Senators acquire Jonas Johansson from Lightning

The Senators were facing a shortage of goaltending depth behind veteran starter Linus Ullmark after the club placed Leevi Merilainen on waivers Thursday. Merilainen was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks Friday.

Johansson, 31, has spent the past three years serving as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s backup with the Lightning. While seeing a limited workload due to Vasilevskiy’s propensity to start a high volume of games, Johansson has been a bit below league average by save percentage, notching marks of .890, .895 and .884 in the past three years, respectively.

For his NHL career, Johansson owns a record of 43-36-14 with a .888 SV%, 3.30 GAA and four shutouts.

Goaltending proved to be a considerable challenge in Ottawa last season, as neither Ullmark nor Merilainen were particularly effective during the regular season. The Sens won the vast majority of the games Ullmark started, but his .891 save percentage and 2.73 goals against average were far from reflective of his usual high level.

Merilainen, for his part, was one of the least effective goalies in the whole NHL last season, as he went 8-10-1 with a .860 SV% and 3.51 GAA. The 24-year-old still has plenty of upside to show in Vancouver, though, as evidenced by the solid .909 SV% he produced with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate in Belleville.

The shaky goaltending from last year prompted general manager Steve Staios to make a move to add another option into the mix this summer, as he brought in Samuel Ersson from the Philadelphia Flyers to take on the backup job behind Ullmark.

While the NHL season is set to get underway next Tuesday, the Senators still have more than a week until their season opener, which will take place on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 3.