Ottawa Senators send Batherson and Chlapik down to Belleville
The Ottawa Senators have today announced that forwards Drake Batherson and Filip Chlapik have been sent down to the minors.
Drake Batherson and Filip Chlapik will play big minutes this season after the Ottawa Senators sent them back down to the Belleville Senators in the AHL.
After back-to-back losses to start the 2019/20 NHL season, head coach D.J. Smith needed to make some changes and that appears to start with Batherson and Chlapik’s ‘demotion’.
Both of the young forwards will be familiar faces on the B-Sens roster, with 168 AHL regular-season appearances between them.
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Chlapik was a surprise choice to start the season with the Senators, with just 34 points (16 goals, 18 assists) in the AHL last season, while Batherson was expected to stick around after dominating in the minors with 62 points (22 goals, 40 assists).
Now that the pair have been sent down to Belleville, having just one assist (Chlapik) between them in the opening two games of the season, 5-3 and 4-1 losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers respectively, they will be expected to take the next steps in their respective developments.
Strong seasons from the pair will undoubtedly give Smith pause for thought throughout a year where winning isn’t the largest barometer of success.
Batherson looks to be a key piece in the team’s rebuild over the next few years and has already shown he can compete at the AHL level, but ‘over-seasoning’ their top prospects may be the plan for the organisation, with the likes of Logan Brown also playing this year in the minors.
Having a group of talented young players make the jump up together after years of over-development will put the Ottawa Senators in a strong position far sooner than if the team opted to rush them into action in the NHL.
With Smith’s tenure with the Maple Leafs seeing him witness the arrival of the majority of their core at various stages, it is understandable that he may lean on veterans in the short-term in order to see the long-term benefits on the prospects expected to play key roles on the team.
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What do you think though Sens fans? Are you disappointed to see Batherson and Chlapik sent back down to the minors? Or are you happy they will get to dominate this season, play more minutes and truly push themselves towards jumping up permanently alongside a number of others next year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!