Jake Sanderson’s rise around the league is getting the kind of recognition that usually comes with star power, and The Athletic’s latest contract rankings made it official: the Ottawa Senators defender owns the second-best deal in hockey.
Sanderson’s current contract carries an $8.05 million cap hit through the end of the 2031-32 season, and it landed near the very top of The Athletic’s list of the NHL’s best and worst contracts. Ottawa avoided the bad side of the ledger altogether, but the rankings still offered a useful window into how much contract structure can shape a team’s outlook.
That point shows up clearly in the discussion around Jonathan Huberdeau. The source material notes that I took heat elsewhere for saying Ottawa’s return for Brady Tkachuk was better than what Calgary got for his older brother. Huberdeau, after all, was coming off a 115-point season with the Panthers when the original trade happened, and he was hardly viewed as a risky player at the time.
But the catch was always the contract situation. He was a pending UFA the following year, which left Calgary with a familiar dilemma: pay him market value and live with the consequences, or move him at the deadline and accept a return that would not match the 9th overall pick. The bigger lesson is that contracts can swing a player’s value dramatically, and Huberdeau’s slide was never guaranteed, even if it was a real risk once he was separated from Aleksander Barkov, whose absence dragged down the Panthers as a whole last year.
The list also included a handful of players who signed recent UFA deals, including Alex Tuch, Jacob Trouba, and Chandler Stephenson. That part stands out because it reflects the kind of free-agent spending Steve Staios has intentionally steered away from. The question hanging over that approach is simple enough: is it worth paying to help the team for a short window if it threatens cap flexibility later, and can the Senators stay competitive by staying cautious?
There was also more Senators context in NHL.com’s season preview of the club. The preview covered the major additions and departures, pointed to the need for another top-six forward, and highlighted some notable EDGE data, including Tyler Kleven’s season-high 103.5 mph slapshot and Sanderson ranking in the top five in max skating speed and 22-plus mph bursts.
Meanwhile, Callum Fraser’s latest piece for the Ottawa Citizen detailed Steve Staios’ recent appearance on TSN 1200. Beyond what was already known, Staios suggested that the moves other teams made this offseason, along with Ottawa’s remaining $4 million in cap space, could create room for a “secondary push” before training camp.
And on the league-wide front, the NHL continues to eye expansion, with Houston, Texas, emerging as the target for a 33rd team. There is no timeline attached to it yet, but another expansion draft is expected to come eventually.
In Other News...
Senators Face One Brutal Reality In Measuring Up To Tampa Bay
The Senators spent the offseason trying to reshape their roster after moving Brady Tkachuk, then adding William Eklund, Andre Burakovsky and Samuel Ersson in a series of moves aimed at keeping the club competitive. It was the kind of aggressive retool that can look smart on paper, especially when a team is trying to close the gap on a division heavyweight without standing still.
Tampa Bay, though, still set a difficult benchmark. By bringing in John Carlson and adding depth pieces like Ilya Mikheyev and Jeffrey Viel, the Lightning looked a little sturdier across the board, which is why the comparison leaves Ottawa with an uncomfortable truth to sit on. The Senators may have done enough to stay in the conversation, but measuring themselves against Tampa still points to the same lingering question about whether the new pieces can truly make up for what was lost. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Still Have One Massive Forward Puzzle To Solve
Ottawas forward group has already changed shape once this offseason, with Brady Tkachuk and Lars Eller out and William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky in, but the real work is still ahead. Tim Sttzle remains the clear centerpiece, and the rest of the lineup is being sorted through a mix of talent, fit and experimentation as the Senators look for the right combinations before the season begins.
Travis Green is expected to keep shuffling his lines, which makes the picture even less settled for the players fighting for premium minutes. Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens, Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto are all in the mix for the top six, and there is still a sense that Ottawa could use another move or two before camp to make the puzzle a little easier to solve. [Read more 🡒]