Shane Pinto is not hiding from the number.
The Ottawa Senators centre has set a target of 30 goals, and after last season’s breakout, it’s not hard to see why he’s aiming high. Pinto finished with career-best totals across the board, posting 23 goals and 23 assists in 72 games while taking on the toughest minutes among the team’s forwards.
“I think I’ve improved each year, and I think I’ll continue to,” he said. “Obviously, I think with our team getting better, too, I think that always improves too.
So, yeah, 30 goals hopefully. Like I said, I only care about the team making the playoffs, to be honest.
I think, when theteam make playoffs, I think everyone plays well.”
With Brady Tkachuk gone, Ottawa’s scoring picture leans even more heavily on the players still in the room, and Pinto knows that means more will be asked of him. He said as much when asked about the opportunity in front of him.
“I mean, obviously with the departures, guys are going to have to step up,” Pinto acknowledged. “And I think I definitely could play more of an offensive role. But you know,whatever Greener wants, he’s going to do and we’ll just kind of go from there.”
Where that role lands is still being sorted out early in camp. Head coach Travis Green has already warned not to overreact to line combinations and pairings during the opening days, and Thursday’s afternoon session backed that up. Pinto skated between Nick Cousins and Stephen Halliday.
One of the more intriguing possibilities is whether Ottawa goes back to a true shutdown line this season. If it does, that could mean Pinto and Michael Amadio are reunited. The two have become one of the league’s most trusted two-way pairs, and both were recognized in Selke Trophy voting for 2025-26, with Pinto receiving eight first-place votes and Amadio earning two second-place votes.
Pinto is also stepping into the first year of a new contract extension that will pay him an average of $7.5 million per season over four years. He’s in his hockey prime now, and the expectations are rising with him. So far, though, he’s handled the extra responsibility well since the current coaching staff took over.
In Other News...
Travis Greens First Camp Decisions Say A Lot About Ottawas Ceiling
The opening days of Senators camp have looked less like a scramble for jobs and more like an early test of chemistry. Travis Green is spending his first practices sorting out combinations and seeing what fits, a sign Ottawa is approaching this season with a different kind of urgency after back-to-back playoff appearances and a clear desire to keep climbing in the Eastern Conference. The coach has stressed having options, but the bigger point is that the roster already feels settled enough for him to focus on how the pieces might actually work together.
Some of the early groupings hint at the sort of top-end talent Ottawa wants to lean on, with Tim Stutzle alongside Andre Burakovsky and Drake Batherson as one of the more intriguing looks. Greens approach suggests he is trying to identify which alignments can drive play rather than simply fill out a lineup card, and that matters for a team that no longer wants to be judged by just getting in the door. The next step is figuring out whether these looks can translate from camp drills into the kind of balance and depth contending teams usually need. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Blue Line Move Raises New Concern About Artem Zub
The Senators have brought veteran defenseman Ben Hutton into training camp on a professional tryout, a move that adds some extra depth to a blue line already dealing with a familiar kind of uncertainty. Hutton arrives with more than 400 NHL games on his resume since 2015, giving Ottawa a seasoned option to look at while it sorts through the back end in camp.
His presence also puts a sharper focus on Artem Zubs status, with the defenseman currently unavailable. Ottawa is already trying to map out its early-season picture on the blue line, so any added help has a purpose beyond just filling a practice spot, and this latest move suggests the club still has questions it wants answered before camp settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Artem Zubs Camp Setback Creates An Early Senators Concern
The Senators are heading into camp with an early dent in their blue line plans, after the club confirmed Artem Zub will miss the first two weeks because of a lower-body injury. For a team trying to settle its defensive pairings and get on the ice with some continuity, any delay for a veteran minutes-eater matters, even if it comes before the real games begin.
There is at least one piece of reassurance for Ottawa in that Zub avoided surgery, which keeps the situation from sounding worse than it is at this stage. Still, the setback pushes back the start of his camp work and leaves the Senators waiting a little longer to see how quickly he can ramp back up once he is cleared to return. [Read more 🡒]