As per usual, let’s look at the invitees. Typically these players are footnotes in Sens history, but occasionally one gets signed for the BSens (ala Fizer last year) or winds up with another organization down the line.
David Egorov, G, 18, OHL 23-24 22gp 3.86 .870
Backup in Brantford, I think he’s simply plugging a hole behind the two signed goaltenders expected to play.
Anthony Cristoforo, D, 18, OHL 67-7-31-38 0.57
Performed slightly worse than his rookie year (0.65), but at least he seems to know what the puck is for.
Lucas Moore, D, 18, OHL 66-5-21-26 0.39
No real improvement from playing in Hamilton the year before.
Ryder Boulton, C, 18, OHL 45-2-3-5 0.11
Seemingly here to provide a warm body if needed. Maybe he knows someone in the org–no clue on why he’s here.
Matthew Buckley, RW, 19, OHL 63-30-21-51 0.81
Breakout year after two unremarkable seasons with Oshawa (faded in the playoffs, however), although the numbers aren’t overwhelming for the OHL.
Niall Crocker, RW, 20, WHL 68-23-34-57 0.84
Coming off a career year with Prince Albert (just like Buckley above however, these are not overwhelming numbers for the league).
Mark Duarte, RW, 21, ECHL 36-14-10-24 0.66
Former OHLer is coming off his first pro season where he had decent (if not remarkable) ECHL numbers. This would be the Fizer equivalent, but Fizer was much more accomplished both in junior and an ECHL rookie ECHL (cf).
Ryan Humphrey, LW, 21, USHL 35-11-16-27 0.77
After bottoming out in the OHL with two different orgs, he made the jump to the USHL and put up unimpressive numbers with Green Bay.
Elliot L’Italian, LW, 18, QMJHL 49-9-11-20 0.41
These are not great numbers in the Q, so likely just another warm body (and fantastic name).
Stuart Rolofs, LW, 21, OHL 64-32-26-58 0.91
Tread water in his final OHL season. Local boy. Um. Er.
Jackson Stewart, LW, 20, OHL 65-4-10-14 0.21
A career year for Stewart in terms of ppg (yikes) and PIMs and you can guess why he’s here.
Landen Ward, LW, 18, WHL 63-3-5-8 0.13
Has a lot of PIMs. Nothing else stands out.
This is an unimpressive group and I think that’s largely because there’s no real space in Belleville for additional players (not that the BSens couldn’t use more talent, but that’s almost impossible without making a deal).
As for the signed players, just to briefly go over who is participating:
Forwards
Stephen Halliday (fantastic prospect)
Tyler Boucher (coming off IRL…again!)
Philippe Daoust (coming off IRL…again!)
Oskar Pettersson (plugger with skating issues)
Jake Chiasson (struggling ECHLer was part of the return for Jarventie)
Lucas Ellinas (one of the many projects picked in this year’s draft; he’ll be going back to the OHL)
Defense
Carter Yakemchuk (1st-rounder this year)
Jorian Donovan (turning pro)
Tomas Hamara (turning pro)
Djbril Toure (turning pro; FA whose first year of his ELC was burned in the OHL)
Matthew Andronovski (showed improvement last season, which earned him an ELC; heading back to the OHL)
Gabriel Elisasson (probably the most mocked pick in the draft, he’s headed to the NCAA to figure out what the puck is for)
Filip Nordberg (coming off an awful USHL season and is presumably heading to the NCAA)
Goalies
Leevi Merilainen (will backup Sogaard in Belleville)
Michael Simpson (AHL-deal; signed out of the OHL)
This article was written by Peter Levi
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