The Senators may have finished eighth in the NHL in goals last season with 275, but GM Steve Staios still sees room for more. In a recent appearance on TSN 1200, he made it clear that Ottawa would welcome another true finisher if the right player becomes available.
“On the surface, do we have a pure sniper? I think everybody’s sort of looking at that … You’d love to add that.”
That kind of addition would come on top of a summer that already saw Ottawa lose Brady Tkachuk to Florida. Tkachuk was limited to 22 goals in 60 games last season, but he had averaged just under 33 goals per year over the previous four campaigns before that.
The Senators tried to patch that hole quickly, using the top draft pick they got back in the deal to land William Eklund from San Jose. Eklund brings top-six skill, though his game has leaned more toward playmaking than pure scoring so far.
Across his three full NHL seasons, he has settled in around 15 to 17 goals, while posting 38 assists last season and 41 the year before. Ottawa also added veteran Andre Burakovsky from Chicago, a player who has reached the 20-goal mark twice in his career.
If the Senators do keep shopping for offense, the market still has a few names with real scoring punch. Vladimir Tarasenko is the biggest goal producer left unsigned after a 23-goal season, and he already has a recent Ottawa connection after putting up 41 points in 57 games with the club during part of 2023-24. Michael Bunting and Eeli Tolvanen have each had a 20-goal season before, while Patrik Laine, despite missing most of last season because of injury, has long carried a strong reputation as a finisher.
Ottawa also has a little under $4.2MM in cap space, according to PuckPedia, which keeps the door open for another move if the right opportunity surfaces. Staios said he expects a secondary market to develop and that the Senators plan to stay close to it.
At the same time, Ottawa has some important business to sort out with its own players. Drake Batherson and Artem Zub are both entering the final year of their contracts and are now eligible for extensions. Staios didn’t go into detail on negotiations, but he did make it clear he wants to keep both around.
“Certainly, there’s been discussions, I could say that. And those two players are players that I really like, and I think fit into our team.”
Batherson carries a $4.975MM cap hit this season and has topped 60 points in each of the last four years, including a career-best 71 in 2025-26. With the market where it is, he looks positioned for a major raise on his next deal.
Zub is coming off a strong offensive season of his own, finishing with 30 points in 81 games. It was only the second time in his six-year career that he played more than 70 games, but when healthy, the 30-year-old has been a steady top-four presence, averaging more than 20 minutes a night for five straight seasons. He has a $4.6MM cap charge for 2026-27, and keeping him in Ottawa figures to cost more per year on the next contract.
If the Senators want to lock up their core for the long haul, there’s a window to do it with an eight-year deal available until mid-September. After that, once the new CBA takes effect, the maximum length for a player re-signing drops to seven years.
Staios also addressed the crease, where Ottawa’s setup is still unsettled. James Reimer remains unsigned, Leevi Merilainen is now waiver-eligible for the first time, and Samuel Ersson was added on a two-year deal to back up Linus Ullmark. One option on the table is carrying three goaltenders to open the season so Merilainen doesn’t have to be exposed on waivers.
That wouldn’t be the usual approach, but Ottawa has the roster flexibility and cap room to make it work for now. Whether that remains the plan by training camp is another question.
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Senators Face One Brutal Reality In Measuring Up To Tampa Bay
The Senators spent the offseason trying to reshape their roster after moving Brady Tkachuk, then adding William Eklund, Andre Burakovsky and Samuel Ersson in a series of moves aimed at keeping the club competitive. It was the kind of aggressive retool that can look smart on paper, especially when a team is trying to close the gap on a division heavyweight without standing still.
Tampa Bay, though, still set a difficult benchmark. By bringing in John Carlson and adding depth pieces like Ilya Mikheyev and Jeffrey Viel, the Lightning looked a little sturdier across the board, which is why the comparison leaves Ottawa with an uncomfortable truth to sit on. The Senators may have done enough to stay in the conversation, but measuring themselves against Tampa still points to the same lingering question about whether the new pieces can truly make up for what was lost. [Read more 🡒]
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For a Senators club that has spent years trying to turn promising talent into real roster certainty, that kind of bargain matters. It also fits the broader picture around Steve Staios, who has left open the possibility of more movement before training camp as Ottawa continues to shape the roster around its core. The question now is whether the front office can turn that flexibility into one more meaningful addition, because the plan looks stronger when Sanderson is already delivering this kind of value. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Still Have One Massive Forward Puzzle To Solve
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Travis Green is expected to keep shuffling his lines, which makes the picture even less settled for the players fighting for premium minutes. Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens, Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto are all in the mix for the top six, and there is still a sense that Ottawa could use another move or two before camp to make the puzzle a little easier to solve. [Read more 🡒]