The Ottawa Senators' future will be on display this week at the annual development camp.
With another NHL Draft and Canada Day Free Agent Frenzy behind them, the Ottawa Senators will spend some time checking on the kids this week.
The team will hold its annual development camp this week from Tuesday to Friday at Canadian Tire Centre and Bell Sensplex. The club announced the camp roster this morning.
It includes 17 players who attended last year's camp. All six players the Senators drafted on the weekend will participate, including defencemen Carter Yakemchuk and Gabriel Eliasson who were drafted seventh and 39th overall.
At 6-foot-7, 207 pounds, Eliasson isn't even the biggest defenceman at camp. That distinction goes to Djibril Toure (6-foot-7, 210), who was signed to his ELC last fall,
Other notables on the blueline are Jorian Donovan, who won a Memorial Cup this spring, and Ohio State's Theo Wallberg (6-foot-5, 195), who was highly impressive in the two Buckeyes games I saw last season.
Up front, Wallberg's former OSU teammate, 22-year-old Stephen Halliday, the oldest player at camp, will also be there. Halliday arrived in Belleville at the end of the season and was outstanding, with 9 points in 7 playoff games.
21-year-old Tyler Boucher won't attend. After another shoulder surgery in March, he hopes his chronic run of injuries is over and that he's ready to go this fall.
In goal, Leevi Merilainen is the big name. Ottawa's goaltending future is in limbo until Linus Ullmark makes a decision on an extension. But after Ullmark, Merilainen has as good a claim to the Sens goalie of the future throne as anyone.
It's interesting to note that there aren't many players in the pipeline who were high-end draft picks. Leaving aside the top two players from this year's draft, Yakemchuk and Eliasson, no one attending this camp was drafted inside the top 60.
