27 year old Andre Benoit to make NHL debut tonight
Colin Greening and Erik Condra both are making their second NHL appearance tonight, but making his NHL debut is 27 year old defenseman Andre Benoit. Benoit was a necessary call-up after both Chris Campoli and Sergei Gonchar left Tuesday night's game with injuries. Given that when you think of Ottawa Senators' defense prospects you likely think of Jared Cowen, David Rundblad, Patrick Wiercioch, or Eric Gryba, I'll fill you in on Benoit's backstory.
Benoit is a puck-moving defenseman who went undrafted, then joined the Montreal Canadiens' organization. He put up 93 points in three seasons with the Hamilton Bulldgos of the AHL, and has also had impressive stints in the SM-Liiga (Finland) and SEL (Sweden) as well.
Benoit was signed to a two-way contract with the Ottawa Senators in the offseason, and is in the midst of an impressive campaign. Benoit leads B-Sens’ defencemen and ranks third in team scoring with 37 points in 53 games. He is also tied for second among AHL defencemen in scoring and is tied for 10th among all AHL players in assists.
Unfortunately for Benoit, he'll be joining one of the worst Ottawa Senators bluelines in franchise history: the pairings for tonight will be Phillips-Karlsson, Kuba-Lee, Benoit-Carkner. It doesn't get much worse than that, folks.
