Jr. Sens 2, Grads 1.
Cumberland Grads centre Ben Hartley, left, tries to corral Jr. Senators winger Joshua Hartley during Ottawa’s 2-1 overtime exhibition win on Sunday, Aug. 28 at the Jim Durrell Complex.
Matthew Jay
The arrival of the Ottawa Jr. Senators training camp brought with it both good news and bad.
On the good side, head coach and general manager Peter Ambroziak was presented with a wealth of goaltending and forward talent with which to fill out the remaining spots on his roster for the new Central Canada Hockey League season.
On the bad side, he learned in the days leading up to the start of camp on Friday, Aug. 26 that he’d lost one of his top two defenceman and may lose one of his best forwards.
Blueliner Owen Werthner was invited to attend the Quebec Remparts camp, where the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club offered him the chance to join the club, which he accepted.
Meanwhile Dalen Hedges, a standout during his first season with the Jr. Sens, is mulling an offer to play in the United States Hockey League for the upcoming campaign.
The news that he might lose both players came as a surprise to Ambroziak.
“I found out about Hedges about two or three days before Werthner, so it was a tough week,” he said after watching his team defeat the Cumberland Grads 2-1 in overtime in an exhibition game at the Jim Durrell Complex on Sunday, Aug. 28. “But we wish them all the best. Owen has been doing fantastic in Quebec, and if Dalen decides to stay in the USHL, he’ll be successful there.”
Ambroziak was upbeat about some of the younger players who were invited to the camp. After watching more than 60 players at a prospects camp back at the end of June, the Jr. Sens invited only 42 back for their pre-season camp to fill what the coach described as about five or six spots on the roster once returning players are accounted for.
“I think we’re very strong goaltending-wise, we’ve got a lot of firepower up front,” Ambroziak said. “We don’t have the biggest forwards, so it’d be nice to add a little size.”
He highlighted rookie defencemen Cullen Van Strien and Mathieu Desautels and forwards Joshua Hartley, Riley Hennigar and Benjamin Robillard as players expected to step in to fill the void left by the likes of Werthner and Hedges.
The players are entering the new campaign with a sense of optimism, buoyed both by some of the new talent arriving at the club, as well as their early impressions of Ambroziak and his coaching staff.
“There’s a big difference with the way the new coaches handle things,” said Jr. Senators defenceman and captain Liam Burtt. “They brought in some new trainers which have created more of a professional atmosphere and a lot of the boys are responding well to it.”
A strong contingent of players who have at least a season under their belt in the CCHL puts the Jr. Senators in a strong position heading into the new season, according to Burtt.
“Last year we were really young – I think we had 11 rookies, which was probably the most in the league,” he said. “This year we’re looking at a number close to five or six, so a lot of the guys have adjusted to the Jr. ‘A’ level and they know what it takes (to be successful).”