SNAPSHOTS: Alex Formenton skates in 100th NHL game with Senators

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It was a milestone night for alex formenton.

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The speedy 22-year-old winger suited up for his 100th NHL game as the Ottawa Senators started a two-game road trip against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.

Through the course of this season, Formenton’s role has increased because he’s responsible at both ends of the ice and he kills penalties. He went into Tuesday night with 15 goals and 28 points in 69 games this season.

“I’m very grateful to reach this milestone and hopefully it’s not the last milestone I reach,” Formenton told reporters in the Motor City before the game. “I’m grateful for every opportunity and every game that goes by in the NHL.

“It’s going to be a special one and we’re going to be working towards those two points.”

When the Senators selected Formenton in the 2017 NHL draft, everybody talked about his speed, but there’s a lot more to his game. The organization gave him time to develop with its AHL affiliate in Belleville before bringing him up here.

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Formenton is tied for a second in the NHL with four other players with four shorthanded goals this season. He has some good company with Florida’s Alexander BarkovDetroit’s Gustav NyqvistAnaheim’s Isaac Lundestrom and Toronto’s Ilya Mikheev in that group.

“It’s been a long journey but I feel I get more comfortable as the games go on,” he said. “You learn new things every day being around NHL players who’ve been here for 700-plus games.

“I’m just trying to soak everything up and improve my game.”

The thing you have to like about Formenton is his compete level. He’s not afraid to battle, go to the dirty areas and use his 6-foot-3 frame to win puck battles.

“When he’s playing off the puck with speed and taking it to the net, he’s really dangerous,” coach DJ Smith said. “He’s dangerous on the penalty kill and we’re going to give him a little bit of opportunity on the power play here (in Detroit).

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“He’s a big part of the Ottawa Senators going forward.”

HIGH ON SANDERSON

We’re still waiting to find out if we’ll see Senators defenseman jake sanderson make his debut this season, but fans have every reason to be excited.

Craig Button, a former NHL GM and TSN’s director of scouting, has ranked the club’s No. 5 overall selection in the 2020 draft as No. 2 on his 2022 list of the Top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects released Tuesday.

Buffalo Sabers D Owen Powerwho made his NHL debut against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, signed an entry-level deal Sunday after the University of Michigan lost out in the semifinal of the NCAA Frozen Four.

Power was drafted No. 1 overall by the Sabers in 2021.

In fact, Button ranked three blueliners at the top of his list. simon edvinson of the Detroit Red Wings, who had two goals and 19 points in 44 games with Frolunda of the Swedish league, was ranked No. 3.

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So, what gave Power the edge over Sanderson?

“The separator for me is that every single area of ​​the game he excels in,” Button said. “When I see a complete No. 1 defenseman, that’s what I see in Owen Power.”

That’s not meant to be a slight against Sanderson one bit. He had eight goals and 26 points at UND this season before signing an entry-level deal with the Senators in early March.

He’s recovering from a serious right hand injury he suffered last month and the hope is he’ll be able to suit up before the Senators close out the season April 29 against the Philadelphia Flyers on the road.

If Sanderson does play, it will be sometime in the final week of the season.

Button compared Sanderson’s game to I look at Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars. The 22-year-old isn’t only strong offensively with four goals and 33 points in 60 games this season with the Stars, he’s also strong in his own end.

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If the 19-year-old Sanderson can become that kind of player, the Senators will be thrilled.

“Jake Sanderson is an elite skater,” Button said. “He makes things happen in so many ways.”

PAYING DIVIDENDS

The Senators picked up another selection in the 2022 NHL draft Tuesday.

Former Senators center Logan Brown suited up for his 30th game of the season with the St. Louis Blues in Boston and as a condition of the trade made in September that means Ottawa will keep its fourth-round pick.

That will give the club 11 selections in the seven rounds of the draft, which will be held this summer at the Bell Center in Montreal. If Brown, 24, hadn’t suited up for 30 games then the Senators would have surrendered the selection as part of the deal that brought the club winger Zach Sandford.

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He was subsequently traded to the Winnipeg Jets at the March 21 deadline in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2022.

Brown, 24, the No. 11 overall selection by the Senators in 2016, went into the game in Boston with four goals and seven points in 29 games.

THE LAST WORDS

Belleville has worked to do, with eight games left on the schedule, to make the post-season in the AHL’s North Division.

The club dropped a 5-1 decision to the Laval Rocket on Monday and has a tough test Wednesday with the Hartford Wolf Pack in town. Belleville woke up Tuesday on the outside looking in at the AHL’s playoff picture.

The five teams will be determined by winning percentage and the Senators are in sixth behind the Rochester Amerks.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch