It has been a long off-season, but there has been no shortage of work as Troy Mann prepares for hockey’s return.
The Belleville Senators are scheduled to start the 2020-21 AHL season on Feb. 4, so not only is Mann trying to put pieces in place for training camp, he’s also working with Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion, assistant GM Peter MacTavish and goalie coach Pierre Groulx to complete the club’s coaching staff along with the roster.
Ready to make a push for the AHL’s Calder Cup last spring, Ottawa’s AHL affiliate hasn’t suited up since the league went on pause March 11, but Mann, along with assistant David Bell and video coach Frederic Lemay, have been in their offices at the CAA Arena in Belleville on a daily basis getting ready for whenever camp gets underway.
“My understanding is that we would be part of the main camp and there’s potential that Ottawa may start a little bit earlier,” Mann told Postmedia on Wednesday from his office. “When that is time will tell. We’ve heard mid-December and then you hear it may be pushed back to early January.
“I’ve told our guys let’s be ready to go for Dec. 15 knowing that it may get pushed back to sometime in January. We certainly want to be ready to go from a Belleville perspective by the time we potentially go to Ottawa. That’s kind of what we’ve planned out down here.”
The good news for Mann is some of the players who will make up his lineup are on the ice overseas.
The Senators confirmed Wednesday forward Jonathan Davidsson has been loaned to Vasterviks IK in the Swedish league. He joins prospects Erik Brannstrom (Switzerland), Lassi Thomson (Finland), Filip Chlapik (Czech Republic), Rudolfs Balcers (Norway), Filip Gustavsson (Sweden), Vitaly Abramov (Finland) and Olle Alsing (Austria).
Davidsson, Brannstrom, Thomson, Chlapik, Balcers, Abramov and Gustavsson could all suit up for Belleville.
“It’s an advantage for guys to be playing meaningful hockey,” Mann said. “Guys that aren’t playing hockey right now are doing the best they can to stay in top condition and they’re trying to mimic as much as they can what’s happening. It’s really good that some of our guy, especially guys that were banged up or injured at points, are getting the chance to play.
“Davidsson only played 11 games for us so, from an evaluation perspective, it’s difficult to get a really good read on what he’s going to be able to do in North America because the sample size is so small. Just for him to get back into the game, even on a bigger ice surface, is excellent. It’s the same for (Gustavsson). He had an up-and-down year so for him to play games and get that confidence high before coming back here is important.
“The same as Abramov, he had a good season, but he was a streaky scorer and now we’re looking for consistency. He’s playing in a great league in Finland and some of those rinks in that league are a smaller ice surface and I see he’s off to a fantastic start. Anybody that’s playing over there is going to have the jump-start on other guys.”
Mann said he fully expects when players in North America do report to camp, they’ll be ready to go.
“You always worry about the game conditioning and getting back to being bumped by playing against opposition,” Mann said. “At the same time, the training is so good now and there’s so many skill coaches out there now these young guys are going to be sharp when it comes to that.
“You always worry about game action and that competition. I think (Dorion) said it best that one of the biggest disappointments of the pandemic was just seeing what would have happened for us in the playoffs last year. If we do start Feb. 5, you’re talking almost a year. You’re talking about 11 months for some of these kids.”
While the roster in Ottawa is set, the Senators are looking at a player or two to sign AHL contracts. The club needs to replace assistant coach Colin Chaulk, who took over as GM/coach of the Reps AAA club in the GTHL, while goalie coach Kory Cooper went to Kingston (OHL) as assistant GM/goalie coach.
“We’ve been doing our due-diligence to fill those positions and that’s certainly time consuming,” Mann said. “Pierre Groulx did a lot of the leg work as far as short list for the goalie coach position, but I’ve certainly been involved as far as the interview process.
“We had over 20 candidates express interest (for Chaulk’s position) so we’ve been doing homework on guys with phone calls and doing interviews. That’s certainly been something that’s been on our plate.”
Mann and Bell have also been on the ice as many as four times a week in the community with the Quinte Red Devils program to do some teaching and skill development.
“We’re staying relatively busy right now,” Mann said. “Our roster isn’t completely full yet and we’ve still got to sign a couple of guys to fill out our roster. There’s so many guys on the market so we’ve been more patient so there’s been a lot of dialogue. It’s not as hectic as if the season we’re going but overall it’s been fairly busy till we get going.”
TOMORROW: Trent Mann talks about some of the top prospects in the organization and what it will take to make the next step to the NHL.
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