The Ottawa Charge will play two preseason scrimmages on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24, before opening the season at home on Dec. 6.

Just like it was last season, it may be easy to count the Ottawa Charge out after, for the second straight season, it lost significant star power to its expansion counterparts.

But as the team unveiled its training camp roster Wednesday morning, it looks like the team may be looking at some innovative ways to fill the roster gaps. And some of the brand-new faces holding training-camp invites may just have a role to play.

As part of training camp, the Charge will play two pre-season scrimmages on Nov. 23 at 1:30 p.m., against PWHL Detroit at Morgan Firestone Arena and Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. against the Toronto Sceptres at Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Let’s take a look at the 15 forwards, nine defenders and four goalies Ottawa has invited to compete for a roster spot, and start getting to know the new faces who may very well earn a spot on the team.

In what seems to be a recurring theme with the Ottawa Charge, the emphasis on this season’s forward group needs to be about consistent scoring.

Ottawa has eight forwards under contract for the coming season, six of whom are returning. Off-season additions of Jenna Buglioni from Seattle and Dara Greig offer some promise to fill the gaps left by expansion, but the coaching staff certainly will be looking for sparks to round out this group.

That’s where it’s easy to see draft picks Jordan Ray, Taylor Otremba and Tereza Pištěková coming in. Though all three remain unsigned, it’s reasonable to expect at least two of them will be offered contracts by the end of camp.

But don’t count the three undrafted camp invitees out of the picture just yet. Interestingly, two of them happen to come from the Canadian U Sports system.

Maggy Burbidge is a familiar name for Ottawa, after the Nova Scotia native spent the back half of last season on the Charge reserve player list.

Though her skills haven’t yet been tested in the PWHL, Burbidge enters her first league training camp after recording 34 points in 28 games in the Swiss women’s league last season prior to joining Ottawa. She also was a point-per-game player during her tenure at St. Francis Xavier University.

Annalise Wong also has sky-high playmaking potential after recording an impressive 83 assists in 167 games with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

If the 22-year-old right-shot forward can find training camp chemistry with her Charge teammates by feeding its proven scorers, she may very well find herself with a spot on this team.

Lastly, Madison Mashuga will join training camp after spending last season in the SDHL, where she tallied one goal and an assist in 14 regular-season games. This won’t be her first rodeo in a PWHL training camp, after she competed for a spot on the Minnesota Frost roster last year.

The Andover, Minn., native comes from a promising collegiate background, is tied for Minnesota State University’s eighth-highest all-time scorer and could prove to be a good depth replacement for Ottawa.

While the Charge returns with the steady veteran presence of Ronja Savolainen, Jocelyne Larocque, Emma Greco and Brooke Hobson on its blue line, there will be lots of room for breakout blueliners to make their mark.

That includes first-round pick Vivian Jungels, who recently signed a one-year deal with Ottawa and will easily find her way onto one of the team’s top pairings.

The problem? Well, all five of these players are left-handed shots. So, some righties need to round out at least some of these pairings, right?

That’s where some familiar names likely will come in. Expect camp invite Kathryn Reilly to make her way onto the roster and for Vita Poniatovskaia to make the team right out of camp after spending most of last season as a reserve player.

Draft pick Tory Mariano, also a right-handed shot, will likely also be called upon to balance out one of these pairings.

And while camp invite Lyndsy Acheson won’t necessarily be called upon to balance this left-heavy defence corps as a left-handed shot herself, don’t count this former University of Waterloo captain out of having a role on this team in some form or another.

After the Charge managed to keep all three of its goalies through the off-season, it could go a long way to see a familiar trio between the pipes this season.

Gwyneth Philips once again is sure to take the top spot after playing the lion’s share of the minutes last season and the expectation is that Sanni Ahola will play a bigger relief role this year, pending she stays healthy.

Kendra Woodland is the most obvious choice to return as the third-string goalie, though camp invite Kaitlyn Ross likely has other ideas.

Ross is a familiar face for Ottawa after signing a 10-day contract last March, joining the team on a trip as Ahola battled injuries. The 25-year-old Redcliff, Alta., native has the potential to make a splash after putting up impressive numbers during her five-year tenure at Mount Royal University.