Eight years after Erik Karlsson was shipped to San Jose, the Senators are still living with the size of that move - and with the shadow Karlsson left behind.
For Ottawa fans, Karlsson remains the benchmark. His nine seasons with the Senators produced 627 games, 518 points, 126 goals, 392 assists, five playoff appearances, two Norris trophies and four seasons as captain.
He also left behind the kind of legacy that earned him the nickname “King Karl.” Even after continuing his career in San Jose and Pittsburgh, he still stands as the franchise’s standard at defence.
But Jake Sanderson is starting to push into that conversation.
The 24-year-old blueliner, taken fifth overall in the 2020 NHL entry draft, is heading into his fifth NHL season and keeps stacking up numbers that make the comparison harder to ignore. Last season, Sanderson put up 54 points in 67 games, with 14 goals and 40 assists. Over an 82-game schedule, that projects to 66 points - the same total Karlsson posted in 82 games at age 24 in the 2024-2025 season.
Sanderson has already shown that his offensive jump isn’t just a one-year spike. He posted a career-high 57 points in 80 games, and over his last 147 games he has 111 points, a 0.76 points-per-game pace. That kind of consistency is why he’s being talked about as a potential all-time great in Senators history rather than just a promising young defenceman.
His profile has also risen well beyond Ottawa. Sanderson’s play at the Four Nations tournament and the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics put him in front of a wider audience, and last season he was a Lady Byng finalist for his performance and discipline.
Karlsson’s hold on the record book is still real. He remains Ottawa’s franchise leader among defencemen in single-season goals with 21, assists with 66 and points with 82.
But Sanderson is creeping closer. At last season’s pace, he would have finished with 17 goals and 49 assists, and with an 84-game season coming, his career-high 14 goals already suggest that the goal record is in play.
The Norris conversation is following him too. Sanderson finished 10th in voting for the second straight year, and if he stays healthy and keeps adding offense, he’ll keep moving into the same lane as Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin and Zach Werenski.
On The Sick Podcast -Sens Spotlight by Alex Adams, Sanderson was described as already being one of the league’s top defensive defencemen, with the next step being a bigger point total. That’s where the Karlsson comparison gets even more interesting, especially since both players finished with 16 votes this past season. The gap in age is the obvious difference: Karlsson is 12 years older, and Sanderson still has plenty of runway.
The long view is what makes this such a compelling question. Sanderson has 181 points in 303 games, and at that pace he could close in on Karlsson’s 518 Ottawa points in five or six seasons.
Matching the trophies and the playoff résumé is a much steeper climb, but Sanderson is only 24. For now, Karlsson is still the standard.
Sanderson just looks more and more like the guy who might chase him down.
In Other News...
Senators Suddenly Face A Prospect Problem Fans Cant Ignore
The Senators have spent plenty of time building around their young core, but the conversation around the pipeline has changed as those top names have graduated out of prospect status. Ottawa still has some encouraging pieces in the system, with defenseman Carter Yakemchuk and right winger Jonas Lagerberg Hoen leading the next wave, yet the group behind them does not look nearly as deep or as dynamic as it once did.
For a franchise trying to keep its long-term picture pointed upward, that thinning depth matters. The organization still has several prospects worth tracking, and scouting reports continue to sort out who might fit where down the line, but the bigger concern is how quickly the talent level drops after the headliners. For Senators fans, it is the kind of trend that is easy to overlook until the system starts feeling more fragile than reassuring. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face A Huge Drake Batherson Decision Before Camp
Drake Batherson has put the Senators in a familiar late-summer spot, where the calendar is suddenly as important as the hockey. After a strong season, he is entering the final year of his current deal, and Ottawa now has a clear incentive to see whether a long-term arrangement can be reached before camp gets rolling and the new CBA timetable tightens the window.
The pressure is obvious: if the sides cannot find common ground, the Senators run the risk of watching a key scorer drift toward free agency next year. Bathersons camp is looking for a major commitment, and for Ottawa the challenge is deciding how far to go on a player who has become central to the forward group without forcing a negotiation that could reshape the top of the teams salary structure. [Read more 🡒]