A short clip of Senators GM Steve Staios has lit up the trade rumor mill, and the line getting all the attention is the one about Pittsburgh.
In the video, which surfaced on social media, Staios is seen discussing the lead-up to the 2026 NHL Draft. The clip itself is brief, but one soundbite jumped out immediately: “No pick offers are good enough just yet, but Pittsburgh's interesting with the roster player.”
That has fueled a wave of speculation about what Ottawa and Pittsburgh may have been discussing behind the scenes. The read on the situation is that the Senators were looking at moving the 25th overall selection in the 2026 NHL Draft for the 33rd and 41st picks, with a roster player possibly included as part of the package.
The biggest question, of course, is which player that might have been.
For weeks, there has been chatter about the Penguins’ willingness to part with wingers Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust. Either one would have been a notable addition to the conversation if Ottawa was weighing a move down in the draft for one of them.
Then there’s the bigger swing: Erik Karlsson.
Earlier this offseason, the idea of a Karlsson reunion in Ottawa came up after a social media post from veteran NHL journalist James Murphy. Murphy made clear that it was his thought, not a confirmed rumor. Still, with Staios’ comment now circulating, it has people wondering whether Karlsson could have been the player involved, and whether the Senators seriously considered the 25th pick as the centerpiece of a deal for him.
Staios called the situation “interesting,” and that word has taken on a life of its own. There were almost certainly other pieces attached to any potential agreement, but the possibility of Karlsson ending up back in the Nation’s Capital is now part of the discussion.
In the end, Ottawa kept the pick and used it on Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen. The selection is expected to bring a power forward into the organization, and if that plays out the way the Senators hope, they may have been better off staying put.
Still, the fact that the trade talk got this close at all leaves the door cracked open. There are a couple of weeks left before training camp, so the calendar still offers a window for something late in the summer. That said, a Karlsson deal would be complicated by his massive cap hit, and Ottawa would not have much room to maneuver.
For now, this looks more like a conversation worth monitoring than a move that’s about to happen. It could take real work before anything like this gets over the line.
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