Percy excited to re-join Senators

Familiarity is comforting.

And with signing a professional tryout agreement with the Belleville Senators Monday, Stuart Percy finds himself in familiar surroundings.

The 26-year-old played 41 games with Belleville last season before being traded to Providence in March.

“I was really excited when I got the phone call that they were interested in bringing me back,” Percy said. “I was a big fan of the program here last year and just saw myself in an unfortunate situation and fortunately enough they gave me the opportunity to go somewhere else and get some ice time. It was nice of them so I figured I would return the favour now.”

Percy, a veteran of 336 career AHL games, scored twice and added 17 assists in those 41 games with the Senators. The veteran defenceman played 14 times with the Bruins and appeared in one playoff game after the trade.

Since that playoff game though, Percy hasn’t skated in a game after going unsigned through the offseason. But Senators head coach Troy Mann, who said Percy has been skating four times a week in Toronto, isn’t concerned as he gets set to throw Percy immediately into his lineup Wednesday against Laval.

“I really enjoyed coaching Stu last year,” Mann said. “He was a big proponent of what we were trying to do here. He had a great buy-in factor. It’s nice to have him back and we need that veteran presence with such a young group.

“We’ll have to manage his minutes but with the situation with our defence right now he’s going to play.”

For Percy, he’s ready to jump right into game action and isn’t worried about having not played a game since April 24.

“It’s been really helpful knowing the coaching staff and how to break out, run the forecheck and neutral zone it’s made things a lot easier for sure,” Percy said. “I felt pretty good in practice the last two days but there’s no better way to get in game shape than play games so we’ll see what comes up tomorrow night and I’ll be ready.”

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