The Senators opened training camp Wednesday with a 57-man roster, and the setup leaves little mystery about how crowded things are at the top. Ottawa has seven goaltenders, 18 defencemen and 32 forwards in camp, with players reporting for medicals Wednesday morning before the on-ice sessions begin Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre and Bell Sensplex.
This camp also comes with two notable changes: it is shorter, and there will be no fitness testing. That fits the calendar. The regular season is less than two weeks away, and with the league moving to an 84-game schedule this year, the Senators are squeezing five preseason games into three dates.
For anyone trying to force their way onto the NHL roster, the math is brutal. Ottawa already has 14 forwards, six defensemen and three goalies on one-way NHL deals, which means there are very few openings to chase. And with so little preseason action available, bubble players have even fewer chances to make a strong case in front of the coaches.
Carter Yakemchuk is one of the few real variables. He sits comfortably among the club’s top seven on defense, but the path to staying in the NHL runs through the top six. Ottawa is not likely to keep a waivers-exempt 20-year-old first-round pick in the press box night after night, so he needs to play.
The roster also includes 13 former first-round draft picks and 27 players the Senators selected in NHL drafts. Ottawa says 14 players were signed as free agents, 12 arrived via trade, two are at camp on professional tryouts and two are there on amateur tryouts.
Among the new names is Vadim Zherenko, a 25-year-old Russian goalie who spent the last four years in Springfield of the AHL. With Leevi Meriläinen listed as the third man on the depth chart and carrying a one-way deal, Zherenko could eventually be exposed to waivers. If that happens, Jackson Parsons and Kevin Reidler would handle the crease in Belleville.
Zherenko gives Belleville a veteran AHL option if Ottawa decides that depth is needed.
The goaltending group also includes Linus Ullmark, Samuel Ersson, Lucas Beckman, Jackson Parsons and Kevin Reidler.
On defense, the headliners are Thomas Chabot, Tyler Kleven, Nikolas Matinpalo, Jake Sanderson, Jordan Spence, Carter Yakemchuk and Artem Zub, with a deeper group that also features Matthew Andonovski, Samuel Bolduc, Cameron Crotty, Jorian Donovan, Gabriel Eliasson, Tomas Hamara, Scott Harrington, Christian Kyrou, Harris Pangretitsch, Hoyt Stanley and Djibril Toure.
Up front, the roster is packed with familiar NHL names: Michael Amadio, Drake Batherson, Andre Burakovsky, Nick Cousins, Dylan Cozens, William Eklund, Warren Foegele, Claude Giroux, Ridly Greig, Kurtis MacDermid, Shane Pinto, Tim Stützle and Fabian Zetterlund. The forward group also includes Stephen Halliday, Eskild Bakke Olsen, Samuel Blais, Tyler Boucher, Xavier Bourgault, Louis-Felix Bourque, Jaxon Cover, Philippe Daoust, Lucas Ellinas, Kasper Halttunen, Hayden Hodgson, Landen Hookey, Blake Montgomery, Luke Mistelbacher, Adam Nemec, Oskar Pettersson, Ryan Suzuki, Philip Tomasino and Blake Vanek.
In Other News...
Senators Just Made A Huge Drake Batherson Commitment
Drake Batherson has long been one of the more reliable pieces of the Senators core, and now Ottawa has made it clear it intends to keep it that way. The right winger, who has been a steady performer since his NHL debut in 2018-19 and also brings Team Canada experience, agreed to a major new deal before the trade deadline, giving the club some much-needed certainty around a player who has become central to its plans.
For Ottawa, the timing matters as much as the player. Batherson is 28 and still squarely in his prime, which makes this the kind of commitment the organization can build around as it tries to take the next step. It also sends a strong message about how the Senators view him within the room and within the broader direction of the franchise, even as the details of the agreement place him in rare company among the teams all-time contracts. [Read more 🡒]
Matthew Knies Enters Camp With One Leafs Question Still Hanging
Matthew Knies spent part of the summer talking about golf, but the conversation around him has been a lot less relaxed. On the Leafs Morning Take podcast, the Maple Leafs forward said draining a hole-in-one took some of the pressure off his game and gave him something lighter to smile about after a season that included a knee injury and plenty of attention around his name.
Knies also looked back on a year that brought a career-high in points while leaving him dissatisfied with parts of his defensive play, and he sounded eager to put the whole stretch behind him as camp opens. For Toronto, the bigger question is less about what he has already shown and more about how he handles the next step after a summer of uncertainty and recovery. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face A Telling Camp Decision On Their Final Blue-Line Spot
The Senators head into training camp with one of their more interesting lineup questions sitting on the blue line, where the final defense spot could help define how aggressively they want to lean into youth. Carter Yakemchuk, a former first-round pick, is expected to get a long look in a sheltered third-pairing role so Ottawa can start building his NHL experience without asking too much of him too soon.
Nikolas Matinpalo is also in the mix, giving the club a different kind of depth option as it sorts out how best to balance development and reliability. Ottawa has made it clear it wants to see what its young players can handle at the NHL level, and the next few weeks should show whether this opening is really Yakemchuks to lose or whether the Senators prefer a more flexible arrangement on the back end. [Read more 🡒]