Mike Condon Clears Waivers, Mike McKenna Called Up
Sens doing some roster shuffling prior to tonight’s game
As expected, Mike Condon cleared waivers and the Senators decided to swap backup Mikes and call up Mike McKenna. As of this afternoon he has not been officially assigned to the Belleville Senators and remains in Ottawa. (Editor’s note: The Sens may be looking for another AHL team to loan him to where the salary could be shared, because they likely don’t want to pay him his NHL salary in the minors.) By all accounts, Mike Condon seems like a great guy to have in the room but he has hit a wall since last season and hasn’t shown any signs of improvement. I will assume they will try to get him some games in Belleville and see if that gets him back in some sort of groove. On the other end of the spectrum, Mike McKenna gets another shot at a NHL job with this call-up and it will be interesting to see at what level he is playing as the 35-year old only played 2 NHL games with the Dallas Stars last season (1-1 record) . McKenna is not a stranger to the Ottawa Senators organization as he was part of the farm team in Binghamton in the 2011-2012 season playing in 41 games with a 14-22-1 record. He has jumped around between the Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets, Arizona Coyotes, Dallas Stars and now back to Ottawa after he was signed as a free agent to be a mentor to our young goalie prospects down in Belleville. According to Ian Mendes, it seems that we may be seeing McKenna in action this weekend, I would suspect it to be on Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.
Listening to Guy Boucher this morning it would appear as though Mike McKenna will likely start one of the Sens games this weekend — either Saturday at Buffalo or at home on Sunday vs Tampa.
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) November 1, 2018
In other roster new, the Sens sent down Christian Wolanin and Jake Rodewald and recalled Nick Paul and Erik Burgdoerfer. I would’ve like to see Wolanin get more games here in Ottawa but I can see the Sens wanting him to get the extra playing minutes he wasn’t getting here. It seems the Sens are still trying to figure out this roster on a day by day basis which is to be expected with Guy Boucher. Nick Paul seems to be the experiment the Sens will never give up and considering the Sens are on a losing streak, it would’ve been nice to see someone more exciting like Drake Batherson. Burgdoerfer has 2 points in 10 games this season, he was signed as a free agent last summer and recorded his first NHL point in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning last March. Unless this move is just to get some fresh legs after a lengthy trip and take a good look at all the prospects, I don’t see the sense in the choice of Paul or Burgdoerfer and don’t suspect either will be making much of an impact.
