The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Ottawa.

This year was a much-needed breakthrough for the Senators. Major offseason trades saw Jakob Chychrun and Joonas Korpisalo shipped out the door for Nick Jensen and Linus Ullmark, while names like Michael Amadio and David Perron were picked up in free agency to complement their young forward corps. That, along with a coaching change, was enough to get Ottawa over the hump and into the postseason for the first time since 2017. After a first-round loss to the Maple Leafs, general manager Steve Staios now has his heights set even higher for 2025-26.

Land A Needle-Moving Winger

Most of Ottawa’s jump in the standings this year can be attributed to improved team defense and vastly upgraded goaltending. Their offensive output improved by a minimal amount and remains an area of concern as the Senators look to become a consistent postseason contender.

Matters in 2024-25 weren’t helped by a down season from captain Brady Tkachuk, whose 29 goals and 55 points were his lowest totals since the shortened 2021 season. Outside of him, though, the Senators simply weren’t a good offensive team. They weren’t bad – just slightly below average by most available metrics, and an area in which they’ll need to add an impact piece to have any legitimate championship aspirations with their current core group.

This season, Ottawa ranked 18th in the league in goals, 21st in 5-on-5 shot attempts, 22nd in 5-on-5 expected goals, and an eye-popping 31st in actual goals at 5-on-5. Their 139 goals at standard play were nine ahead of the last-place Predators. They were helped by being the league’s best team at drawing penalties, receiving 269 power-play opportunities with an 11th-place 23.8% conversion rate for 64 power-play goals tied for the league lead.

While they’ve built out enough scoring depth to have an effective group of middle-six forwards behind their anchors in Tkachuk and Tim Stützle, they don’t have another player on the club with a surefire shot at 75-80 points in a season. That’s why they’ve reportedly made the dependable Drake Batherson available in trade talks. They’re looking for a right-winger with a higher production ceiling to slot into his top-six minutes.

They don’t have enough cap space this summer, either. While the organization has reportedly made it a priority to add a right-shot defenseman (more on that later), they’re perhaps better off spending the bulk of it on pursuing one of the better UFA wingers out there in Nikolaj Ehlers or leveraging their current spending flexibility on the trade market.

Make A Call On Giroux

There’s only one uber-notable pending UFA for Staios to contend with this summer. That’s hometown vet Claude Giroux, who’s wrapping up the three-year, $19.5MM deal he signed to join Ottawa in free agency in 2022. There’s mutual interest in extending the relationship. How much of a discount he’ll be willing to take from his current $6.5MM cap hit, especially with his open market value still above the $5MM line (per AFP Analytics), remains to be seen.

If Giroux holds firm to an ask in the $5MM range, the Senators might do well to counter with a one-year offer that includes performance bonuses to get him to that number and lower the initial cap hit of the deal. He’s now 37 and has seen a steady production drop over his three years in the Canadian capital. His 15 goals and 50 points in 81 games this year worked out to his lowest per-game outputs since the 2009-10 season. His points-per-game rate has dropped linearly since his arrival, and if the trend continues, he’s tracking to score just 37 points in a full 82-game schedule next year.

Getting an early indication of Giroux’s salary floor in negotiations will help Staios decide whether to continue pursuing an extension or cut bait early and earmark that cap space for another task. Letting him walk could expand the case for keeping the younger Batherson, an established 60-point scorer at a team-friendly cap hit of $4.975MM through 2027. For a team with semi-limited maneuverability this summer, that’s not a deal they should be actively looking to shed.

Sign Cost-Effective Fourth-Liners

This checklist item could be accomplished by retaining some of the pieces Ottawa is currently willing to lose, but they might do better to look for six-figure bargains in free agency. The Sens struck gold last year with the pickup of Adam Gaudette on a two-way deal. He scored a career-high 19 goals while averaging just 10:25 per game, 16 of which came at even strength.

As such, he may have priced himself out of an extension with the Sens’ priorities set more on bigger moves on offense. The reality stands that Ottawa only has eight NHL forwards under contract for 2025-26, although pending RFA Fabian Zetterlund at least gives them nine under team control. They need bodies, especially without a surplus of high-end AHLers ready to jump to NHL minutes.

There should be many high-ceiling rebound options available for at or under $1MM on a one-year deal for the Sens to replace or even add upon Gaudette’s production level. One name that immediately jumps out is Michael Carcone, who’s already made it clear he doesn’t intend to sign a new deal with the Mammoth and will hit the open market. He previously spent the 2019-20 campaign in the Sens organization but played entirely in the minors. Between then and now, he had a 21-goal campaign for the Coyotes one year ago under eerily similar circumstances to Gaudette’s breakout this year. This year was a more trying campaign for Carcone, who lost a regular spot in the lineup and was limited to seven tallies in 53 appearances. Still, there’s certainly 15-20 goal potential without inserting him into extended minutes.

They’ll also need to re-sign or replace Nick Cousins and Matthew Highmore with low-cost checking options, although that should be a fairly easy task. They can spend an average of $2.14MM on their seven open roster spots with their current projected cap space, enough to fill out their roster with six-figure depth pieces after one or two more notable signings.

Strengthen Depth Defense

While parting ways with Chychrun limited Ottawa’s puck-moving arsenal on the blue line, bringing in the right-shot Jensen as a stay-at-home partner for Thomas Chabot worked wonders chemistry-wise. His +18 rating was the highest on the team. Unfortunately, his status to begin next season is uncertain following lower-body surgery, and they don’t have any legitimate NHL right-shot options behind him on the depth chart outside of Nikolas Matinpalo.

That’s led them to explore outside help, but they risk making too big of a move here with Jensen not expected to miss the entire campaign and young righty Carter Yakemchuk on the way as one of their top prospects. Adding a cheaper name with a history of reliably flexing into second-pairing minutes should still be a checklist item, but it doesn’t need to be a big splash.

Matinpalo isn’t a real internal answer outside of short-term promotions, and bringing back struggling veterans on expiring contracts like Travis Hamonic is a worst-case scenario option compared to finding more cost-efficient players on the open market. Someone like Henri Jokiharju or Jan Rutta can be had without breaking the bank and keeps Matinpalo in the mix as a good extra option when Jensen makes his return.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.