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Senators’ Zack MacEwen Takes Indefinite Leave Of Absence

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Senators winger Zack MacEwen, currently on assignment to AHL Belleville, is taking an indefinite personal leave of absence from the club, according to a statement from the B-Sens. The 28-year-old said on his Instagram account Tuesday that he’s taking time to heal following the passing of his father.

MacEwen is in the second season of the three-year, $2.33MM contract he inked with Ottawa as a free agent in 2023. He’s split this season between the big club and Belleville, recording two goals and an assist in 21 NHL appearances. He’s been in the minors since last week, posting five goals and four assists for nine points in 15 AHL appearances this season.

The Prince Edward Island-born forward has largely been cast as an enforcer during his NHL career but has been a more offensively inclined power forward when deployed in the minors. He’s produced 0.63 points per game over his 182-game AHL career compared to 0.14 in his 237 big league games.

MacEwen has been a consistent depth presence when called upon for Ottawa this season, averaging less than eight minutes per game but managing the best possession metrics of his career with a 53.4 CF% at even strength.

All of us at Pro Hockey Rumors wish MacEwen the best as he takes a step back.

Senators Reassign Zack MacEwen

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The Senators announced that winger Zack MacEwen has been returned to AHL Belleville. After recalling defenseman Donovan Sebrango this morning, they’re back to having an open spot on the active roster. That spot will likely go to IR-bound forward Michael Amadio, who Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports will return to the lineup for the first time since sustaining a concussion against the Canucks on Dec. 21.

It’s the second time MacEwen has been demoted this season after clearing waivers and heading to the B-Sens in November. Now in the second season of a three-year, $2.33MM contract, he doesn’t count against the cap when in the minors, but he earns the league minimum of $775K salary no matter where he plays. MacEwen doesn’t need waivers today because he’s only been rostered for six days and played twice since he was recalled on Jan. 10, his first summons since clearing waivers.

MacEwen was scratched for the first game of his recall but got into game action for the last two, posting a minus-one rating with three shots on goal and fighting Islanders veteran enforcer Matt Martin in Tuesday’s win. The 28-year-old hasn’t been a factor outside of his penchant for dropping the gloves since arriving in Ottawa in free agency in 2023, posting six points and 78 PIMs in 51 games since signing that three-year commitment. He’s been a solid offensive contributor in the minors, though, posting 16 points in 24 games for the B-Sens over the past two years.

All signs point toward Amadio replacing MacEwen as the club’s fourth-line right wing as he eases back into action. The 28-year-old has been a decent depth scoring presence for Ottawa this season, posting a pair of goals and eight assists for 10 points in 33 appearances. However, it’s not quite the production they expected after he notched 30 goals and 54 points in 140 games for the Golden Knights over the prior two campaigns, prompting the Sens to sign him to a three-year, $7.8MM deal over the summer.

Senators Recall Donovan Sebrango

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The Senators announced they have recalled left-shot defenseman Donovan Sebrango from AHL Belleville. He replaces righty Max Guenette, who was sent to the AHL yesterday in what is now clear was a corresponding move.

Guenette had been scratched for five straight games since being recalled on Jan. 7, not seeing any work in his first recall of the year. The same fate might not befall the 23-year-old Sebrango, who will make his NHL debut tonight against the Capitals if Thomas Chabot can’t play after taking a puck to the face in Tuesday’s shutout win over the Islanders.

A third-round pick for the Red Wings in the 2020 draft, Sebrango appeared in the CHL Top Prospects game in his draft year while a member of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and won a silver medal with Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. The COVID-19 pandemic immediately forced him into the professional ranks in his first post-draft season. He was on loan to Slovakia’s second-tier league and then to Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids. After an additional two seasons where he made negative progress on the Wings’ depth chart, spending a good portion of the 2022-23 campaign down in the ECHL with Toledo, he was shipped to Ottawa in the trade that sent Alex DeBrincat to Hockeytown.

A strong skater with a 6’1″, 220-lb frame, things have finally clicked for Sebrango this season. He’s already recorded three career-best goals, 10 assists, and 13 points in 38 games with Belleville, adding 42 PIMs and a plus-three rating while serving as an alternate captain. That’s a significant improvement over last year with the B-Sens, where the Ottawa native was limited to seven assists in 35 games and had a brief stint in the ECHL again.

Sebrango’s recall won’t result in much playing time, and it likely won’t give him any if Chabot can play. He joins Guenette and Nikolas Matinpalo in the group that’s seen recalls from the minors with injuries to Chabot, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Travis Hamonic, and Artem Zub over the last couple of months. He was already summoned once earlier this season but sat in the press box for a trio of games in November and December before being returned to the minors.

Sebrango is the son of Eduardo Sebrango, a retired Cuban soccer player who is now an MLS coach with CF Montreal. If he debuts, the Canadian national would be only the second player in NHL history with Cuban ethnicity, joining longtime backup netminder Al Montoya.

Senators Reassign Max Guenette

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The Senators loaned defenseman Max Guenette to AHL Belleville on Wednesday, per a team announcement. The club’s active roster is now at 22.

With Ottawa back in action tomorrow against the Capitals, Guenette could be summoned again after delaying the expiry of his temporary waiver exemption by one day. Injured reserve-bound Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic aren’t close to a return, so demoting Guenette leaves them without an extra healthy defenseman.

His presence is primarily contingent on the health of fellow blue-liner Thomas Chabot, who left Tuesday’s shutout win over the Islanders after taking an Adam Pelech shot to the face in the first period. He didn’t return to the contest, and head coach Travis Green said postgame that they would have an update on his status today.

Ottawa recalled Guenette, 23, from Belleville last week after Hamonic landed on IR the day before. He’s purely been up as injury insurance, though, and has been a healthy scratch in five straight since the elevation.

Selected 187th overall in the 2019 draft, Guenette has eight NHL games to his name, all coming with the Sens in the last two campaigns. His recall this month was his first this season after clearing waivers during training camp.

While in Belleville, the defensively responsible Guenette has excelled with nine points and a team-leading +16 rating in 27 games. The 6’2″, 209-lb righty serves as an alternate captain for the AHL club in what’s now his fourth professional season.

Senators Trending Toward Buying At Deadline

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The Senators are commencing discussions about trade acquisition targets with over seven weeks to go until the March 7 trade deadline, general manager Steve Staios told Bruce Garrioch for the Ottawa Citizen yesterday.

“We still have some runway leading into the trade deadline so we have some time, but it’s nice to be having these conversations with how the group has performed,” Staios said. The Sens are one point out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference but have games in hand on both clubs ahead of them in the race, putting them in a good position to keep their seven-year playoff drought from extending to eight.

The most significant change from years past is the increased stability between the pipes and making injuries a blip on the radar instead of an insurmountable obstacle. Goaltending is no longer an imminent concern in the absence of starter Linus Ullmark due to a back injury after Leevi Merilainen has impressed in his six appearances over the past month, going 4-2-0 with a .913 SV% and a 2.34 GAA.

Ottawa’s skater depth will be where Staios looks to make some conservative additions over the next several weeks, but as he told Garrioch, they’ll be getting some in-house help. Personal leave and a back injury have limited veteran winger David Perron to no points in nine games after he inked a two-year, $8MM deal over the summer.

He’s looking to return to the lineup in the next week or so after resuming skating earlier this month. The 36-year-old is coming off a 47-point campaign in 76 games with the Red Wings last year, a point pace that would aid a Senators offense that’s only clicked at 2.88 goals per game, 21st in the league.

While Perron will be essentially a free pre-deadline pickup, and many other of their injured forwards are expected back in the next couple of weeks, adding some forward depth was always going to be this team’s focus at the deadline if they were in a position to add. They’re likely to look for a winger with more upward mobility than Perron, Michael Amadio, or Adam Gaudette, who’s struggled with just one assist in his last 11 games after a scorching start to the campaign.

Amadio and Perron are nicely suited as third-line pieces, and they’re full-up on bottom-six grinders in the form of Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig, and Zack MacEwen. Another right-shot defenseman as an insurance policy behind the injury-prone Travis Hamonic and Artem Zub is also likely on the table. They’ve already been linked to unrestricted free agent John Klingberg, who is attempting an NHL comeback after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery in December 2023.

The Sens are in a cap crunch as things stand – only $80K in deadline cap space before their LTIR pool of $3.715MM, per PuckPedia. Those financials will change drastically between now and deadline day with Perron coming off LTIR and at least Amadio and Hamonic coming off IR, though.

Multiple Canadian Teams Interested In John Klingberg

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The Maple Leafs, Oilers and Senators are among the five to seven teams that have expressed interest in signing unrestricted free agent defenseman John Klingberg, Darren Dreger of TSN reports Tuesday.

Klingberg, 32, has not played since hip resurfacing surgery capped his 2023-24 campaign with Toronto at 14 games. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported last month that Klingberg was set to resume skating in Toronto after the holiday break and hoped to sign with a team for the rest of the season once he got back up to speed.

According to Dreger, Klingberg’s rehabilitation over the past couple of weeks has gone as planned. He still has a ways to go and needs another couple of weeks before he’ll be medically cleared to sign anywhere, but all signs point to him resuming his NHL career and doing so north of the border. The Canucks have also expressed interest in signing Klingberg but have done so to a lesser degree than their Canadian rivals, Dreger added.

Once one of the top power-play weapons in the league, the past few seasons have been tough on Klingberg. After operating at least at a 45-point pace in each of his first eight NHL seasons with the Stars, Klingberg wanted more money than Dallas was willing to offer him due to the emergence of Miro Heiskanen and he tested the open market in 2022 after completing a team-friendly seven-year, $29.75MM deal in Texas.

Klingberg severely misgauged his market, though. After sitting unsigned for weeks and changing his agents, he came to terms with the Ducks on a one-year deal worth $7MM.

Since doing so, Klingberg hasn’t been a reliable top-four option. He did average nearly 21 minutes per game in Anaheim, recording 24 points in 50 games before he was dealt to the Wild at the trade deadline, but did so on one of the worst defensive teams in league history. His even-strength minutes were slashed, although the Maple Leafs bet on him rebounding into at least a fringe top-four option when they signed him to another one-year deal the following summer.

Klingberg didn’t have a chance to prove very much, recording five assists and a minus-seven rating in 14 games before his hip issues shut him down for the remainder of the campaign. He underwent his resurfacing surgery in early December, and now over 13 months later, he’s back on the ice.

The Oilers have the biggest need for Klingberg’s services out of the three, and Edmonton is also where Klingberg’s stock stands to benefit the most. He would presumably remain relegated to a bottom-pairing role at even strength, but he would be an upgrade on their second power-play unit, at least offensively, over current point men Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse. The chance to even sniff first power-play minutes and join a unit that’s clicking at nearly 25% would also boost his point totals and his market value heading into free agency again this summer, assuming he can stay healthy.

No Timeline On Linus Ullmark, Senators Not Looking To Add A Goalie

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Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark was on the ice today but there remains no official timeline for his return (as per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia). Despite the murky return timeline, Senators general manager Steve Staios is optimistic that Ullmark should be back in the lineup sooner rather than later.

Staios called Ullmark’s return to the ice a good step forward for the 31-year-old netminder after he was hurt back on December 22nd in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. Ullmark left in the first period of that game and has been week-to-week since then with upper-body tightness.

The former Vezina Trophy winner hasn’t matched his numbers from two seasons ago but has been solid in his first season in Ottawa, posting a 12-7-2 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.38 goals-against average. While those numbers are good, Ullmark’s underlying numbers are terrific as he has registered a 9.2 goals saved above expected in 23 games (as per Money Puck) which is good enough for 13th in the NHL.

It’s fair to question whether Ottawa should look for an additional goaltender as a safety net given the uncertainty of Ullmark’s health, however, Garrioch also reported that Staios is comfortable with Ottawa’s goaltending depth and has no intentions of looking for reinforcements. Backup Anton Forsberg hasn’t been great in 14 games this season posting a pedestrian 4-8-1 record with a .883 save percentage. However, 22-year-old Leevi Merilainen has been good in five games this season with a 3-2 record and a .911 save percentage along with a 2.42 goals-against average. Ottawa also has 24-year-old Mads Søgaard in Belleville who remains an intriguing option; however, this season has been a disaster for the former second-round pick and it’s hard to call him an NHL option at this point in his career.

Ullmark Skated On Friday

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The Senators got some good news on the injury front on Friday as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch notes that goaltender Linus Ullmark was back on the ice on Friday for the first time since suffering a back injury before the holiday break.  Head coach Travis Green indicated that he’s hopeful that the veteran will be able to return to practice soon which is the next hurdle to clear before he can return.  After a slow start to his season, Ullmark has a 1.48 GAA with a .957 SV% in his last ten outings which helped briefly propel them into one of the Wild Card spots in the East.  But since he went down, the Sens have won just one of their last seven games, making his eventual return a top priority.

Senators Sign Ridly Greig To Four-Year Extension

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The Ottawa Senators announced that they’ve signed forward Ridly Greig to a four-year contract extension worth a reported $13MM. The deal will carry Greig through the 2028-29 season and will see him carry an AAV of $3.25MM.

The 22-year-old is in his third NHL season with Ottawa and has six goals and six assists in 36 games this year. Over 128 career NHL games, the former first-round pick has totaled 21 goals and 26 assists. Although his offensive numbers don’t jump out at you, his overall game is rounding into form. Greig does have some playmaking ability; his skating is fantastic, and he is starting to show an edge and an ability to get under the skin of his opponents.

Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios said in a release from the team that “Ridly has established himself as a key member of our team going forward. He brings a good mix of versatility and tenacity to our forward group.”

Greig has made the jump to the NHL rather quickly after spending just 46 games in the American Hockey League, where he posted 16 goals and 16 assists. His ascension and versatility have given the Senators a lot of options within their forward ranks, as they can utilize Greig at both center and wing. Greig has been paired up recently with Brady Tkachuk and Shane Pinto to form a formidable line.

Greig was a member of Team Canada during the 2022 World Junior Championships when Canada took gold. He posted three goals and three assists in five games during the tournament. He also represented Canada last year at the 2024 World Championships after the NHL regular season was over, posting a goal and two assists in two games.

At the end of his new deal, Greig will still be a restricted free agent with one year to go until UFA eligibility. He’ll be eligible for arbitration – which he wasn’t going to be this summer if he held out – and will be due a qualifying offer of $3.25MM.

PHR’s Josh Erickson contributed to this article.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Michael Andlauer Sells OHL Team To Hyman Family

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Ottawa Senators majority owner Michael Andlauer has sold the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League to current Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman and his family (as per CHCH News). Andlauer bought the Bulldogs back in 2015 when they were the Belleville Bulls, he moved the club to Hamilton where they went on to win the OHL Championship in 2018 and 2022. The Bulldogs were then moved to Brantford in 2023 due to the Hamilton arena (First Ontario Centre) undergoing extensive renovations and several disagreements between the city and the Bulldogs.

No official announcement has been made as of yet, but one is expected on Monday after the OHL Board approves the sale (as per TSN’s Darren Dreger). A press conference is expected to happen sometime in the middle of next week.

Once it is official, it raises a lot of questions about whether the team will stay in the city of Brantford, the Bulldogs home for the past two seasons. Brantford has information listed on the city’s website that outlines plans to build a $140MM sports and entertainment center that would presumably house the Bulldogs. The website mentions that construction could start this year, with 2027 as the target date to open up a new facility. However, with a new ownership group coming in, those plans could change. Hyman’s father, Stuart Hyman, is a developer in the Toronto area and is expected to be part of the ownership group along with his son.

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