being a franchise-quality player in Alexis Lafreniere.
The team’s opening roster does also feature arguably the team’s best young prospect in Erik Brannstrom, who will be looking to develop his game in the top league after an AHL All-Star season split between the Chicago Wolves and B-Sens after his trade.
Outside of the aforementioned players, there are very few surprises with the Senators’ roster, though the decision to send Jaros down has been met with a large sense of disappointment from the fanbase.
What do you think though Sens fans? Are you pleased with the roster that D.J. Smith will have to start the season? Who would you like to see swapped out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!