The rugged 31-year-old winger spent the past two and a half seasons with the Ottawa Senators.
The rugged 31-year-old winger spent the past two and a half seasons with the Ottawa Senators.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were obviously in the market for a little more jam out of their fourth line this season. They've signed former Ottawa Senators winger Austin Watson to a professional tryout offer.
Watson played 176 games in Ottawa, bolstering the bottom six, scoring 22 goals and 37 points. The former Nashville first rounder was also a solid penalty killer during his time in Ottawa, even scoring three shorthanded goals last season.
Watson's calling card, as the image above indicates, was his willingness to be a wrecking ball. Sometimes it was on the forecheck, sometimes it was going to the net and, if an opponent needing sorting out, sometimes it was in a fight.
For NHL players named Austin, it certainly wasn't Wednesday's biggest signing (Austin, Auston; to-MAY'-to, to-MAH'-to), and signing a PTO was a far cry from what Watson was looking for earlier this year. He was reportedly angling for more than a one-year deal and so Ottawa let him walk into unrestricted free agency.
Once that was settled, the Sens signed former Philadelphia Flyer Zack MacEwen, a younger alternative.
Watson was certainly a well-liked character in the room. Teammates were inspired by both his positive energy and the way he's been able to rally and overcome his past battles with alcoholism, anxiety and depression.
You could see it in January, clear as day, when Dylan Gambrell (now with Toronto) spoke about Watson in the room and presented him with a sobriety chip on the fourth anniversary of being clean and sober.
Watson joins a couple of other former Senators at Tampa Bay's training camp in the form of Nick Paul and former Sens' first rounder Logan Brown.
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