Ottawa Senators Re-Call Defenceman Ben Harpur
The hulking d-man was called up on an emergency basis
The Ottawa Senators announced Thursday morning that they had re-called defenceman Ben Harpur from the team's AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. Harpur was a 4th-round pick (108th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. This season, he has a goal and four assists in 43 games with Binghamton. He also has two assists in four games with ECHL Evansville Icemen.
In junior, he played 3.5 season of OHL hockey for the Guelph Storm, before being traded to the Barrie Colts midway through his final year. Not know for his offensive abilities, he did manage six points in nine playoff games with Barrie in his final season.
With Mark Stone out after last night's thunderous hit, Harpur was likely brought up to be a healthy body in case of another injury. It's unclear as to why he was brought up rather than a forward, especially considering his disappointing season. As our own Jeff Ulmer wrote:
#24 Ben Harpur D, D-, D+
Below average but steadily improving since spending some time at the lower level. Slow and yet weak physically, but he's progressing. Spotty positional play and poor man on man coverage. He's young and has time on his side, as long as the organization is in agreement to not rush him. Haven't tossed in the towel as of yet.
However, Harpur is 6' 6" and 218 lbs. As some hockey person said sometime, "you can't teach big".
