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Senators Reassign Nikolas Matinpalo

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The Senators announced Friday that they’ve reassigned defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo to AHL Belleville. With no corresponding transaction, Ottawa’s active roster is now at 22 players.

Matinpalo, 26, had been on the Senators’ roster since last weekend. He’s been around as an extra option on and off over the past few weeks with Artem Zub sidelined with a foot fracture, but after the Russian veteran returned to action last night against the Stars, his services are no longer needed.

Now in his second season in North America, Matinpalo made his season debut on this latest recall, skating 10:24 and taking a minor penalty in a win over the Wild on Dec. 29. The stay-at-home defender has spent most of the campaign in Belleville, where he has two goals and five assists for seven points with 10 PIMs and a minus-four rating.

Checking in at 6’3″ and 212 lbs, Matinpalo arrived in Ottawa in the summer of 2023 as an undrafted free agent signing from Finland’s Ässät. He skated in four contests for the Sens last year in a depth role, logging a plus-one rating and a pair of shots on goal while averaging a paltry seven minutes per game. He was quite effective in a shutdown role in the minors, posting a team-high +15 rating in 67 games for the B-Sens along with 14 points.

Matinpalo became waiver-eligible this season. Since he’s been rostered for under 30 days and played fewer than 10 NHL games since clearing during the preseason, he doesn’t need them again for today’s transaction.

Senators To Activate Artem Zub, Anton Forsberg

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1:39 p.m.: Søgaard has been sent down as expected, the team announced. They still need to make another move.

12:46 p.m.: Senators defenseman Artem Zub will return to the lineup Thursday against the Stars after missing well over a month with a foot fracture, head coach Travis Green told TSN 1200 Ottawa. He must be activated from long-term injured reserve to do so, which, along with goaltender Anton Forsberg coming off injured reserve, is a move that will require multiple corresponding transactions. Ottawa has neither the roster space nor the cap space for his activation.

The Sens must open at least two roster spots and just over $1MM in cap space to reinstate Zub and Forsberg. Placing starting netminder Linus Ullmark on long-term injured reserve and returning fourth-stringer Mads Søgaard to AHL Belleville would satisfy both of those requirements, although placing Ullmark on LTIR would rule him out for eight more games. He’s already been ruled out for their next three while dealing with back issues.

Zub, one of Ottawa’s top penalty killers and a top-four fixture, hasn’t played since Nov. 23. His absence ends after 16 games, during which time the Sens have gone 11-4-1 and rocketed back up the Eastern Conference standings and into a playoff spot, at least for the time being.

Since arriving in the Canadian capital as an undrafted free agent signing in 2020, Zub has averaged 20:17 per game and recorded 73 points with a +5 rating in 261 appearances. Injuries have become a recurring problem for the Russian over the past two seasons, though. A concussion kept him out for nine games earlier this season, while a separate concussion, illness, and lower-body issues limited him to 69 appearances in 2023-24.

Zub is expected to slot back into a reduced bottom-pairing role alongside Tyler Kleven as he gets back up to game speed. Jacob Bernard-Docker and Nikolas Matinpalo will serve as healthy extras, unless the latter is returned to AHL Belleville later today as part of Ottawa’s roster shuffling.

They’ll likely want to get Zub back to his usual top-pairing tricks alongside Jake Sanderson as soon as possible. Veteran Travis Hamonic has taken Zub’s place for much of the year to poor results. The Senators control 45.5% of expected with Sanderson and Hamonic deployed together compared to 53.1% with Sanderson and Zub, per MoneyPuck. The pairs generate comparable offense but have a drastic defensive difference, with the Zub pairing allowing 2.02 xGA/60 compared to the Hamonic one allowing 2.73. In terms of actual goals, the Sanderson-Hamonic pairing has been outscored 13-5 at 5-on-5.

Meanwhile, in the crease, Ottawa now has at least one of their regulars back. Forsberg hadn’t dressed for the last six games with a lower-body issue, forcing the Sens to roll out an AHL tandem of Søgaard and Leevi Merilainen with Ullmark also on the shelf.

Before his injury, Forsberg had struggled to the tune of a .889 SV% and -2.9 GSAA in 11 outings with a 4-6-0 record. Inconsistency has been the name of his game – he has a decent 2.95 GAA and a pair of shutouts, but he only has three games this season with a .900 SV% or better.

Forsberg Could Return Thursday

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  • Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg could return to the lineup on Thursday in Dallas, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. He has been out for the last two weeks with what was originally termed as a minor ailment sustained during a pregame warmup.  The 32-year-old has a 2.95 GAA with a .889 SV% in his first 11 starts of the season.  In the meantime, Ottawa is playing this weekend with their AHL tandem of Mads Sogaard and Leevi Merilainen with Linus Ullmark out for their road trip.

Ottawa Senators Recall Nikolas Matinpalo, Place Three On IR

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The Ottawa Senators announced they’ve recalled depth defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. The roster move marks the second time in three weeks that Matinpalo has been recalled to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman.

Ottawa had to make additional roster moves given that Matinpalo is the fifth player recalled by the organization in the last 24 hours. TSN’s Steve Lloyd reported that the Senators have retroactively placed David Perron, Anton Forsberg, and Artem Zub on the team’s injured reserve opening up the necessary roster spots. Perron and Zub reportedly returned to practice yesterday meaning Matinpalo’s time on the active roster should be short-lived.

Matinpalo is in his second year with the Senators organization signing back-to-back one-year contracts out of the Finnish Liiga. He was a quality two-way defenseman for the AHL Senators last year scoring four goals and 14 points in 67 games with a +15 rating. He went scoreless through his first seven AHL postseason contests but still finished with a positive +1 rating.

The Espoo, Finland also debuted in the NHL last year skating in four games for Ottawa from late October through early November. He was rarely used during those contests shouldering seven minutes of ice time a night on average but still found the time to deliver four hits.

He’s had a small uptick in scoring this year in the AHL with two goals and seven points in 23 games but isn’t expected to greatly extrapolate on last season’s totals. He’ll continue to serve as Ottawa’s seventh defenseman for the time being with the team four games through a nine-game road trip.

Perron And Zub Return To Practice, Amadio Out For A While

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  • Senators winger David Perron (upper body) and defenseman Artem Zub (foot) both skated today as they work their way back from their respective injuries, notes Sportsnet’s Alex Adams (Twitter link). The veterans each last played back on November 23rd when they sustained their respective injuries.  Meanwhile, winger Michael Amadio (head) is expected to be out for a while according to head coach Travis Green.  It’s unlikely that Perron and Zub will be available to return right away given Ottawa’s four recalls earlier today but the fact they’re both skating suggests they’re getting closer to suiting back up.

Linus Ullmark Out At Least Five More Games With Back Injury

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The Senators will be without star starter Linus Ullmark for at least two more weeks. Head coach Travis Green told reporters that Ullmark won’t travel with the team on their upcoming five-game road swing as he nurses a back issue. The soonest he could return to the lineup is Jan. 9 against the Sabres (via TSN 1200 Ottawa).

That means Ullmark will likely be landing on injured reserve to accommodate the recall of goaltenders Leevi Merilainen and Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville this morning. No. 2 option Anton Forsberg, who’s listed as out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury and hasn’t dressed since Dec. 14, will travel with the team and thus will return to action sooner than Ullmark. Green said. He’ll likely remain on the active roster for now, although since he’s missed more than seven days, it wouldn’t be an issue for Ottawa to place both Forsberg and Ullmark on IR if necessary to open up an additional roster spot. However, they need to make one IR placement today, as their active roster count sits at one over the limit after this morning’s recalls.

The news hits pause on a promising first season for Ullmark in the Canadian capital after being acquired in a blockbuster deal with the Bruins during the Stanley Cup Final. The 31-year-old Swede has a 12-7-2 record with a .915 SV% and 2.38 GAA through 22 starts and one relief appearance. That’s good for 9.2 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. That would be the highest mark an Ottawa netminder has posted since Craig Anderson’s 10.6 in the 2016-17 campaign, coincidentally the last time the Senators secured a postseason berth.

If they end their playoff drought this season, Ullmark will be a big reason why. He has them in a position to do so, sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference with an 18-14-2 record and 38 points. MoneyPuck currently gives the Sens a 66.1% chance of holding onto their playoff spot, while Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic gives them a 64% chance. Those numbers drop slightly with Ullmark (and Forsberg) out of the picture for the next couple of games, but if Ullmark is ready to go by the time the Sens return home, it shouldn’t be a season-altering absence.

Ullmark has already had one injury-related absence this season, missing four games with a muscle strain back in October. Ottawa went 3-1-0 during that time but allowed 3.5 goals per game, managing enough goal support to buoy themselves during Ullmark’s absence. The 2023 Jennings and Vezina Trophy winner is in the final season of a four-year, $20MM contract he signed with Boston as a free agent in 2021 but has a four-year, $33MM extension on the books to keep him in Ottawa through the 2028-29 campaign.

Until Forsberg is ready to return, it’s Merilainen’s and Søgaard’s crease. Unfortunately, neither has been promising in their short looks at the NHL level this season. Merilainen has allowed six goals on 39 shots faced for a .846 SV% in one start and one relief appearance, while Søgaard allowed four goals on 17 shots in a relief appearance against the Kings on Oct. 14.

Senators Recall Four Players

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Dec. 27: All three are back on the active roster today, as well as Søgaard, the team announced. Both Forsberg’s and Ullmark’s status for tomorrow’s tilt against the Jets is thus in doubt. They only had three open active roster spots, so there’s one corresponding move that’s yet to be announced, likely placing Forsberg on injured reserve.

Dec. 23: The Senators made a trio of demotions today after finishing up their pre-holiday break schedule last night with a 3-1 loss to the Oilers. They reassigned all of goaltender Leevi Merilainen, center Zack Ostapchuk and left-winger Cole Reinhardt to AHL Belleville, per the team’s communications department.

Whether these transactions get reversed when Ottawa returns to play on Saturday against the Jets depends on the health of wingers Michael Amadio and David Perron, who are dealing with head and upper-body injuries, respectively. Merilainen was on the roster to relieve backup netminder Anton Forsberg, who’s missed the last four games with an undisclosed injury and is out indefinitely. However, starter Linus Ullmark left last night’s game with a back issue after the first period and didn’t return. If neither is good by the weekend, they’ll need to recall a second netminder from Belleville, Mads Søgaard, and Merilainen again.

Merilainen had been on the roster since Dec. 15, when Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reported that Forsberg had sustained an injury and wouldn’t accompany the team on their road trip. Ullmark’s injury meant the 22-year-old was forced into action on back-to-back nights after allowing four goals on 25 shots in Saturday’s overtime win over the Canucks. Between the two appearances, the Finnish native has allowed six goals on 39 shots faced for a .846 SV% and 3.72 GAA.

The 71st overall pick of the 2020 draft, Merilainen spent all of last season in the minors but made his NHL debut in 2022-23, posting a .878 SV% and 4.23 GAA in two late-season starts. The 2022 World Junior Championship silver medalist is now in his third AHL season with Belleville, where he has a decent .908 SV%, 2.65 GAA, three shutouts, and a 20-11-5 record in 41 games. 13 of those appearances have come in 2024-25, posting a .901 SV% and 2.43 GAA with one shutout for a 7-2-4 record.

Ostapchuk has been a frequent flyer on the transaction wire this season. Today’s reassignment ends his sixth recall of the campaign, during which he’s played 20 games in Ottawa and nine in Belleville. The 21-year-old, who the Sens picked 39th overall in the 2021 draft, has three assists with seven penalty minutes while averaging a paltry 9:11 per game. He’s won 48.1% of his draws, recorded 42 hits, and blocked seven shots while controlling 49.0% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. The 6’3″, 205-lb forward has a goal and seven assists with a +5 rating in his nine minor-league showings after recording just 28 points in 69 AHL games last season.

Reinhardt has also moved between leagues quite often but hasn’t received nearly as much use at the NHL level as Ostapchuk has. The 24-year-old Calgary native does have something that Ostapchuk doesn’t this season in the NHL, though – a goal. He’s added an assist for two points in six NHL appearances this season, his first since making his big-league debut in the 2021-22 campaign. He’s averaged 8:39 per contest and recorded 16 hits. Down on the farm with the B-Sens, he leads the team with 1.23 points per game (16 in 13 contests).

Ostapchuk is waiver-exempt and will remain so through the end of this season, but Reinhardt isn’t. Since he’s been on the active roster for fewer than 30 cumulative days since last clearing waivers and has played less than 10 games, he can return to Belleville without being exposed to the wire again. The Sens’ active roster is now at 20, and clearing the trio’s cap hits has also allowed them to exit their LTIR pool for the time being and start accumulating cap space once again.

Tim Stützle Emerging As Next Senators Superstar

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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.

Senators Recall Cole Reinhardt

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The Ottawa Senators have announced that they’ve recalled forward Cole Reinhardt from the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League. This recall marks the sixth time that the 24-year-old has been brought up from Belleville as he continues to rack up miles along Highway 7 and 401. Reinhardt plays under a two-way contract that pays him $95K in the AHL and $775K in the NHL. If he remains on the NHL roster until tomorrow, he will receive a nice little bonus over the holidays and earn his NHL salary until at least December 27th due to the NHL roster freeze.

Reinhardt is having a terrific season in Belleville, his fifth with the team. In 13 games thus far, he has almost matched all of last season’s production posting six goals and 10 assists. Last year was a difficult one for Reinhardt as he tallied just eight goals and 15 assists in 56 games. He’s never been much of an offensive threat, posting his finest offensive season during his last year in the Western Hockey League when he tallied 31 goals and 24 assists in 56 games.

In the NHL this season, Reinhardt has struggled in five games, turning the puck over three times and being dominated on the possession front with a CF% of 37%. However, he has been a physical presence with 14 hits and has shown a bit of an offensive pulse with a goal and an assist.

The Senators are in Calgary tonight to take on the Flames and it seems likely that Reinhardt will serve as the Senators extra forward for that contest, but we should know more later today.

Afternoon Notes: Red Wings, Ostapchuk, Flames

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The Detroit Red Wings received a handful of reassuring injury updates at Monday’s practice, all documented by Ansar Khan of Michigan Live. Most notably, backup goaltender Alex Lyon returned to practice in full and is expected to return for Wednesday’s game against Philadelphia. Lyon has been out of the lineup since suffering an undisclosed injury at practice on November 27th.  He’s missed eight games. Cam Talbot is also making his way back to full health but isn’t expected to return until Friday. Talbot has missed five of Detroit’s last six games.

The Red Wings could have their top two netminders back to full health by this weekend, finally relieving them of their crisis in net. Ville Husso stepped up as the team’s starter in the absence of Talbot and Lyon, but did little with the role – posting a 1-2-2 record and .894 save percentage. His poor performances paved the way for top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa to make his NHL debut – relieving Husso on December 9th after he allowed three goals on the first seven shots. Cossa allowed two more goals but banded together with Detroit’s scorers to win in a shootout. It was a promising performance for the 22-year-old Cossa, though it’s clear Detroit prefers him as the AHL starter. That role will be easier to ensure with Talbot and Lyon finally returning to full health.

Khan also shared that forward Marco Kasper is dealing with an illness and will be questionable for the team’s Wednesday game. Kasper has seven points and 12 penalty minutes in 25 games this season.

Other quick notes from Tuesday practice:

  • The Ottawa Senators have sent forward Zack Ostapchuk to the minor leagues. The move appears to be a paper transaction to help accrue daily cap hit during off-days. Ostapchuk will likely be recalled ahead of Ottawa’s Tuesday game against Seattle, giving him a chance to continue searching for his first NHL goal. He has recorded two assists and one fighting major in 16 games this season – his only scoring or penalties through 23 career games. Ostapchuk has also recorded eight points and 10 penalty minutes in nine AHL games this year.
  • Both Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr have been returned to the NHL roster, after being assigned to the AHL for Calgary’s off-day. Both players could step back into the lineup when Calgary hosts Boston on Tuesday, after winger Andrei Kuzmenko left the team’s Tuesday practice early, per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960. Kuzmenko is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and missed Saturday’s game. Pelletier and Duehr are both on a quest to earn full-time roles in the NHL, serving as two of Calgary’s top prospects and minor-league standouts for the last few seasons. Pelletier has scored two points in five NHL games this year, while Duehr has one point in 16 games.
  • Flames goaltender Daniel Vladar returned to the team’s practice on Monday, shares Steinberg. Vladar missed Calgary’s Saturday game due to a lower-body injury, and has since been designated as day-to-day. He’s platooned starts with Dustin Wolf, narrowly beating out the rookie in games played with 16 to Wolf’s 15. Vladar has posted a 6-6-4 record and .885 save percentage in his performances, while Wolf has managed a 9-5-1 record and .915. That imbalance could soon push Wolf into the starter’s role, and return Vladar to the Flames’ backup spot where he spent the last three seasons.

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