In November of 2023, Roby Jarventie had every reason to believe his Ottawa Senators’ career was well on its way.
From November 4-24 that year, the Senators’ 2020 second-round pick played in seven games, including their two Global Series games in Sweden that year. But after being returned to Belleville on Nov. 26, that when the injuries set in, and he hasn’t been back in the NHL since.
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29 months later, that will change on Saturday night.
After Leon Draisaitl’s injury, Jarventie was recalled earlier this week and will skate on the Oilers’ fourth line with Adam Henrique and Josh Samanski.
“Yeah, I always knew if I stayed healthy, I’d have a chance (to get back to the NHL),” Jarventie told the media. “So, yeah, just really happy to be here, just enjoying every day.”
Jarventie was one of Pierre Dorion’s top draft picks in 2020 (33rd overall), but a month after the big winger’s seven-game run in Ottawa, Dorion was fired. Two months after that, Jarventie ended up having knee surgery to correct a problem that had been hampering him for several years.
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“It’s unfortunate for him,” former Belleville head coach David Bell told the Belleville Sens Entertainment Network. “It’s just a nagging knee that they’ve tried to band-aid along the last couple of years, and it just got to the point where he needed surgery to get this thing completely fixed.’
Five months later, new GM Steve Staios opted to package Jarventie up with a 2025 fourth-round pick (David Lewandowski) and sent him to Edmonton for forwards Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson.
Jarventie was asked on Friday if he was given a fair shake in Ottawa, and trailed off a little as he tried to choose his words carefully.
“(My NHL debut) came pretty early in the year (2023), my first call-up,” Jarventie said. “I remember I had a pretty good camp. I almost made a team out of camp and was probably the last one to get sent down. And then, yeah, pretty early, I got my call-up, so a couple of injuries, but, yeah…”
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After the trade, in his first training camp with the Oilers in the fall of 2024, Jarventie’s other knee began barking at him. As a result, he played all of two games in AHL Bakersfield last season.
So when this year rolled around, he was under strict load management orders. Early in the season, the. Condors treated him like a starting goalie, not allowing him to play back-to-back games. It seems to have worked out. He’s had a career-high 36 points in 52 AHL games before his recall to Edmonton this week.
The Senators got Bourgault up to Ottawa for two games this season, so we’re a long way from adding the Jarventie trade to the Sens’ list of regrets.
But his draft selection is a different story, and it’s not exactly a tale of hindsight either.
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When Jarventie was picked 33rd overall, John Peterka was sitting right there, chosen by Buffalo with the very next pick at 34. The Sens had just chosen Peterka’s German teammate, Tim Stutzle, third overall and fans figured Peterka was the obvious selection.
On Saturday, as Jarventie prepares to play his eighth career NHL game, now with another organization, Peterka, now in Utah, has 192 points in 308 career NHL games.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was originally published at The Hockey News. For more Senators news, analysis, and features, visit the Ottawa Senators site at The Hockey News.
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