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Joe Allan of The Ottawa Senators
At last week's craft talk Joe Allan introduced guest speaker Cyril Leeder and several of his colleagues who were also in attendance. Cyril began his talk with a brief overview of the Ottawa Senators' organization and then talked about the upcoming season and what the hockey club has in store for Sens fans.
In 2007 the Ottawa Senators made it to the Stanley cup final. In the last 3 years the Senators have not been able to recapture that level of success so in this past year the Senators organization decided that it was time for some significant changes to the team. Although some of those changes were difficult (Fisher and Kelly trades) they were ones that would make the team stronger. The goal of the Senators organization was to build a team for continued success and not just a one hit wonder. The team is looking to do this by getting younger and faster players, giving them more opportunity to play and having some of the more veteran players such as Jason Spezza step up and take on more of a mentoring role.
The Sens currently have their eye on several young prospects
(8 defensemen, 1 goalie and 11 forwards) including David Runblad, Mark Borowiecki, Robin Lehner, Colin Greening and Eric Condra just to name a few. The Senators also have 12 draft picks in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft which is the most picks of any team. They are currently picking 6th overall and are still trying to move up. Picking 6th overall may not seem like a good thing but it has worked out for them in the past. Some of the Senators past late round picks include Daniel Alfresson (6th round), Chris Neil (6th round), Sami Salo (9th round) and Brian Elliott (9th round).
After focusing on the oranization and team/player component, Cyril moved on to discuss the importance of the upcoming Senators hockey season and what it will mean for the fans. The 2011-12 season is the team's 20th Anniversary season and will be filled with great events throughout the year to celebrate. The 42 games in the season will be broken down to having 20 games with a focus on celebrating the Sens 20th season (1992-93 team, 2007 Stanley cup finals, Local guys, Chris Phillips 1000th game etc.), 10 games celebrating the game of hockey and 11 games that will be Heritage games, highlighting the 11 Stanley cup wins of the original Ottawa Senators Hockey team. The upcoming Anniversary season will bring fans a heritage jersey which takes 5 of the Stanley cup winning jerseys and combines them into one as well as the 2012 NHL All-Star Game. According to Cyril the All-Star game is hockey's equivalent of the International Film Festival. This is not just an All-Star game on Sunday it is in fact a whole week of hockey events. Wednesday the players start to arrive, Thursday is the draft, Friday there is usually a special event such as a concert, Saturday is the Skills Competition and then on Sunday the All-Star game.
To learn more about the Ottawa Senators hockey club, visit their website at www.ottawasenators.com. To find out season ticket opportunities contact Joe Allan at (613)591-5404.
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