Report. Tkachuk, Chabot asked to be sent down to the AHL.

This story may sound a bit strange at first, but if I am a fan of the Ottawa Senators I am loving what I am hearing.

As you will know, the Ottawa Senators were never truly in any kind of playoff contention during the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season and that was no doubt a tough position to be in for young stars like Senators forward Brady Tkachuk and Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot. The two young men likely came into the season knowing they would never get a shot at the playoffs, and perhaps it is for that reason that both men reportedly made a surprising request of Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion.

In a recent article for the Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Senators insider Bruce Garrioch reveals that the two young stars in the making actually went to the Senators GM in order to ask to be sent down to the American Hockey League. Now to be clear here the requests were made when the Senators season was effectively over, and the requests were designed to have Tkachuk and Chabot join the Belleville Senators at a time when they would be heading into the AHL playoffs. 

From Garrioch:

Now, it likely wouldn’t have happened, but there were two players on the Ottawa roster who were willing to give Belleville a hand because they were still on entry-level contracts. Defenceman Thomas Chabot and winger Brady Tkachuk both asked in casual conversations with Dorion if they could go down to Belleville for the post-season.

I gotta be honest I love the competitive mindset that this shows from both of these young players and no doubt I think it reflects well on them within the walls of the Senators organization. Of course it never happened because the AHL season was cancelled outright due to the ongoing pandemic, but it sounds like the Senators would have kiboshed the idea anyways. 

According to Garrioch, in spite of being on an entry level contract, Chabot had played too many games and was ineligible as a result while in the case of Brady Tkachuk the Senators were more interested in keeping him in Ottawa where he would continue his training. 

It certainly makes for an interesting 'what if' scenario. Could you imagine what the Belleville Senators would have looked like in the AHL playoffs bolstered by two bonafide NHL players?