Philippe Daoust’s climb back up the Ottawa Senators’ organizational ladder has been anything but smooth, but the latest step is a meaningful one: he’s back on a two-way NHL deal after another strong season in Belleville.
That’s a far cry from where things stood not long ago. Daoust was ranked 21st in his Draft+1 year in 2022, then slid to 25th after a season-ending upper-body injury in 2023. Now he’s back where he belongs on the Senators’ depth chart, and his case is built on persistence as much as production.
The underdog label has followed Daoust for years. Born in Barrie, he played minor hockey in the area before moving to Noëlville, about an hour outside Sudbury, to suit up for the French River Rapids in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. Even after finishing with the ninth-best point production in that league, he went undrafted by all 20 OHL teams and had to take the long road into major junior, signing with Moncton as a training camp walk-on in the QMJHL for his Draft-1 season.
He had to earn everything there, too. Daoust worked his way up the lineup past drafted QMJHL players to get offensive minutes and posted solid numbers at 0.50 points per game.
Ottawa chief scout Trent Mann had local oversight on the QMJHL and likely saw more offense in Daoust than most teams did when the Senators took him in the sixth round in 2020. Daoust answered with a 1.33 point-per-game season the following year.
His final season of QMJHL eligibility was the one that put him firmly on the radar. He scored 47 points in 38 games for the Memorial Cup-winning Saint John Sea Dogs, then added five points in his first 15 AHL games.
He wasn’t just producing, either. He was also the Sea Dogs’ go-to shutdown forward, the kind of player who looked capable of becoming a two-way third-liner with the sense to handle tough assignments.
The skill set has always been there. As Andy Lehoux wrote on Sept. 14, 2021: “Philippe Daoust impressed with his outstanding progress this season.
He excels at leading transitions, creating scoring chances for his teammates as well as getting involved in puck battles. #Sens pic.twitter.com/xSOcB7WwMq”
The question marks were never about vision or touch. They were about skating and pace, which can lead to turnovers and make it harder for him to create his own shot instead of setting up others. So when he opened the 2022-23 AHL season with seven points in nine games, it looked like he may have found a way to work around that weakness against pro competition.
Then came the injury trouble. In 2022-23, he was hit by what the source material calls Cursed Ottawa Senator Shoulder Injury Disease.
He began 2023-24 with Allen in the ECHL to get his timing back, earned a November call-up to Belleville, and then lasted just four games before another season-ending injury. At that point, it was easy to picture the professional path stopping there.
But entry-level deals run three seasons, and Daoust got another chance. In 2024-25, he played 52 games and used that stretch to show what he could still do at the AHL level.
In his exit interview, he made it clear how much it meant to finally have a full run of games. He said, “It felt good.
I’ve been itching to get that many games for a while, so to finally play a good chunk of games this year, it felt really good, and towards the end of the year, it felt like I was really starting to play my game again. I was happy to get a full year in and be healthy.”
He also pointed to the second half of the season as the point where things started to click again. “Not playing hockey for two years was obviously tough, and it feels like every player gets better, and better, every year.
The first half of the year, I was kind of just getting my feet wet a bit, but in the second half, I don’t know what clicked in my head, but the game started slowing down a bit. And I think just playing with a little bit more confidence.
The staff, Bellzy (Head Coach Dave Bell), and Lege (Assistant Coach Stefan Legein) did a great job helping us with the skills work and extra work. So, yeah, I think all of that came together at the end of the year, and that was huge for me”
And when asked what growth stood out most, he kept it simple: “It’s hard not to say ‘just being healthy,’ so I would say that. But I think it was just having more confidence with the puck.
I felt like, towards the end of the season, I was playing a bit more like I did in junior hockey, making some good moves and plays, and just not panicking with the puck. I feel like with that strong finish, I’ll try to bring that into next year.”
Ottawa didn’t qualify him after the season, but new general manager Matt Turek brought him back on a one-year AHL “prove it” deal to see whether that late-season surge could hold over a full year. It sure did.
Daoust emerged as the team’s third-leading scorer and helped drive play on the AHL’s best first line alongside Xavier Bourgault and Arthur Kaliyev. His 50 points in 63 games ranked 28th among all U25 forwards, and his role was recognized when he won the club’s 2025-26 Coaches’ Choice Award.
That production earned him another step up: on July 1, he signed a one-year, two-way contract with Ottawa and got a major bump in his minor league salary to $250K. He’ll be a Group 6 UFA at the end of this season because of his years of service in the organization, which puts the next move squarely in his hands as much as anyone else’s.
For now, the Senators have a player whose game fits the modern mold. Daoust brings elite passing, transition offense in all three zones, and the hockey sense to take on the other team’s best players.
With Travis Green wanting four lines he can use against anybody, there’s a lane for that kind of player. Now Daoust gets another chance to prove it.
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