Byrne says 67’s are competitive
By Ken Warren, The Ottawa Citizen
What’s gone is gone. It’s time for the next wave of talent to take over.
At least that’s the attitude Ottawa 67’s coach and general manager Chris Byrne is taking into the opening of training camp at the Fred Barrett Arena on Wednesday.
The graduating class includes former overage players Marc Anthony Zanetti, Mike Cazzola and Daniel Broussard, along with goaltender Petr Mrazek and forwards Tyler Toffoli, Shane Prince, Dalton Smith and John McFarland.
Between them, Toffoli and Prince scored 95 goals during the 2011-12 season, accounting for 35 per cent of the team’s total offence.
Byrne, however, believes the 67’s will have enough skill to remain a competitive team. Last season, the 67’s finished first in the East Division of the Eastern Conference and advanced to the third round of the playoffs before losing to Niagara.
“Going into every season, you want to win your division and I would expect that’s our goal at the start,” said Byrne.
“At Christmas, you see where you are and you see how you’ve developed.”
Byrne spent Tuesday fine-tuning details of training camp at their new location in Leitrim – construction at Lansdowne Park means the 67’s will practice at the Fred Barrett Arena and play games at Scotia-bank Place – beginning with a pair of late afternoon practices Wednesday. Players will then go through a pair of scrimmages on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Heading into the season, centre Sean Monahan and defence-man Cody Ceci – who both represented Canada at an exhibition series against Russian junior all-stars in August – are the club’s star re-turning players. Both are candidates to play for Canada at the world junior tournament in late December and January.
Monahan, who turns 18 on Oct. 12, scored 33 goals and 45 assists in 62 regular season games last sea-son, will be filling seats himself.
As a potential top five draft pick at next June’s NHL entry draft, a trail of scouts will be following him all season long.
Ceci, who was selected 15th over-all by the Ottawa Senators at last June’s NHL draft, scored 17 goals and 43 assists last season, while carrying the spotlight of being a potential first-round draft pick.
Byrne suggests that Ceci’s ability to deal with that pressure should help Monahan as he goes through a similar experience this season.
“He’s a really grounded kid and he saw what Ceci went through and how well he handled it,” said Bryne. “He has been a top player for his en-tire career and he has had lots of attention before.”
Monahan will be supported by a group of forwards who played in the shadow of Toffoli, Prince and Smith last season. Tyler Graovac, a Minnesota Wild draft pick who had a strong playoff last season, Ryan Van Stralen, Remy Giftopoulos and Steven Janes are among the players who will benefit from addition-al ice time.
The 67’s also expect first round pick Dante Salituro, a centre who scored 47 goals and 44 assists as a minor midget with Don Mills last season, to deliver points. Left winger Andrew Abou-Assaly, an Ottawa Jr. 67’s star who was weighing NCAA possibilities before being selected by the 67’s in the third round of the OHL draft, should also produce offence.
On defence, Ceci will be surrounded by overager Jake Cardwell and returning veterans Sean Callahan, Ryan Shipley and Mike Vlajkov. Jonathan Duchesne, a stay-at-home defenceman drafted in the second round of the OHL draft and Nevin Guy, an offensive defence-man from Winchester who was taken in the fourth round, will also push for playing time.
In goal, overager Keegan Wilson takes over the number-one job from Mrazek, who has played 102 games and won 62 games during the past two seasons. Wilson was acquired from Brampton in a trade for Nicholas Foglia.
