In the stretch of the season where Ottawa’s rewarding its prospects with looks at the NHL, the Senators announced yesterday that Matt Puempel has been recalled from Binghamton.
No corresponding move was announced at the time, but it implicitly suggested that Shane Prince would be take a sweet limousine ride all the way back to Binghamton.
News of Prince’s demotion eventually leaked out, which means thanks to the Clarke MacArthur’s injury, the Senators are still one natural left winger short.
It’s not a huge deal.
Erik Condra’s played on his off-wing a few times now and he looked great playing alongside Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Curtis Lazar on Wednesday versus Montreal.
Condra’s usage allowed Cameron to relegate Prince to fourth line duty with the incomparable David Legwand and Alex Chiasson. The writing was on the wall though when Prince only took two shifts in the third period with his team nursing their one-goal lead.
I suppose the organization could have elected keep around an extra forward, but as the demotion of Jean-Gabriel Pageau coincided with Prince’s own promotion, no one really should have expected the Senators to keep an extra body around and incur additional costs.
It was never part of the plan.
Instead, it was just a tease. A tease to the fans and a tease to the player: an example of the organization promoting its prospects ahead of the trade deadline and using their demotion as a motivational tool. The prevailing thought is that these demotions will keep their prospects hungry and eager to do whatever it takes to get back.
If anything, it makes Puempel’s promotion a little bittersweet.
I actually enjoyed watching Prince bring an element of speed and offensive creativity to the team’s bottom six where he’s a better fit than Puempel. Renowned as a goal scorer whose game has its limitations, will a bottom six role afford Puempel the opportunity to have success without playing with Ottawa’s skilled players?
It’s not like Dave Cameron will displace Mike Hoffman or even a resurgent Milan Michalek from their respective lines, so will Puempel simply replace Prince on a line with Legwand and Chiasson?
If so, colour me underwhelmed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m anxious to get a glimpse of what Puempel can do at the NHL level. As a player whose goal production season has dropped significantly from last year’s pace that saw him net 30 goals in 74 games to 12 in 51 and has had this drop explained by the graduation of skilled linemates like Stephane Da Costa and Mark Stone, I would prefer to see him play with skilled guys.
He shouldn’t have to be featured with guys like Legwand, Chiasson or even Cory Conacher.
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