Senators To Recall Jorian Donovan

The Senators are set to recall defenseman Jorian Donovan from AHL Belleville before Saturday’s game against the Wild, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports.

This marks Donovan’s second recall in as many weeks. The 21-year-old lefty was brought up on March 24 to make his NHL debut amid injuries to Thomas Chabot and Lassi Thomson, the latter of whom has since returned.

Donovan suited up twice, averaging just 7:02 of ice time per game with a pair of shot attempts and hits each, before Thomson returned to the lineup. He was then assigned back to Belleville but comes back up now in the wake of yet another injury to Ottawa’s blue line in Tyler Kleven, who left Thursday’s win over the Sabres early with an upper-body injury.

The hope was that Jake Sanderson, who’s been out since March 9 with an upper-body injury, could slot back into the lineup to relieve Kleven. He’s been skating for several days now but has yet to shed his non-contact designation, so that’s looking unlikely. That leaves Donovan and his less than 15 minutes of NHL experience as the Sens’ only left-shot option on the blue line for this afternoon’s game.

Ottawa’s injury count on defense is now up to six. Outside of Chabot, Kleven, and Sanderson, Dennis Gilbert is out for another couple of weeks with an upper-body injury, Nick Jensen‘s regular season is over after meniscus surgery, and Carter Yakemchuk is in concussion protocol.

Despite such a crippling blow, the Sens are in pole position for the second wild-card spot in the East. They enter action today in a four-way tie with the Blue Jackets, Flyers, and Red Wings at 88 points, but Ottawa and Detroit have one fewer game played than the field, and the Sens have 33 regulation wins to the Wings’ 29. If their patchwork defense group can pull out a win today, that would boost their playoff odds from their current coin flip up to 65%, per MoneyPuck.

Donovan, son of former Sens winger Shean Donovan, checks in at 6’2″ and 201 lbs. A fifth-round pick in 2022, the two-way lefty is up to 17 assists, 21 points, and a -12 rating in 59 games in his second season for Belleville.