Senators cut over a dozen players from training camp.

We are approaching what is roughly the midway point of training camps in the National Hockey League and with that usually comes a large number of changes to their training camp roster in the form of roster cuts. On Saturday, the Ottawa Senators made a huge number of slashes to their roster, trimming it down by well over a dozen players.

Not only are the Senators sending a number of their prospects back down, but they will also be sending a number of players to waivers on Saturday which could in theory leave them vulnerable to being claimed by rival teams in the NHL.

The Senators' American Hockey League affiliate, the Belleville Senators, will be opening their own training camp on Sunday so the timing here is no coincidence.

Being sent down are goaltenders Leevi Merilainen and Mark Sinclair, defensemen Ryan MacKinnon, Donovan Sebrango, Djibril Toure and forwards Angus Crookshank, Philippe Daoust, Tarun Fizer, Graham McPhee and Brennan Saulnier.

Perhaps most interesting however are the players who will be placed on waivers later today with Josh Currie, Dillon Heatherington, Garrett Pilon and Lassi Thomson all expected to be left open to a potential claim.

Both defensemen Heatherington and Thompson saw limited deployment in the NHL last season with both men appearing in single digit games for the Senators over the course of the season and it seems highly unlikely that either man would be claimed. The same is true of Pilon, a forward, who spent all of last season at the AHL level with the Hershey Bears, but where things get a little more interesting is in the case of Currie. Although Currie does have precious NHL experience, he spent the last two season with Magnitogorsk Metallurg of the Kontinental Hockey League and is a bit more of an unknown commodity at this stage as a result.

Stay tuned as many more teams around the NHL are expected to make significant changes to their rosters in the coming days.