Jake Sanderson keeps climbing the league’s defensive ladder, and the latest checkpoint puts the Senators’ 24-year-old in some elite company.
On Sunday, the NHL Network released its annual Top 20 defensemen list, and Sanderson landed at No. 8. That’s a strong place to be, especially with the names sitting above him: Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin, Miro Heiskanen, Lane Hutson and Matthew Schaefer.
Sanderson’s rise is built on a season that showed just how complete his game has become. He posted 54 points in 67 games, the best offensive output of his NHL career so far, while leading Ottawa in average ice time at 24:50 and handling every situation the team threw at him. He also finished 10th in Norris Trophy voting, though that race tends to reward point totals more than all-around defensive value.
That’s where Sanderson separates himself. His game doesn’t really have a glaring flaw, and the offense has started to match the defensive foundation that was already there.
Last season, his 54 points worked out to 0.81 points per game. He was also a Lady Byng finalist after logging just eight penalty minutes, and he’s an Olympic gold medalist.
There’s a reasonable argument that the top four on the list belong where they are. Makar and Hughes have already established themselves as two of the defining defensemen of this generation. Werenski followed an 81-point season by winning the Norris Trophy, and Dahlin finished third in voting after putting up 74 points.
After that, the conversation gets more interesting. Heiskanen is still one of the NHL’s most complete defensemen, and it makes sense to keep him ahead of Sanderson for now.
But the difference between the two doesn’t feel huge. And if the question is who you’d want for one game in every situation, Sanderson has a real case over Hutson or Schaefer.
For anyone ready to push back on that, Team USA already offered a pretty clear answer this year. When it built its Olympic roster, it picked Sanderson instead of Hutson. When an injury replacement was needed, it went with Jackson LaCombe, not Hutson.
Sanderson’s standing in Ottawa is just as interesting, especially with the Senators still sorting out their next captain. He’s already being measured against Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux and Thomas Chabot, and the case for Sanderson is simple: he’s their best player.
He hasn’t reached his prime, but he already looks like someone the franchise can build around. His leadership wouldn’t be flashy, and that might be exactly the appeal after Brady Tkachuk and all the “noise” around him.
Sanderson plays huge minutes, takes the toughest matchups, keeps Ottawa out of trouble and is the team’s most important player. The first-round series last spring might have looked different if Taylor Hall hadn’t knocked him out with a shoulder to the head.
There’s also been some social media worry that Sanderson could eventually want out because he was born in the United States, especially after the recent departures of players like Tkachuk and Alex DeBrincat. But Tkachuk had family reasons to want out, and DeBrincat wanted to get back to his hometown in Detroit. Outside of those situations, most American players are not eager to leave Canada unless the team around them is badly broken.
Sanderson doesn’t sound like a trade request waiting to happen, and he doesn’t seem like the podcast type either. If you want to lean into the American angle, there’s another wrinkle: he’s half-Canadian, having spent part of his teen years living and playing in Canada. No other Senator is currently locked in longer than he is.
The NHL Network says there are seven defensemen better than Sanderson right now. By this time next year, that number may not be so high.
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For Ottawa, the larger question is what happens when his offense catches up to the rest of his toolkit. Sanderson was slowed by injuries last season, which kept the full picture from forming, but the sense around him is that there is another level available if his production climbs. If that comes together, the Senators would not just have a top defenseman, they would have a legitimate Norris Trophy candidate, and a sign that their ceiling may be higher than many have assumed. [Read more 🡒]