The Ottawa Senators are heading into a new season without Brady Tkachuk, and they’re not interested in treating his departure like the end of the story.
Tkachuk’s June trade to the Florida Panthers changed plenty for a team that had just put together back-to-back playoff trips. It took away the captain, a major offensive piece and a familiar face at the center of the room. But Ottawa’s message heading into Saturday’s road opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs is clear: the group left behind is still capable of driving this thing forward.
“We certainly feel very good about the direction of our group,” said general manager Steve Staios. “The players we have continue to get better and we learn. We’ve been through a lot as a group and a couple of years in the playoffs and we hope that experience helps.”
That next step will have to come from a spread-out attack rather than one replacement for Tkachuk. The Senators are leaning on Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens and new addition William Eklund to keep the offence moving, with the real edge likely coming from how much help they get across the lineup.
Stutzle paced Ottawa with 34 goals last season. Batherson followed with a career-high 33 and locked in his future with an eight-year extension in early September. Cozens delivered 28 goals, his best mark since 2023, while Eklund arrives from San Jose after producing 15 goals and 53 points with the Sharks.
The supporting cast matters just as much. Shane Pinto, Fabian Zetterlund, Claude Giroux and Andre Burakovsky, who was acquired from Chicago in June, are all candidates to tilt the balance if the Senators are going to replace the scoring they lost with Tkachuk.
The back end, though, may be where Ottawa feels most secure. Jake Sanderson is coming off a breakout season that put him firmly among the NHL’s top young defencemen, and he’s the headliner of a blue-line group that also includes Thomas Chabot, Artem Zub, Jordan Spence and Tyler Kleven.
The one open spot on defence has become one of the early-season stories. Carter Yakemchuk, the seventh overall pick in 2024, wants to claim a full-time NHL role, but his pre-season showed he may not be ready for that job just yet. Even so, he’s getting a longer look because Zub is still working back from the knee injury he suffered in the first game of the playoffs and is not expected to be ready when the season begins.
Goaltending is another area that could shape Ottawa’s year. Linus Ullmark turned things around after a rough first half last season, a stretch that included a leave of absence for a mental health issue. He came back strong, going 14-4-3 down the stretch and helping the Senators secure the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card berth.
Ullmark said he feels in a better place entering this camp than he did a year ago.
“It’s nice (to) work through the positives and not feel like you have to catch up on things,” said Ullmark. “So, that’s a big step up from last season.”
The Senators also tried to shore up the crease by signing Samuel Ersson to a two-year, US$4.4-million deal. Staios said at the end of last season that he hadn’t done enough to address the backup role or give Ullmark the support he needed.
Ottawa had been set to begin the season with Ullmark, Ersson and Leevi Merilainen, but Merilainen was claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks. That could push Staios to keep searching for goaltending depth so the club doesn’t run into the same problem again. If Vancouver tries to send Merilainen to its AHL affiliate, Ottawa would have first right to reclaim him.
The Senators have been through the playoff grind the last two seasons and lost in the first round both times. Now they’re trying to use that experience, not mourn what’s gone, as they start over without their captain.
Sanderson is expected to be a major part of that push at 24, and Ottawa still hasn’t named a new captain. The list of possible choices includes Stutzle, Chabot and Sanderson.
In Other News...
Senators Face Two Big Questions Before Opening Night Vs Toronto
Training camp is winding down in Ottawa, and the Senators are still sorting through the kinds of roster choices that tend to define the final days before a season begins. Final forward and defense spots are still up for grabs, and the staff is balancing those decisions with the usual late-camp work on special teams, all while trying to get the group pointed in the right direction for an opener that arrives quickly on Oct. 3 against Toronto.
The uncertainty does not stop with the bubble players, either. Ottawa is also dealing with injuries to key pieces as it heads into the first week of the regular season, which adds another layer to the lineup picture and makes the final roster decisions even more significant. For a team that wants to open on solid footing against the Maple Leafs, the next few days could shape not just the roster, but the tone of the early season. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Roster Battle Just Got Real Before Opening Night
Training camp has been whittled down to the point where the next few days will tell Ottawa a lot about how the opening-night roster is going to take shape. The Senators cut their group nearly in half, moving a large chunk of players out of camp as the organization begins the harder part of the process, separating those who can help now from those who need more time elsewhere.
A mix of forwards and defensemen is still in the picture as Ottawa works toward the NHL deadline, with familiar names such as Claude Giroux, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig among those still in camp. The numbers are getting tighter, the decisions are getting tougher, and the last round of evaluation figures to be the one that really matters. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens-Senators Flashpoint Leaves Ottawa Fans With One NHL Question
The preseason meeting between the Canadiens and Senators produced more than just an early look at two Atlantic Division rivals. The NHL Department of Player Safety fined Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson for roughing Ottawa forward Ridly Greig, a decision that at least gives the flashpoint some formal closure from the leagues side. The money goes to the Players Emergency Assistance Fund, and it lands as another entry on Mathesons long list of discipline-related run-ins during his NHL career.
For Ottawa, the bigger issue is less about the dollar amount than the temperature this kind of exchange can bring to a game before the points even start counting. Greig was at the center of the incident, and Senators fans will be watching closely the next time these teams meet to see whether the edge carries over. The league stepped in on Matheson, but the broader question around how that play gets handled moving forward is still hanging there. [Read more 🡒]