The Ottawa Senators are heading into September with a roster that looks largely settled, and the timing says a lot.
Training camp opens Sept. 16, the weather is cooling, and the league calendar has moved into the part of the summer when major roster swings get harder to pull off. A league executive told the Ottawa Citizen on Tuesday that it’s tough to make trades or other big moves this close to camp because most teams have already handled their business and now want to see what they have in exhibition games.
That backdrop makes the Senators’ offseason work feel even more complete. Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, has already made changes to the lineup, and while he told season-ticket holders last month that he’s always looking for ways to improve the team, this group appears close to finished.
One of the quicker pieces of business came when Staios acquired skilled forward William Eklund from the San Jose Sharks just 24 hours after Tkachuk was traded to the Panthers.
Up front, the Senators have a few players who could land on the top two lines. Burakovksy, Claude Giroux and Fabian Zetterlund are in that mix, while winger Drake Batherson and centre Dylan Cozens are expected to be part of the top six alongside Eklund and Stutzle. Beyond that, the rest of the forward group still has to shake itself out.
There was also a discussion about adding another name to the mix. The short answer is yes: Staios and the Senators talked about the possibility of signing unrestricted free agent winger Patrik Laine, though it’s highly doubtful he ends up in Ottawa.
Laine, 28, had trouble staying healthy with the Montreal Canadiens, and that hurt his value. Even so, he remains the kind of player Ottawa could use, a pure scorer who has consistently potted 20 goals.
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