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Tariq Al-Bashir reports on conversations with Boudreau regarding the roster.

There is a roster spot open in camp on D. Boudreau says it looks like Pothier won\'t start the season, leaving them with 6 established Ds. Alzner, Lepisto, 27 year old FA signing Tyler Sloan, and 26 year old try-out invitee and former Caps prospect Jakub Cutta will compete for the open slot. Alzner will get a long look to see if he\'s ready for top-4 minutes, but Boudreau also says \"we like Tyler Sloan a lot\". Sloan\'s numbers suggest a stay at home type.

On F, Boudreau is sorting out his shortlist of injury call ups, and notes that he can\'t tell yet how Chris Clark will start the season and also doesn\'t know yet if Nylander is healthy enough. He also warns he won\'t hesitate to send down healthy guys who show up not ready to start the season. So he\'s pretty much sure the call-up shortlisted players will get their opportunities.

Here\'s what he says about players competing for the shortlist:

\"I have to imagine Quintin Laing is not going to want to get sent down after what he\'s shown us. I think this is Chris Bourque\'s fourth year. Alexandre Giroux can be a top six forward. Can he do it if we give him more time? He\'s probably not going to start here. ...Graham Mink is as a good a power forward as you have in the American Hockey League and Keith Aucoin played almost a whole year in Carolina, and you can never be too deep at center. These are a few of the viable guys if a) is someone goes down or b) somebody who\'s not ready to pull up there socks right at the start.\" Bashir notes Boudreaux told him Andrew Gordon will be in the mix here as well.

Note: A former college star, Gordon surprised everyone in his pro rookie season with a 16 goal, 51 point performance in 59 AHL games after being called up from the ECHL.