The Ottawa Senators are heading into a new season without Brady Tkachuk, and they’re not interested in treating his departure like the end of the story.
Tkachuk’s June trade to the Florida Panthers changed plenty for a team that had just put together back-to-back playoff trips. It took away the captain, a major offensive piece and a familiar face at the center of the room. But Ottawa’s message heading into Saturday’s road opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs is clear: the group left behind is still capable of driving this thing forward.
“We certainly feel very good about the direction of our group,” said general manager Steve Staios. “The players we have continue to get better and we learn. We’ve been through a lot as a group and a couple of years in the playoffs and we hope that experience helps.”
That next step will have to come from a spread-out attack rather than one replacement for Tkachuk. The Senators are leaning on Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens and new addition William Eklund to keep the offence moving, with the real edge likely coming from how much help they get across the lineup.
Stutzle paced Ottawa with 34 goals last season. Batherson followed with a career-high 33 and locked in his future with an eight-year extension in early September. Cozens delivered 28 goals, his best mark since 2023, while Eklund arrives from San Jose after producing 15 goals and 53 points with the Sharks.
The supporting cast matters just as much. Shane Pinto, Fabian Zetterlund, Claude Giroux and Andre Burakovsky, who was acquired from Chicago in June, are all candidates to tilt the balance if the Senators are going to replace the scoring they lost with Tkachuk.
The back end, though, may be where Ottawa feels most secure. Jake Sanderson is coming off a breakout season that put him firmly among the NHL’s top young defencemen, and he’s the headliner of a blue-line group that also includes Thomas Chabot, Artem Zub, Jordan Spence and Tyler Kleven.
The one open spot on defence has become one of the early-season stories. Carter Yakemchuk, the seventh overall pick in 2024, wants to claim a full-time NHL role, but his pre-season showed he may not be ready for that job just yet. Even so, he’s getting a longer look because Zub is still working back from the knee injury he suffered in the first game of the playoffs and is not expected to be ready when the season begins.
Goaltending is another area that could shape Ottawa’s year. Linus Ullmark turned things around after a rough first half last season, a stretch that included a leave of absence for a mental health issue. He came back strong, going 14-4-3 down the stretch and helping the Senators secure the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card berth.
Ullmark said he feels in a better place entering this camp than he did a year ago.
“It’s nice (to) work through the positives and not feel like you have to catch up on things,” said Ullmark. “So, that’s a big step up from last season.”
The Senators also tried to shore up the crease by signing Samuel Ersson to a two-year, US$4.4-million deal. Staios said at the end of last season that he hadn’t done enough to address the backup role or give Ullmark the support he needed.
Ottawa had been set to begin the season with Ullmark, Ersson and Leevi Merilainen, but Merilainen was claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks. That could push Staios to keep searching for goaltending depth so the club doesn’t run into the same problem again. If Vancouver tries to send Merilainen to its AHL affiliate, Ottawa would have first right to reclaim him.
The Senators have been through the playoff grind the last two seasons and lost in the first round both times. Now they’re trying to use that experience, not mourn what’s gone, as they start over without their captain.
Sanderson is expected to be a major part of that push at 24, and Ottawa still hasn’t named a new captain. The list of possible choices includes Stutzle, Chabot and Sanderson.
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