THUNDER BAY – After a surprising run to the NHL’s Eastern Conference Final, Tom Pyatt is plenty happy to be sticking around the nation’s capital next season.
The Thunder Bay forward earlier this summer inked a two-year, $2.2-million contract with the Ottawa Senators, a reward for making a successful return to the league in 2016-17 after two seasons overseas in Switzerland.
Pyatt, 30, played all 82 regular-season games with the Senators, scoring nine goals and adding 14 assists for a career-high 23 points. He also suited up for 14 post-season games, an injury keeping him out of the lineup for another five.
He’s all too happy to stick around and try to help take the team a step or two further in 2017-18.
“It was a great season and I’m happy to be going back for another two years,” Pyatt said on Monday before teeing it up at Whitewater Golf Club in the celebrity pro-am at the Staal Foundation Open.
“I had a good experience over in Europe and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get back to the NHL, so I’m very grateful to be back for another two years. It’s a good feeling.”
Reflecting on the Senators’ playoff run, Pyatt said everything just clicked.
Ottawa dispatched of the Boston Bruins in six games in the opening round, then knocked off the New York Rangers in six in Round 2 before dropping a seven-game set to Matt Murray and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the semifinal.
“All season we were pretty consistent, I thought. We were a team that played disciplined hockey and hard defensive hockey too. All you’ve got to do is make the playoffs and anything can happen,” Pyatt said.
The Senators lost a solid part of their blue-line in Marc Methot, who was grabbed by the Vegas Golden Knights in last month’s expansion draft, meaning highly touted prospect Thomas Chabot could be in line for a promotion in 2017-18.
Pyatt said there’s no reason the team has to take a step back next season, as many pundits are predicting.
“We’ve got to have a good start. It’s a long season, 82 games and the big thing is to be consistent throughout the season and just get into the playoffs,” he said.
Pyatt, who was drafted by the New York Rangers in 2005, traded to Montreal and subsequently to Tampa Bay, where he played for three years, said his two-season banishment to Europe made him that much hungrier to return to North America and the top hockey league in the world.
But he does believe it helped his game.
“Going overseas, it’s a bigger ice surface over there, so I was able to play with the puck a lot more and I think my offensive game came around a little bit. I think I contributed a bit this year offensively. That’s something I’m always trying to improve on.
“It was good for me to go over there and improve my skills and I think I came back as a better player.”
Pyatt has 36 goals and 77 points in 327 career NHL games.
