Four storylines to watch when the Ottawa Senators begin training camp next week

Training camp for the 2024-25 season officially gets underway for the NHL squad next Wednesday with medicals, physical assessments, and player interviews. It's a time of optimism and well-worn hockey anecdotes about player fitness ("best shape of his life") and team identity ("playing the right way").

For the Ottawa Senators and their fans, it's time for another attempt to end the worst drought of on-ice performance in modern franchise history: seven years of no playoff hockey in the nation's capital dwarfs the four year period from 1992-93 to 1995-96.

While much of the focus will be on the team's star players – Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson, Brady Tkachuk, Linus Ullmark – producing as expected, I've always been of the mind that hockey is a weak-link game, meaning that star players have less of an impact relative to sports like, say, American football or basketball, where you only go as far as your stars can carry you.

With the team's depth in mind, here are four key training camp storylines that I think Sens fans should follow closely.

I: Josh Norris, Shane Pinto, and Ridly Greig

By all accounts, the Senators look to have the best centre depth they've had – potentially ever – all fully healthy and accounted for to start the 2024-25 season.

Everyone capable of playing the middle, including Tim Stützle, have giant question marks hanging over them heading into camp. With the German süperstar, it's more about the status of his shoulder, and if summer rehabilitation has been enough to get him as close to 100% as possible. With the others, though, deeper questions remain.

Let's start with the easiest option in Shane Pinto. Having signed a 2-year bridge deal at $3.75M per season, Pinto's ready to take the next step in his development. Having initially broken into the league because of his two-way play and goal-scoring ability, Pinto's post-suspension return to the lineup for 41 games last season saw him display more refined puck-carrying ability and balanced offensive toolkit alongside bonafide top-six forwards like Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson or middle-six options like Vladimir Tarasenko and Ridly Greig.

The question for Pinto is simple: does Travis Green see him as a forward worthy of top-six minutes, like the 18-minutes per game he got in 2023-24? Or does Pinto return to third-line duty (~14-16 minutes per game) with a healthy Norris in the fold? If the latter, it'll be interesting to see if Pinto showcases the ability to drive play, especially offensively, in that role – there's plenty of room long-term for a matchup nightmare as your third-line centre. Just ask Jordan Staal.

Where Pinto plays implicates the other two players mentioned in this section: if Travis Green sees Josh Norris as a centre, which he's stated in pre-season interviews thus far, it's hard to imagine Pinto playing in the team's top-six. Moreover, Ridly Greig – who's been most effective as a centre with the team's skilled players – possesses a triumvirate of grit, playmaking ability, and footspeed suit the middle of the ice in ways that his colleagues don't. Will he still be as effective as a winger? Is that the best use of his talents?

Fundamentally, the biggest question mark is Norris: while his point production (16G and 30P in 50GP) was respectable, the team was crushed in terms of on-ice results at 5-on-5 regardless of his linemates (Tkachuk & Giroux, Tkachuk & Batherson, Greig & Batherson). If his 2024-25 is anything like is 2023-24, we might be talking about his contract as one of the worst in the league; if he's able to return to his form in 2021-22, the Sens look formidable down the middle for years to come.

II: David Perron & Michael Amadio

Both wingers with Stanley Cup rings, Perron and Amadio have taken the spots occupied last year by Vladimir Tarasenko and Mathieu Joseph and will be looked upon to provide middle-six scoring, off-ice leadership, and role-model three-zone hockey for Travis Green and company.

A consistent, top-six forward for most of his career, 36-year-old Perron is in the twilight of his career, coming off a respectable 17G, 47P performance in 76 games for the Red Wings after scoring 24G and 56P in 82 games the year prior. He played a little bit with everyone in Detroit, most commonly with Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin or Joe Veleno and Andrew Copp. He's made it clear that as he gets up there in age, he's more effective on the boards with the handedness advantage as a right-shot winger as opposed to the goal-scoring advantage he might have as an off-wing shooter on the left side. Given that Perron's likely lost a step in his skating, he's rightly worried about losing any other type of on-ice advantage.

Also (re-)joining the squad is right-shot winger Michael Amadio, who, like many young players carving out a role, has played all three forward positions in his career thus far. Over his two years in Vegas, where he established himself as a ~13-14-minutes per-game contributor, he most commonly played on the right-side of centres Chandler Stephenson or William Karlsson.

Given this, I'm interested in the following:

1. If the Senators play these two at their natural position, it means their right-wing depth is strong with Drake Batherson and Claude Giroux taking up (likely) top-six roles. Will an of these players be unhappy or less effective in a potential fourth-line role – something none of them are used to?
2. If there is a compromise, who does Green decide to move over. Is it one of the team's core players like Batherson to maximize his offensive toolkit? Or does he ask a newcomer like Amadio? One thing is clear to me: if Perron is the one who moves over, it flies in the face of what the player has said publicly this offseason, and I worry about his (already declining) on-ice results as a result.

III: How do Thomas Chabot and Nick Jensen look together?

Alongside Josh Norris, a healthy Thomas Chabot is probably the skater who has the most potential to impact the Senators' destiny this season. While Chabot hasn't missed the same amount of games as Norris, his nagging injuries has impacted his on-ice dynamism and diminished his value in the eyes of many fans.

Previously, the narrative around Chabot was tied to the raw amount of minutes he played on the ice, where he was regularly among the league-leaders in ice-time per game during the D.J. Smith era. That number has been slowly declining – from ~26-27-minutes per game to 25 in 2022-23, before reaching 23 last season and second on the team behind Jake Sanderson.

We then move to talking about the quality of his defence partner; after losing Dylan DeMelo, Chabot has either played with replacement-level NHLers like Nikita Zaitsev and Jacob Bernard-Docker or players on their off-side like Jakob Chychrun and Erik Brännström. When he has gotten to play with a right-shot player who's a bonafide NHL defender like Artem Zub, his results have been excellent.

These two narratives have course corrected, with Travis Green expected to continue the trend of growing Jake Sanderson's game as the team's number one defenceman (and highest-paid rearguard) as he likely opts to spread out the minutes among a more complete top-four with Zub and newly-acquired Nick Jensen.

The 33-year-old Jensen comes with a resume that's seen him consistently play a second-pair, 18-20-minutes per game role well for eight seasons. Last season, his ninth in the league, was probably his worst in terms of on-ice results, with the Caps worse off when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 in terms of shot and goal differential, and on the penalty kill than when he was on. It means that, like Perron, the Sens are rolling the dice on Jensen not being a veteran in decline. There's justified reason for optimism here: Thomas Chabot is a much better player than Jensen's two regular defence partners in Washington last season (Joel Edmundson and Rasmus Sandin).

Jensen might be tasked with stemming the third narrative surrounding Chabot: his tendency to get caught up in a "big" mistake that results in a goal against. Sens fans might be surprised to know that the team was better defensively when Chabot was on the ice versus off it last season because our memories are tied to big giveaway, defensive zone lapse, or inability to control the puck during key moments of play. If Jensen can play the steady, stay-at-home role and a fully healthy Chabot regains his ability to carry and pass the puck in transition, it'll have a huge effect on the Sens' ability to dominate teams.

IV: What the $%#* happens with the team's depth players?

At forward, there are four spots available for a combination of the following:

• new faces: Noah Gregor, Nick Cousins
• returnees: Zack MacEwen
• prospects: Angus Crookshank, Stephen Halliday, Jan Jeník, Xavier Bourgault, Zack Ostapchuk
• PTOs: Nikolay Kulemin

On defence, there's three spots available for:

• returnees: Travis Hamonic, Jacob Bernard-Docker
• prospects: Tyler Kleven, Maxence Guénette
• in-betweens: Filip Roos, Nikolas Matinpalo
• PTOs: Calen Addison

As it stands right now, if all we have to complain about this season is the team's fourth line and third defence pair, it means we've officially joined the club of playoff contending teams who are constantly tinkering with their depth pieces. At the end of the day, these players likely won't make or break the Sens season.

But, for a team likely in the bubble mix, efficiencies up and down your lineup can make a difference on a game-by-game basis – ultimately making a difference between the 2-4 points that could win or lose them a playoff spot in April.

As a storyline, I think how a coaching staff utilizes their depth players say a lot about their personal beliefs about how a hockey team can play. Dump and chase, playing it safe? Special teams specialists? Opportunity for youth? Skill with some warts? All of those combinations are available for Green and co.

Which of these storylines are you looking forward to following the most during training camp? Have I missed one that you're keeping your eye on? Let me know in the comments!