As the Senators make roster cuts ahead of Monday's 5 p.m. NHL roster deadline, coach D.J. Smith knows what the demoted players are feeling.
As the Senators made their final decisions ahead of Monday’s 5 p.m. NHL roster deadline, D.J. Smith knew what the demoted players were feeling.The Ottawa Senators head coach has been there, done that. As a player, he was sent to the minors, year after year.
Smith, who has been the Senators’ head coach since 2019, played most of his professional career in the American Hockey League. Selected by the New York Islanders in the second round of the 1995 NHL Draft, he put up 13 goals and 52 assists, with 190 penalty minutes for the Windsor Spitfires in 1995-96, his final season of junior hockey. He never played for the Islanders.
“When Cliff got fired, all of a sudden you’re not one of the kids that’s part of the new plan,” said Smith. “The new general manager brings his own guys in. I was upset to get sent down . At 20 years old, you think you’re ready . But I was nowhere close to ready. I went on to be a journeyman AHLer until I finally made in Colorado. Then I retired with concussions.”“I was that guy where it came right to the very end,” he said. “So, I know what it’s like to be those guys. I’m pulling for them.
LINING UP: In Sunday’s practice, the Senators had Tim Stutzle between Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux, Ridly Greig between Mathieu Joseph and Drake Batherson and Rourke Chartier between Dominik Kubalik and Vladimir Tarasenko. Asked about the top three lines, Smith said: “You’re going on the road so you don’t get last change. It changes without Norris, it changes without Pinto. That changes all the lines. Kubi has been really good in camp.
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