OTTAWA — For the Senators, the expectations are clear: playoffs. Bare minimum.
There is unbridled optimism exuding from the Ottawa Senators fan base heading into the 2025-26 season, and for good reason: the team is finally good. But will it be great?
The questions about whether this squad can be a playoff team are gone — and they should be, thanks to a young core of players who are lofting into their primes. There are very few holes on the roster, thanks to acquisitions of Jordan Spence and Lars Eller in the summer. Ottawa is deep at all positions, except potentially in net. The health of Linus Ullmark has been uncertain but Leevi Merilainen’s season-saving stretch last January gives hope for excellence between the pipes.
Ottawa’s centre depth is one of the best in the league, with Tim Stutzle, Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto and Lars Eller. It’s still unclear how strong Ottawa is on the wing, with plenty of good — but maybe not elite — wingers outside of Brady Tkachuk and, to a lesser extent, Drake Batherson. We will find out. Was Cozens’ play in Buffalo a blip or a track record? Is Claude Giroux still a top-six winger at 37? Where does Fabian Zetterlund fit? Will Spence become a top-four defenceman? Can Carter Yakemchuk make the team?
As training camp begins, we start to put the pieces together. Ottawa will need to improve at five-on-five and score more while remaining defensively stout. This season will be about Ottawa taking the next step toward the ultimate goal of winning a Stanley Cup. It’s not just about the playoffs now, it’s how you do in them.
Salary cap space: $3,519,286
Assistant coaches: Daniel Alfredsson, Nolan Baumgartner, Mike Yeo
Unsigned players: Alex Formenton
Key additions: Jordan Spence, Lars Eller
WHAT WE’LL LEARN DURING PRE-SEASON
Who will play on Tim Stutzle’s right wing?
Stutzle has played for years with Tkachuk to his left. But outside of the 2022-23 season, when Claude Giroux consistently tagged along on a line with the duo, it’s been unclear who’s to his right. Because Giroux is 37 and at times is too slow to catch up to Stutzle’s electrifying pace, it’s created situations where Stutzle gains the zone with ease but there’s nobody alongside him because of Tkachuk’s or Giroux’s lack of pace.
Zetterlund, last season’s trade-deadline newcomer, could be the perfect fit. He’s a right-shot, though he prefers the left wing over the right, which complicates things a bit. He has averaged more than 20 goals a season over the past two years, and in a small sample size had great analytics with Stutzle and Tkachuk last season, with an expected goals share of 71.9 per cent (in only 30 minutes). However, Zetterlund could only muster two goals in 20 games to end the season and went without a point in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the trio of Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux amassed 17 points while primarily playing together in the six playoff games against Toronto, but it was outscored 4-2 as a line at five-on-five in the series.
And let’s not forget Batherson, a player with three consecutive 60-point seasons. But so far, coach Travis Green has kept Batherson on Cozen’s right flank.
Regardless, Stutzle, a self-proclaimed playmaker, needs a finisher on the right side.
Will Carter Yakemchuk make the roster?
Yakemchuk is trying to force his future to become the present. The highly talented right-shooting defenceman, drafted seventh overall in 2024, looked sharp at the Prospects Showdown, scoring two goals and an assist, which mirrors how he played last year in training camp when he burst onto the scene. Management has made it clear that Yakemchuk can make the opening-night roster only with an exceptional camp because of Ottawa’s plethora of right-shot defencemen. However, Nick Jensen is recovering from off-season hip surgery and it’s still unclear whether he will be 100 per cent healthy for opening night. If not, it might be Yakemchuk’s spot to lose on Ottawa’s backend because — as solid as Nikolas Matinpalo was last season, he does not look good enough to be a lock. The question will be the defensive aptitude of the six-foot-four blue liner Yakemchuk. If his defence holds in pre-season against NHLers, then he is primed to make the opening night roster.
Will Jordan Spence play in the top four?
The Los Angeles Kings published on YouTube a phone call in which general manager Ken Holland called Spence, explaining to him that he was traded because they wanted to make room for youngster Brandt Clarke in their top four.
In L.A., Spence played sparingly on the top two pairs despite his excellent play in a bottom-pair role; in Ottawa, there is a potential opening for the young defenceman with Artem Zub and Jensen both aging. Spence, 24, is an elite puck-mover who is only five-foot-10 but plays physically. With the exception of Yakemchuk, if he makes the team, Spence brings something no other defenceman on the right-side can claim: offensive playmaking.
It’s hard to imagine Green splitting up Thomas Chabot and Jensen, who were excellent, especially before Jensen’s hip injury in January that he played with through the rest of the season. Nevertheless, Jensen will be 35 when the season starts, and it might make sense to throw Zub down with Chabot and put Spence with Jake Sanderson. A Spence-Sanderson pairing would be ferocious exiting defensive zones while slicing through the offensive zone to create chances. It’s hard to get scored on when you always have the puck. However, Spence has never consistently played against the opposition’s best players.
Still, Ottawa’s defence is not big or mean, and neither is Spence. Green has shown that he prioritizes size over skill at times, as he played Travis Hamonic over Jacob Bernard-Docker last season. Spence’s role is uncertain, with many different permutations possible, including a top-four role.
The Senators will win the Atlantic Division (regular season) crown. Look around the Atlantic, and outside of Florida, it’s hard to see which team is clearly better than the Senators in the regular season. Ottawa’s core is a year older, with the added maturity and winning knowhow that, at times, was its kryptonite last season. With Florida likely losing regular-season steam after three consecutive Cup finals, Toronto losing Mitch Marner and Tampa Bay a year older, the Atlantic Division is wide open for Ottawa in the regular season. There is a pathway for the Senators to be a better team than last season, and their competitors look set to take a step back.
Zetterlund-Cozens-Batherson
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