When the Senators rescued Tom Pyatt from Switzerland with a one-year, two-way contract last May, not too many outsiders would have imagined he’d be on their opening night roster.
Sure enough, you can expect to see the 29-year old from Thunder Bay wearing jersey No. 10 for the home team when it hosts the Maple Leafs at Canadian Tire Centre next Wednesday.
Truth of the matter is, the Senators needed Pyatt almost as much as he needed them.
A versatile forward whose NHL career was 245 games long when he ran out of North American options in 2014, Pyatt spent the next two seasons with Geneva Servette HC playing for Chris McSorley, the kid brother of former NHL enforcer Marty McSorley.