Tim Stützle Emerging As Next Senators Superstar

The 2020 NHL Draft checked off a lot of tropes – a clear No. 1, Alexis Lafrenière, a clear power-forward, Quinton Byfield, and a healthy battle for top defense between Jake Sanderson and Jamie Drysdale – but it lacked a clear top European. Swedish pro Lucas Raymond, OHL import Marco Rossi, and generational German Tim Stützle fought over the title, each with different things to love and hate.

For Stützle’s part, he had grown up a superstar of German youth hockey – challenging scoring records and captaining Team Germany at every level between U16 and U20. He spent the 2019-20 season playing out his rookie year in the DEL – Germany’s pro league – where he scored an admirable 34 points in 41 games. But his scoring wasn’t fantastic – it didn’t rival any DEL records or even rank in the top five of his team. Many agreed he was worth a top 10 pick, but whether it should be #2 or #8 was argued in depth, not helped along by his base in an uncommon hockey country.

The year ended with many considering Stützle’s dazzling puck skills and speed too much to argue, and he ended the year as Bob McKenzie’s second-overall prospect and the top European off the board headed to Ottawa at third-overall. It was a bold reach for upside from a usually meager Senators team, and Stützle would quickly vindicate it by making the NHL roster out of camp. He benefited from a late start to the 2020-21 season – with the January start giving him the chance to heal from an October arm surgery.

His rookie NHL season was as quiet as his rookie DEL year – marked by 29 points in 53 games. But he’s grown exponentially over the years. He improved to 58 points in his sophomore year, just enough to earn a routine top-line role – setting Stützle up for a true breakout. He took full advantage of the opportunity in the 2022-23 season, totaling 39 goals and 90 points at just 20 years old.

Looking at U21 seasons in the NHL, Stützle’s 2023 totals rank in the top 30 of all time and made him the third-highest-scoring European behind just Alex Ovechkin and Jaromír Jágr. It was incredible company, and while he returned to earth a bit last year – with just 18 goals and 70 points – he seems back on pace this year. Stützle currently leads the Senators with 39 points in 34 games. That’s an 82-game pace of 94 points, which would tie Alexei Yashin’s 1998-99 campaign for fourth-highest in Senators history. It’d also couple Stützle with Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza as the only player with multiple top-10 scoring seasons in Ottawa’s record books.

At just 22 years of age, the young German is finding himself among incredible company, which has some breaking out the word “superstar”. 13-year NHL veteran Jason York, who himself spent five years in Ottawa, joined Daily Faceoff’s All 32 segment to discuss its veracity. He said, “This is, to me, what I classify a superstar as: Can you bring fans out of their seats? Are you worth the price of admission? How many guys are really worth the price of admission like “wow”? … I’ll put Tim Stützle in that category.”

York went on to speak highly of Stützle’s hockey talent and his ability to get fans out of their seats. His comments ring loud for a Senators team that hasn’t had a clear superstar in nearly a decade. Brady Tkachuk will certainly go down as an all-time great – already captaining the team and posting 382 points in 474 games – but he’s more an era-defining piece than a generational talent. Ottawa hasn’t seen that kind of ability since Erik Karlsson broke records in the 2010s. Before him, it was Alfredsson, Heatley, and Spezza running court from 2005 to 2012.

Now, Stützle seems to be the one set to define Ottawa’s 2020s. As it stands, he’s scored 286 career points: the ninth-most points of any NHLer before turning 23 years old. He’s among the elite company in the top 10 – sandwiched between Mitch Marner (291 points) and Auston Matthews (285 points). Stützle’s current scoring pace has him adding 11 more points before his January 15th birthday, passing Marner and stepping just behind seventh-ranked Nathan MacKinnon (303 points).

The rest of Stützle’s company in that top 10 are also true superstars who each found ways to become leaders of incredible teams. With this degree of offensive performance, Stützle could soon be doing the same – and already seems well worthy of the label as a true, all-time superstar for the Senators.