Nick Jensen‘s 2025-26 season is over, as Senators head coach Travis Green told reporters (including Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen) that the defender has undergone surgery to repair a torn meniscus. Carrying a six-week recovery time, he’s ruled out for the regular season. He could theoretically return past the first round if Ottawa manages to snag a wild-card berth – which is no guarantee – and they pull off an early upset.
Jensen, a pending UFA, has played his last regular-season game for Ottawa, Garrioch indicates. The organization has no plans to offer him a contract extension. Green doesn’t expect the surgery to be career-ending by any stretch for the 35-year-old, though. “I feel bad for him… We didn’t think originally it would end up going this way. It’s going to be best for him that he does the surgery, and he’ll be back to 100 per cent for sure.”
It’s not the only recent lower-body issue Jensen has had. He needed a hip procedure last offseason, which he underwent in May. That put his availability for the beginning of the regular season in doubt, but he managed to return in time. He had only missed three games this season prior to the meniscus tear last week against the Canadiens, all due to healthy scratches.
This has not been a kind year for the Minnesota native on the ice. Acquired from the Capitals in the 2024 Jakob Chychrun deal to give the Sens a top-four-capable right-shot shutdown option to pair with Thomas Chabot, he flourished last season but hasn’t looked like the same player in 2025-26. His average time on ice is down more than three minutes from 20:13 to 17:01, and his 0.62 hits per game are the lowest of his 10-year NHL career. He’s still managed a respectable 17 points in 61 games, but is controlling only 48.3% of shot attempts at 5-on-5, down from 50.6% last season.
He had nonetheless spent most of his time at even strength next to Chabot, although he also saw significant time in third-pairing deployment on his off side with fellow righty Nikolas Matinpalo. A good portion of his overall ice time reduction came from Jensen essentially being removed as a regular on Ottawa’s penalty kill. He’s still a real puzzle piece for the Sens, who already had the longest odds at a postseason berth of any team still realistically in the race for a playoff spot.
Of course, Ottawa has also been without #1 rearguard Jake Sanderson for the last four games with an upper-body injury. He’s still listed as week-to-week, with Green saying he could get back on the ice for some skating work in the next seven days.
Both their absences have put immense strain on Ottawa’s defense corps. Tyler Kleven and Jordan Spence, averaging just over 17 minutes per game this season between them, are now the club’s second pairing behind Chabot and Artem Zub. Dennis Gilbert, who’s never played more than 35 games in a season, is now a lineup regular until Sanderson returns. That’s far from an ideal place to be from a roster management perspective for a team in a playoff chase, although the fact they’ve been able to eke out a pair of wins in their two games without both Sanderson and Jensen should be of some consolation.
Ottawa has the ninth-most difficult remaining schedule in the league, per Tankathon. The good news is that several teams they’re potentially competing with for wild-card berths, including the Blue Jackets, Bruins, Islanders, and Red Wings, are in the top eight above them. MoneyPuck still projects them to finish ninth in the East with 97 points, though – a total that would win them the Pacific Division but leave them out of the picture in what has turned out to be a ridiculously competitive race to the finish out East.