Ottawa Senator Hopeful Angus Crookshank on Playing on a Line Last Season With Stutzle and Giroux: "It Was Pretty Damn Cool"

When the Ottawa Senators begin training camp later this month, there won't be many jobs up for grabs. At forward, there might be one or two openings, at best, and 2024 AHL all-star Angus Crookshank has a decent chance to secure one of them.

Crookshank had two NHL stints last season and they couldn't have been more different. The first was seven games around the holidays that included his first NHL goal. But that was mostly action on the fourth line.

His second stint came two and half months later and interim head coach Jacques Martin immediately gave him as good an opportunity as any raw Ottawa Senator prospect has ever had.

"Like, my first game, I got to play with G and Timmy," Crookshank told the Locked on Senators Podcast last week "Like, I've had G's jersey hanging on my wall since I was eight years old. So we rolled into New Jersey and I look at the roster board and I'm pinching myself again. Is this legit? Like, is this a typo? What's going on here?"

Crookshank even went out and scored a goal in the game, a nice one-timer off a pass from Thomas Chabot and he and the Sens went out and won five games in a row.

Crookshank was extremely grateful to have his first call up, but felt like he was able to play a little more his style of game in the second stint. He says it gave him some confidence and a little more of a sense that he's capable of playing in the NHL. At the same time, he's appreciative that Giroux and Stutzle treated him like a pro.

"They were super supportive. I'm sure they knew it was a big deal for me. So it was cool to see their support and just kind of helping me along. They weren't demanding by any means.

"So it was really cool to kind of learn and pick things up off of those two, I mean, they're two of the best players in the world. And the fact that they were my linemates was pretty damn cool."

In a parallel universe, Stutzle might have been Crookshank's linemate much earlier. Stutzle had committed for the 2019-20 season to the University of New Hampshire where Crookshank was already a top player.

But when Stutzle saw his friend, Mo Seider, get selected so early in the 2019 NHL draft, it made him realize he could stay home in Germany and still get seen by the NHL scouts. So Stutzle signed with the Deutsche Eishockey League's Mannheim Eagles, the very same team Seider played for.

"We were supposed to be linemates," Crookshank said. "(UNH coach Mike Souza) showed me the lineup board he had in his room and it had me, Timmy and a senior, Patrick Grasso, on the same line. It was like, 'Oh, damn.'

"And now that I see (Stutzle) in the NHL, it's like, 'Damn, what could have been?'"

While it was nice for Crookshank to get a look last season with a pair of all-stars, the top six probably won't be his calling in the NHL. The good news is the Sens have upgraded their fourth line from last season, bringing in some experience in Noah Gregor and Nick Cousins.

That duo won't ever be mistaken Tim Stutzle and Claude Giroux, but if it means a full time NHL paycheque for Angus Crookshank this season, that setup would be absolutely perfect in his book.

Listen to the full interview with Crookshank here. Be sure to bookmarks The Hockey News Ottawa for great Senators coverage all season.

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