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Tim Stutzle, Ottawa Senators (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

5 Ottawa Senators Storylines to Watch in 2025-26

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Paul Quinney | Last updated Aug 3, 2025 10:55 AM ET

After last season’s playoff appearance – the first in seven years – hopes are high among the Ottawa Senators faithful that their club will contend for Lord Stanley’s silverware next spring. Here’s a look at five storylines to follow in 2025-26.

Can Tim Stutzle Score 100 Points or More?

For the Senators to take the next step and deliver a playoff run next spring, they’ll need Tim Stutzle to break into the league’s 100-point club. In 2022-23, he marked up the scoresheet for 90 points. He hasn’t matched that since.

Make no mistake, scoring 100 points today in the NHL is no easy task – only six players managed it last season. Yet if he could hit 100, Stutzle would cement his reputation as a superstar.

It’s hard to argue that his 79 points last season over 82 games were a disappointment. Yet many believe he has a lot more to offer. If he delivers, it will go a long way toward solving the Senators’ goal-scoring problem. The team ranked a middling 18^th in the league last season, and nobody on the roster cracked the league’s list of top 20 goal-scorers.

This season, the ingredients are there for Stutzle to bust through the 100-point threshold, assuming he stays healthy (wrist and shoulder injuries have plagued him the last few years). The top centre spot is now his, and there are plenty of options for head coach Travis Green to consider when choosing linemates who’ll bring out his full scoring potential. One of the more interesting combinations would be Brady Tkachuk on Stutzle’s left side and Fabian Zetterlund on the right.

It’s not out of the question that the line could notch 230 points or more, making them one of the most dangerous lines in the NHL. After all, it’s a reasonable expectation that Tkachuk could deliver north of 80 points this season – his career best was 83 in 2022-23. Zetterlund was on track to notch 50 points with the San Jose Sharks before being traded to the Senators at the trade deadline last March. With Stutzle at 100 points, the Senators would then have a line equal to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top trio last season of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Together, they registered 238 points in the regular season.

Are Linus Ullmark and Leevi Merilainen an Elite-Level Duo?

There’s always debate about which twine-minding duo is the NHL’s best. And the duo judged number one often changes several times over the course of a season. Even so, what will matter to the Senators is how their starting puck-stopper Linus Ullmark and his understudy, Leevi Merilainen, stack up against their Atlantic Division rivals.

Ullmark registered a save percentage (SV%) last season of .909 (11^th-best in the league). His goals-against average (GAA) was 2.72, ranking him 18^th in the league. As for rookie netminder Leevi Merilainen, his numbers were nothing short of stellar over the 12 games he started for Ottawa last season, registering a SV% of .925 and a GAA of 1.99.

Ottawa’s goaltending stacked up quite well against the top three teams in the Atlantic Division last season. That’s despite the fact that the sometimes inconsistent Anton Forsberg handled most of the games in which Ullmark didn’t play – 30 in all. Merilainen’s 12 games weren’t enough to make much of a difference to Ottawa’s overall team SV% and GAA.

Here’s how Ottawa’s goaltending compared to that of the top three teams in the Atlantic Division last season:

Goaltending Duo	Team and Standing in Atlantic Division 2024-25	Team SV%	Team GAA
Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll	Toronto Maple Leafs (1)	.905	2.79
Andrei Vasilevsky and Jonas Johansson	Tampa Bay Lightning (2)	.907	2.63
Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight	Florida Panthers (3)	.896	2.72
Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg	Ottawa Senators (4)	.901	2.83

The question for Senators fans is whether Merilainen is the real McCoy. It’s true that the 22-year-old netminding phenom’s stats last season put him alongside or slightly better than the likes of 2025 Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck, two-time Vezina winner and back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Bobrovsky and the great Vasilevsky of the Lightning. Even so, 12 games do not an NHL career make. Whether he was a flash in the pan last season is something yet to be determined.

Even so, some fans will take comfort in his play in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the baby Senators. Over 37 games with them last season, he recorded a SV% of .913 and a GAA of 2.37. Yet the bridge from the AHL to the NHL is a long one, and for many, it sometimes proves too far.

It seems certain that Bytown fans will see the test of his mettle this season. After all, at no point in his career has Ullmark ever played more than 49 games. So, whether Merilainen and the real McCoy are one and the same will reveal itself over the 30 games or so he’s likely to be between the pipes.

Will Jake Sanderson Win the Norris Trophy in 2025-26?

For the first time in years, the Senators will ice a D-corps that is solid across three pairings and features an authentic Norris Trophy contender in Jake Sanderson. He finished 10^th in voting for the Norris Trophy, which honours the NHL’s best defenceman, and is now considered among the top young guns cruising an NHL blue line. But Senators fans will be talking all season long about whether he can win it.

Much has been written about why Sanderson deserved this recognition from the professional hockey writers fraternity, who choose the Norris winner every year. As my colleague at The Hockey Writers, Nicholas Endrizzi wrote in a recent piece, other than Erik Karlsson in his prime, the case can be made that the Senators have never had a defenceman like Sanderson.

Jake Sanderson, Ottawa Senators (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

At just 23 years old, Sanderson continues to improve, and his full potential remains to be seen. Last season, he logged ice time averaging 24:27 per game – no Senator spent more time on the ice. He also notched more points than any other Senator on the blue line and was third in scoring. He was a key part of the Senators’ power-play and penalty-kill units.

If Sanderson can find another gear this season, he’ll be a big part of the Senators’ push into the playoffs and perhaps the first Senator to bring the Norris Trophy to Ottawa since Karlsson did it for the second time over a decade ago.

Can Fabian Zetterlund Find His Mojo in 2025-26?

Read the fan blogs, and you’ll see plenty of questions about why president of hockey operations and general manager (GM) Steve Staios brought Fabian Zetterlund to Ottawa. The harsher critics will point out that he went cold when he came to Ottawa at the trade deadline last March, scoring just five points over 20 games. That’s well off the pace he set in the 64 games he played with the San Jose Sharks last campaign and well short of his production in 2023-24, when he notched a career best 24 goals and 20 assists over 82 games.

To be fair to Zetterlund, he was probably adjusting to the Senators’ style and a new coaching staff. Not only that, but he seemed to be constantly moving up and down the lineup. Still, Staios and company seem to believe in him, signing the 25-year-old Swede to a three-year contract extension at $4.275 million per year. That’s more than Shane Pinto is earning ($3.75 million annually) and in the same ballpark as Drake Batherson’s $4.975 million per year contract.

Starting on opening night on Oct. 9 in Tampa Bay’s Amelie Arena, all eyes will be on Zetterlund to see if Staios made the right bet on extending his deal.

Senators Must Decide on New Deals for Restricted Free Agents

The Senators have their core locked down under contract for the next three to five years. Yet, they need to build around that core, as some of the young talent will become restricted free agents (RFA) next offseason.

Defenceman Jordan Spence, centreman Shane Pinto and Leevi Merilainen will be sitting down with their agents to prepare for negotiations on contract extensions. What kind of contracts they can negotiate and whether Staios makes qualifying offers to them to retain their rights will depend on their performance this season.

With that kind of pressure on them, look for all three to have a breakout season.

Senators’ 2025-26 Season Storylines Are Many

These five storylines are just a few of the many that Senators fans will be following closely this season. How they turn out could decide whether we’ll be watching the Senators go deep into the playoffs or lamenting an early exit.