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

Senators 2025-26 Player Preview: Leevi Merilainen

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Dayton Reimer | Last updated Sep 5, 2025 12:05 PM ET

With the 2025-26 season approaching quickly, it is time to start looking at what the Ottawa Senators have to work with. They finally made it back to the playoffs, but this season is going to be about building off the success they found last season.

In this 2025-26 Player Preview series, we are going to look at all of the players and what to look for from them this season. Today, we’re highlighting rookie goalie and newly designated backup Leevi Merilainen.

Merilainen by the Numbers

Drafted: 71^st Overall (Third Round) in 2020 by the Senators

Position: Goalie (catches left)

Height/Weight: 6-foot-3, 185 pounds

Age/Birthdate: 23 years old (13/08/2002)

Country: Finland

2024-25 Stats: 8 wins, .925 save percentage (SV%), 1.99 goals-against average (GAA), three shutouts in 12 games

Career Stats: 8 wins, .919 SV%, 2.25 GAA, three shutouts in 14 games

How He Got Here

For many, it was tough to justify using a third-round pick on a goalie whom few had heard of, and those who had felt that Merilainen was a late-round target at best. His .908 SV% in 16 starts was solid with Kärpät U20 in Finland’s junior circuit, but he was primarily a backup behind Joel Blomqvist, meaning that scouts had little idea what to expect from him. He was an enigma, and only time would tell if he became anything.

However, it took just a matter of months before Merilainen was showing what the Senators seemed to know all along. He kicked off the 2020-21 season with three back-to-back shutouts for Kärpät U20 and finished with a league-leading .934 SV% in 22 games. Ottawa signed him to his entry-level contract that summer, and he joined the Kingston Frontenacs in 2021-22. It wasn’t the smoothest transition to North America, but he still convinced Finland to add him to their World Junior roster, where he helped the team win a silver medal.

Merilainen returned to Finland in 2022-23, but returned to Ottawa once the Liiga season concluded, where he went undefeated in the American Hockey League (AHL) and made his NHL debut with the Senators, stopping 34 of 37 shots before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime. His next game came just two days later, but didn’t go nearly as well, and he was pulled after allowing three goals on 12 shots.

Despite the disappointing end to his first NHL season, Merilainen remained a top minor league goalie. He split time between the AHL and ECHL in 2023-24, then was called up in Dec. 2024 to fill in for the injured Linus Ullmark. Over the next 12 games, he put up a 1.99 GAA and a .925 SV% while recording an 8-3-1 record and three shutouts. Only Andrew Hammond had a better rookie run with his incredible 24-game stretch in 2015-16. There were no longer any questions about Merilainen – he was the Senators’ second-best goalie and deserved a bigger role.

Merilainen’s Role in 2025-26

Whereas Ullmark will be held to a higher standard after signing an $8.25 million extension, Merilainen’s bar this season will actually be quite low. All he has to do is perform better than Anton Forsberg, and the team can rest easy knowing they made the right decision to trust the young Finn as their backup.

Forsberg wasn’t a bad goalie – he had several good stretches over his five seasons with the Senators. For example, he posted a .917 SV% while starting 46 games in 2021-22, giving Ottawa some much-needed stability while Matt Murray struggled. But he began to regress after that strong season, and in 2024-25, he had his worst showing yet. In 30 games, he had the only losing record among all Senators goalies and, aside from Mads Sogaard, had the lowest save percentage with a .901. He couldn’t be relied on for long stretches anymore, which prompted the Senators to call up Merilainen.

It’s possible Merialinen could see a similar workload to the Senators’ former backup, especially if they want to keep Ullmark rested and injury-free. If that’s the case, it’s also possible we see a similar performance to Dustin Wolf last season. Both he and Merilainen had strong minor league numbers and a handful of NHL games before becoming full-time NHLers, and for Wolf, he finished 2024-25 with 29 wins in 53 starts while posting a .910 SV% and a 2.64 GAA, putting him in consideration for the Calder Trophy.

It would arguably be a worst-case scenario if Merilainen were thrust into 53 games. That would mean Ullmark once again missed a significant chunk of the season, and further raises questions about whether he could stay healthy long-term. But if we combine Wolf’s ratio and Forsberg’s deployment, then Merilainen could be looking at a 16-9-5 season. While it may not be a Calder-worthy season, it’s certainly better than Forsberg’s numbers, and it’s only going to get better from here.