Talk of NHL expansion is back, and if the league really does add a new team in Texas, the Senators will be staring down another expansion draft.
That’s the immediate headache for Ottawa. Whether the new franchise lands in Austin or Houston, the Sens would once again have to sort through the same brutal exercise: deciding who stays protected and who gets exposed to a brand-new club.
The strongest buzz points to Houston. It’s the sixth-largest TV market in the United States, and the NHL has shown plenty of interest in pushing deeper into the Southern United States. There’s also chatter about a team returning to Quebec City, but that hasn’t gained real traction because no ownership group has stepped forward with a long-term commitment.
For Ottawa, though, the Texas talk matters mostly because of the expansion draft that would come with it. That part is familiar territory.
The Senators already lived through this in 2017, when Vegas entered the league. Ottawa used the 7-3-1 protection format, keeping seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie.
Even then, the process cost them. Marc Methot, one of the best defensive defensemen of his time, was the player they lost.
Ottawa tried hard to keep Methot, but Dion Phaneuf’s no-trade clause changed the math and forced the Senators to protect him instead. Vegas didn’t hold onto the 6’5” blueliner either, trading him to the Dallas Stars, where he played two seasons.
The Sens went through it again in 2021, this time with the Seattle Kraken entering the league. Once more, Ottawa chose the 7-3-1 route. This time there were no no-trade clauses creating extra complications, but the result still hurt: the Senators lost goalie Joey Daccord.
That loss has aged differently because Daccord has since become a solid netminder in Seattle. He put together two fantastic seasons there and earned a five-year extension worth $25 million. Last season, the first year of that deal, was rough for him, which makes the sting from Ottawa’s perspective a little less sharp than it once was.
If the league does move ahead with a Texas team, the timeline points to 2030 as the likeliest target, with the new club expected to begin play in the 2030-31 season. That would put the next expansion draft roughly three years away, giving the Senators time to map out their protection list and try to avoid losing another key piece they can’t afford to leave exposed.
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