Senators Exploring Right-Shot Defense Market

The Senators head into the offseason with a young core coming off its first playoff appearance and more than a few roster spots to fill for 2025-26 with a middling amount of salary cap flexibility to do so. They may need to add additional depth on defense out of the gate, with righty Nick Jensen’s availability for the beginning of the season uncertain following a recent lower-body surgery. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports it was a “hip or knee” injury that Jensen played through all during the second half of the season, which will likely activate general manager Steve Staios’ previous commitment “to address the club’s defence after learning the extent of Jensen’s ailment.”

Adding on the back end is one of the more reasonable priorities for a Senators club that’s got a bona fide starting goaltender in Linus Ullmark and a wealth of top-six-caliber forwards. They also shouldn’t have too much trouble retaining pending UFA Claude Giroux to augment their offense, considering there’s strong mutual interest in keeping the hometown vet in Ottawa.

But if Jensen is out to begin the campaign, that leaves Nikolas Matinpalo and Artem Zub as the Sens’ only NHL-caliber right-shot options, and the former is untested outside of limited bottom-pairing minutes. Jensen’s injury could open a pathway for 2024 No. 7 overall pick Carter Yakemchuk to get a look in Ottawa’s top four to begin the campaign, but that’s a questionable choice for a team with playoff expectations, especially given Yakemchuk’s underwhelming output this season with WHL Calgary.

But suppose the organization is still high on Yakemchuk. In that case, it may make more sense to ride out Jensen’s absence with a depth free agent signing rather than making a long-term splash for a right-shot D that would block Yakemchuk’s ascension over the next few years. As Garrioch writes, there aren’t many quality top-four options available on the trade or free-agent markets, and acquiring any of them would require Ottawa to subtract from a position of strength. The only needle-moving UFA available at present is Florida rearguard Aaron Ekblad, who’ll likely end up being out of Ottawa’s price range for a free agent pickup and would require them to make a cap-dump trade (maybe veteran winger David Perron and his $4MM cap hit?).

Trade options league sources highlighted to Garrioch were Calgary’s Rasmus Andersson and Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen, both of whom would command a first-round pick in addition to an established NHL forward, presumably centers Ridly Greig or Shane Pinto, based on the offers those clubs turned down at the trade deadline. Andersson is also entering the final year of his contract and would likely command north of $8MM per season on an extension. Is that a figure Ottawa is willing to pay with two $8MM blue-liners already in Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson?

That leaves Staios likely looking for secondary options on the UFA market in July to help augment his defense. With Jensen sidelined, they’ll likely look for a comparable stay-at-home presence to aid his usual partner in Chabot. Names like Brent Burns and Tony DeAngelo don’t fit that bill, but a reunion with 2012 first-rounder Cody Ceci might. He’s almost certainly hitting the market this summer with the Stars in a cap crunch. Although he has plenty of experience averaging north of 20 minutes per game, his possession metrics last year paled compared to what Jensen provided in his first year in Ottawa. Beyond the Blue Jackets’ Dante Fabbro and the Sharks’ Jan Rutta, though, there isn’t much else out there in terms of defensive-minded righties.