Jake Sanderson has already forced his way into the conversation as one of the NHL’s top defensemen, and The Athletic’s recent player tier ranking only put a sharper spotlight on it. Sanderson landed in the franchise-player group alongside elite blueliners such as Detroit’s Moritz Seider and Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen, which is pretty rare company for the Senators’ young star.
That placement fits the way Sanderson has built his game. He’s become Ottawa’s top defenseman by stacking up steady, dependable production while handling both ends of the rink with ease. And the oddest-looking compliment might be the best one: you usually don’t notice him until he’s doing something special.
That’s the hallmark of a defenseman who really knows what he’s doing. When blueliners make mistakes, they tend to jump off the screen.
Sanderson is different. He keeps plays moving, cleans up problems, and when he does draw attention, it’s often because he’s produced something worthy of a highlight.
The bigger question now is how far that ceiling can go. Right now, the answer seems to be: higher, once he gets more runway.
Sanderson is still a step away from that true MVP-level conversation, but the gap feels more about timing than talent. A Norris Trophy looks inevitable at some point, and a huge statistical season feels like the next logical leap.
In 2025-26, he put up 14 goals and 54 points in 67 games, numbers that would have looked even better if a shoulder injury hadn’t knocked him out for a stretch. With a healthy season and a full 82-84 games, a 20-goal, 80-point year is a reasonable expectation.
Nothing about that sounds out of reach. At 24 years old and with more than 300 NHL games already behind him, Sanderson has reached the stage where the next jump could be the biggest one yet.
He still has plenty of heavyweight company ahead of him, including Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin, and Zach Werenski. But Sanderson is close enough to make the race interesting, and maybe even close enough to surprise people if he pushes into the Norris conversation as soon as this season.
In Other News...
Brad Marchand Is Already Stirring Drama Around The Brady Tkachuk Trade
With Brady Tkachuk now in Florida, the Senators are moving into a new era and one of the biggest decisions on the horizon is who will wear the captains letter next. Tim Stutzle has emerged as a finalist, and the conversation got an extra jolt when Brad Marchand, now with the Panthers, weighed in on social media in a way that quickly turned a routine leadership debate into a little more noise than Ottawa probably wanted.
Stutzle brushed it off, saying he does not care and still respects Marchand as a player, while Drake Batherson also got a look at the exchange and called it typical Marchand. For the Senators, the bigger issue is still internal and far more important than an outside chirp, but the teams next captain is being chosen under a brighter spotlight now, and Marchand managed to make sure of that without even putting on a Senators jersey. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Just Opened A Roster Debate Fans Wont Ignore
Eeli Tolvanen is off the board after signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Rangers, and that only sharpens the conversation around what Ottawa is trying to build up front. The Senators have already added William Eklund to their forward group, a move that leans further into skill, but Tolvanen would have offered a different layer with his physical edge, finishing touch and ability to move around the lineup.
For Ottawa, the appeal was never just about another scorer. Tolvanen could have fit alongside the teams more creative forwards while also bringing value on the penalty kill, which is the kind of two-way utility contenders tend to covet. Instead, the Senators are left to weigh whether they have enough of that mix already, or whether the spot Tolvanen filled in New York is exactly the sort of opening they still need to address. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face Two Huge Decisions After Brady Tkachuks Exit
With Brady Tkachuk now gone, Ottawas front office is working through a pair of franchise-shaping issues at once, and both are tied to the clubs next chapter. One is the contract status of Drake Batherson, an important piece who remains in negotiations with the Senators, with the new NHL CBA deadline adding another layer to how long a deal can be.
The other centers on the dressing room leadership void left behind by Tkachuks move to Florida. Tim Stutzle and Thomas Chabot are among the top candidates to wear the captains C, and the decision would say plenty about where the Senators believe their identity is headed. How Ottawa handles both matters will go a long way toward defining the team beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]