2026-27 NHL team preview: Ottawa Senators

LAST SEASON

Team development isn’t always linear, and the Ottawa Senators showed us that last season. They appeared to be on an upward trajectory after they’d ended a seven-season playoff drought in 2024-25 and pushed the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs to six games in a Round-1 defeat. Coach Travis Green’s defensively stout group was bursting with prime-year players and boasted a playoff-friendly style. The Sens seemed poised to climb another rung and reach the upper echelon of Atlantic Division contenders.

But while they ended up a playoff team again in 2025-26, the route was rather circuitous. They remained a great defensive outfit, led by top-tier blueline stopper Jake Sanderson, but wins were hard to collect early in the season. When the calendar reached Jan. 1, they were dead last in their division, dragged down by horrifically bad goaltending, as starter Linus Ullmark was struggling with his mental health and took a leave of absence in late December.

Ottawa was not a bad hockey team at any point last season, though. Its process was solid. Ullmark returned refreshed, his head in a better place, at the end of January, and his improved play keyed a run for a team that really just needed more saves. From Feb. 1 onward, the Sens went 18-6-4, posting the NHL’s fourth-best points percentage. Buoyed by a .926 save percentage in April from Ullmark, they charged back into the playoff picture and snatched a Wildcard berth.

The early-season struggles, however, still punished Ottawa in the end, as its low playoff seeding booked a date with the Carolina Hurricanes, who played a similar style, just more evolved. While the series was closer than the sweep result indicated, it was still a gut punch for the Sens to bow out in a week. Worse yet: questions bubbled up about the future of captain Brady Tkachuk, who went from winning Olympic gold with USA alongside brother Matthew in February to no-showing with a pointless postseason stat line. In his end-of-season media availability, Tkachuk publicly dismissed the notion that he wasn’t committed to remaining a Senator, but those of us who read between the lines in the months since the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off knew there was momentum building toward him playing long-term with Matthew.

On Father’s Day, the conspiracy theorists earned their validation: Tkachuk was dealt to the Florida Panthers for a bushel of draft picks, including two 2026 first-rounders. Doing immediate damage control for a win-now club not wanting to take a step backward after dealing its star forward, GM Steve Staios quickly flipped the top-10 pick acquired in the trade to land a new left winger for the Sens’ top six from the San Jose Sharks: William Eklund.

The hope, then, is that the Sens have at least maintained status quo after a heartbreaking departure of a beloved player. But would that be a good enough result for a team looking to break through as an actual Stanley Cup contender? Or, worse yet, is regression a possibility?

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

William Eklund, LW
Andre Burakovsky, LW
Sammy Blais, LW
Philip Tomasino, RW
Kasper Halttunen, RW

Departures

Brady Tkachuk, LW (Fla)
Nick Jensen, D (Ana)
James Reimer, G (UFA)
Lars Eller, C (Fla)
Dennis Gilbert, D (Buf)
Mads Sogaard, G (TB)

OFFENSE

The Senators had been Los Angeles Kings East in 2024-25, a club great at driving the play and creating chances but not proficient at finishing those chances, but we saw some positive offensive gains in Canada’s capital last season. From shots to scoring chances to expected goals – name the 5-on-5 metric and the Sens ranked in the league’s top third. But Ottawa also graded out above average in shooting percentage this time and boasted the NHL’s No. 8 power play. The result: the Sens quietly finished eighth in the NHL in scoring last season. “Quietly” is the operative word because they mostly scored by committee. Center Tim Stutzle and right winger Drake Batherson led the team with 34 and 33 goals and 83 and 71 points, respectively, but no other Senator eclipsed 28 goals or 59 points, albeit Tkachuk only played 60 games.

What Ottawa lacks in true star power at the moment, it makes up in versatility. Eklund, a wily playmaker, seems like a fair choice to get a look with Stutzle and Batherson, while Dylan Cozens, fresh off a huge bounce-back season in which he potted 28 goals, can drive the second line, with shutdown center Shane Pinto operating in the two-way role from line 3. On the blueline, the swift-skating Sanderson will continue quarterbacking the play, and his offense is slowly catching up to his exemplary defense. On top of his 54 points, he scored a career-high 14 goals last season despite missing 15 games.

With elder statesman Claude Giroux back for another season and veteran scorer Andre Burakovsky joining the team as a UFA, the Sens’ attack looks deep. They still could use a deadly sniper though. They haven’t had a 40-goal scorer since Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley hit the mark in 2007-08.

DEFENSE

The Sens were pretty much the gold standard for even-strength team defense in the Eastern Conference last season. No team in the NHL surrendered 5-on-5 scoring chances at a lower rate. Only one had a lower expected goals rate. They were a middling 13^th in goals against because they couldn’t get a save in the first several months of the season and because their penalty kill was shockingly terrible for a team loaded with great defensive players, sitting 29^th at 75.7 percent.

That said: the PK “struggles” were goaltending-related. Ottawa allowed the second-fewest scoring chances in the NHL per 60 while shorthanded. If Ullmark can even be average on the PK going forward, the Sens’ kill should rebound, while their overall team defense will rank among the league’s elite.

How could it not, after all? Sanderson belongs on the short list of the game’s best all-around defensemen now. He’s a breathtaking skater, leading all defensemen in max skating speed last season. He’s a smothering defender; among 146 blueliners who played at least 1,000 minutes at 5-on-5 last season, only three allowed fewer scoring chances when they were on the ice, a stat that impresses even more considering Sanderson has to face every opponent’s best players. He forms a balanced pair with the big, sturdy Artem Zub, and it seems like Ottawa finally has that elusive partner for puck mover Thomas Chabot on the second pair: Jordan Spence. He had a breakout 2025-26 season, ranking among the NHL’s best defenders in scoring-chance suppression, and he was even better when paired with Sanderson, giving Green an alternative option if he wants to mix up his duos. Spence also took over as a horse when Ottawa’s blueline was banged up last season, gutting out a six-game stretch in which his average ice time spiked north of 26 minutes.

Supporting that strong top four is a collection of great defensive forwards. Pinto belongs in the tier of annual Selke Trophy contenders now, and he formed one of the league’s top shutdown lines with Nick Cousins and Mike Amadio last season, with Trade Deadline addition Warren Foegele also fitting well in the Cousins spot. It’s possible Green spreads them out and puts Pinto in a position to generate more offense this season, but Pinto will be the team’s key matchup pivot no matter what. There’s little reason overall to expect Ottawa to regress defensively. This is a stingy group if healthy.

GOALTENDING

Before Ullmark’s leave of absence, he labored through the worst season of his career, posting an .881 SV% across 28 starts. He later revealed in an interview that he was dealing with panic attacks, sometimes between periods of games.

But if we zoom out at Ullmark’s entire career, his first-half struggles last year are the outlier. From 2015-16 through 2024-25, he posted a .917 SV% across 291 games, seventh-best among all goalies with 100-plus appearances. Not only did he right the ship down the stretch last season, but he was amazing in Ottawa’s sweep playoff defeat, posting the highest goals saved above expected rate of any netminder to start in the 2025-26 postseason. The 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner has absolutely earned the benefit of the doubt.

If there’s an area of concern in Ottawa’s crease, it’s actually the support behind Ullmark. Newcomer Samuel Ersson was quite possibly the NHL’s weakest goalie over the previous two seasons combined with the Philadelphia Flyers, sitting fourth-worst in the NHL in goals saved above expected per 60 in back-to-back campaigns. If he can’t get his game on track, the Sens will turn to Leevi Merilainen, who followed up a promising debut in 2024-25 with a putrid 2025-26 in which he was somehow even worse than Ersson, ranking dead last in goals saved above expected, grading out as literally the worst netminder in the NHL. Not great, Bob!

With such shaky No. 2 and No. 3 options, the Sens have made, on paper, a grave error and put extra pressure on a No. 1 goaltender who cracked due to the pressure he felt last season. This is quite the gamble from Staios.

COACHING

Green is a coach whose identity feels extremely present in the team’s play. Since he took over in 2024, he’s molded the Senators into a disciplined, structured, mature team that plays with a great work ethic. His staff will look a bit different this season, however, after Alfredsson’s shocking departure to join the rival Leafs and work alongside good friend Mats Sundin. With ‘Alfie’ jilting the Sens for the second time after leaving as a player late in his career as well, Ben Sexton, already part of Green’s staff, will be elevated to run the power play. Will he maintain the gains Ottawa made last season?

ROOKIES

The Sens’ pipeline isn’t strong, ranked 25^th in the league by Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis, but it does boast a few higher-end names worth watching, none more than defenseman Carter Yakemchuk. He’s a high-ceiling prospect, blessed with some real offensive talent and physicality. His defensive play needs work, but he could still help the Sens this season quite a bit if he plays sheltered third-pair minutes and gets some power-play time. Don’t be surprised if he cracks the opening-night roster. The other prospect with a chance to contribute in Ottawa this season is Halttunen, acquired in the Eklund trade with San Jose. Halttunen’s howitzer shot is very intriguing for a team needing goal scorers, and his big frame and bruising style could make him suited for bottom-six work, which always increases a prospect’s chances of making his NHL club sooner. He has in-season call-up potential.

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Who takes over as the leader of this team? We asked Sanderson about the captaincy last week at the Player Media Tour. He said he had “no opinion” on who earns the next ‘C’ but acknowledged he’d have to “step up” his leadership. So far, Ottawa hasn’t named its next captain, but it would be a strong statement from the team to back a new one, whether that’s Sanderson, Stutzle, Chabot or someone else.

2. Can William Eklund adequately replace Brady Tkachuk? Eklund will never be the same player as Tkachuk, one of the best all-round power forwards of this era. But Eklund has strengths of his own. His intelligent, hardworking game fits the Sens’ style well. He carries a first-round draft pedigree. “A lot of skill, a lot of speed,” Sanderson said last week when I asked what he knew about Eklund so far. “Just skated with him this past week. He’s a sick, sick player. He looks like Timmy out there just the way they fly around.” If Eklund can mesh well with Ottawa’s other top stars, they might not regress too much sans-Tkachuk.

3. Can Thomas Chabot stay healthy? Chabot broke his forearm last season and rushed back 17 days later to gut through the playoffs at less than 100 percent. He has only reached the 70-game mark once in his past five seasons. Ottawa needs to get through a season in which it isn’t constantly scrambling to replace him in its top four.

PREDICTION

Ottawa is a good hockey team with or without Brady Tkachuk. It also should, in theory, get better starting goaltending this season, which could help the team avoid another sluggish start. At the same time, even if we agree Eklund is underrated, the Senators were better with Tkachuk than without him, and their lineup overall looks, at best, slightly inferior to last season’s. If the Brady loss and projected improvement in net offset each other: bet on a similar result to last season, with Ottawa punching another Wildcard ticket.