Former Ottawa Senator Registers First NHL Point: ‘That Was For (My Mom) Tonight’

When Ottawa-born Donovan Sebrango joined the Senators, he was part of the Alex DeBrincat deal with the Detroit Red Wings. At the time, he was exiting Detroit, a team in the middle of the second-longest NHL playoff drought, to join Ottawa, a club in the middle of the third-longest NHL playoff drought.

You might assume that neither roster, in those circumstances, should have been carved in stone; that an opportunity might have been there for a useful player.

But Sebrango never caught on as a full-time player in either market. As he left Detroit, he hadn’t seen any NHL action in Motown after four years with the club. As for the Senators, they immediately put him in Belleville and he even spent some time in the ECHL.

They did bring him up to Ottawa twice last season and then twice last month due to the preseason injury to Tyler Kleven. When Kleven got healthy, the Sens tried to send Sebrango back down to Belleville, but he was claimed on waivers by the Florida Panthers.

At his press conference on Monday, when asked about the left side of his blue line, Staios admitted that losing Sebrango hurt the Sens’ depth in that area.

Now, since the move to Sunrise, Sebrango has found more work with the defending two-time Stanley Cup champions than he did in Ottawa and Detroit combined.

Not only did Sebrango play in his fifth game in a row for the Panthers on Monday night, but he also registered two assists in the game, including his first NHL point as Florida won 3-2 in Las Vegas.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s always fun to get points,” Sebrango told the media after the game. “That’s not why they brought me in, but it’s always fun to get a couple of points, and your first ones you always remember.”

Even in his short time in Ottawa, it was very clear that Sebrango is tight with his mom, Kim.

So after he got his first NHL point, it’s not hard to guess who he texted first.

“She said she was so proud of me,” Sebrango said. “And I want to make her proud. And that means the world to hear from her. But I mean, that was for her tonight.”

But Sebrango has other admirers in Florida, where he seems to be fitting right in. He’s played the last five games for the Panthers, averaging 14 minutes a night, and setting up shop alongside Jeff Petry, who’s closing in on 1000 NHL games (997).

“I think (Sebrango) has played the same game (every night),” head coach Paul Maurice told the media. “And that’s a really impressive thing because he doesn’t have a lot of NHL experience. He’s still a young man, but he has been very, very consistent in his style of game and what we expect from him. And that is highly unusual in a young player, especially on defense.

“We play a different game than he’s been experiencing. So we’re really impressed with his composure in the game, and we like his bite. You know, he didn’t wait a long time for the first fight.

“We like that a lot.”

This shouldn’t be read as a Sens tale of the one that got away, which all too often haunts the fan base. For one, it’s far too early for any such declaration. Secondly, even if Sebrango ends up as a full-timer in Florida or spends the next decade in the NHL, this is merely the kind of thing that can happen to good teams when they don’t have enough room on the roster for everyone. He was never going to rank ahead of Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, or Tyler Kleven.

This is more a story of a young man who’s worked hard and honestly for a long time, just waiting for an opportunity like this to finally come his way. Even if Florida doesn’t bring Sebrango back next season, every game he plays now for the champions only serves to improve his resume.

And how do you not tip your cap to a story like that?

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa

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