Senators Recall Jorian Donovan

The Ottawa Senators announced today that defenseman Jorian Donovan has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. The move brings the Senators up to the maximum of 23 players on its active roster.

By recalling Donovan from the AHL, Ottawa has made a move to reinforce its blueline at a time when it is dealing with some injuries. More specifically, it recently emerged that star No. 1 defenseman Jake Sanderson would miss the team’s next few games while he is evaluated for an injury.

The loss of such an important blueliner has a ripple effect across the organization. One down-stream impact of the Sanderson injury is that the team has need of an additional defenseman to provide cover for their NHL roster. The defenseman that has gotten the first chance to fill that role for the Senators is Donovan.

The 22-year-old is a fifth-round pick from the 2022 draft who has emerged as a legitimate call-up option for the Senators after only two full seasons playing pro hockey. The 6’1″, 200-pound rearguard scored 21 points in 61 AHL games last season, earning his way into two NHL games.

A natural left shot, Donovan may not draw into Ottawa’s lineup immediately. It stands to reason that longtime professional Cameron Crotty may get the first shot at that, given how he was already on the team’s roster. But if Ottawa wants to maintain its balance in terms of handedness, Donovan could get the nod over Crotty, who is a right shot.

In any case, if Donovan does play, it’s unlikely to be for too long. Sanderson shoulders a huge workload for the Senators, but the player who is technically his direct replacement in the lineup won’t inherit his role. No, it seems likely instead that Sanderson’s role will be redistributed amongst the more established Senators defensemen, with the lion’s share almost certainly set to go to captain Thomas Chabot.

Of course, with Sanderson and injured veteran Artem Zub true recovery timelines still unknown, Donovan could potentially see extended time on the NHL roster. That would likely be the worst-case scenario for the Senators, though, as they are certainly hoping Sanderson’s absence is a limited one, and that Zub can return from his knee injury at some point sooner rather than later as well.

With forward Ridly Greig nearing a return from suspension, the Senators will soon need to open a spot on their active roster. But the more likely path for the team to take in order to create that spot will be to shift an injured player to IR, rather than reassign Donovan. The most likely candidate is injured forward Andre Burakovsky.