AHL cancellation spells disappointment for deserving prospects

With the spread of COVID-19 across the globe, most, if not all professional and junior sports teams alike have made the decision to cancel or at least pause their respective seasons. The NHL, as well as the AHL and ECHL, were no exceptions to that, as the two lower leagues decided to cancel their seasons, while the NHL is on pause. 

Upon hearing this devastating news I thought of how bad this is for the development of all the Ottawa Senators prospects. Most of the teams’ prospects were playing for the Belleville Senators in the AHL, while some were in the NHL, and others in Europe.

Now all the players who were nearing a critical stage in their player development will need to put that on hold for a few months at least. The B-Sens were enjoying much success down in the NHL’s basement and seemed poised to sustain a prolonged playoff run.

This would have done wonders for the long-term development of the highly-skilled prospects that were a huge part of that team.

The 2020 playoff run was going to be the stepping stone for the star players on the B-Sens to gain experience winning, before the inevitable call-up early next year, hopefully permanent.

Now the plan is set back just a bit with the cancellation of the remainder of the American Leagues’ regular season and playoffs.

These essential players that were part of that extremely talented team worked hard throughout the year and truly deserve the excitement of playoff hockey.

For the players at the bottom of the Belleville Senators lineup, this was possibly their last chance before an influx of prospects arrives from the Senators draft picks in this year’s draft.

Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion will be making nine selection in the first three rounds of the draft as a result of clever wheeling and dealing on his part.

Two of those picks are slated to be picks in the top five, which is potentially franchise-altering in itself. With the rest of the picks, he will fill the already deep cupboard with players for a very bright future.