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Senators Notes: Talbot, Greig, Kastelic

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The Ottawa Senators are expecting Cam Talbot to resume skating next Thursday after the break, according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. Talbot last played on January 25 and there is no clear timeline for his return to action, so getting on the ice is a good sign.

Ottawa has received nearly identical goaltending performances from Talbot and Anton Forsberg, but will need a little boost if they are going to try and ride their recent hot streak to a playoff spot in the second half. The team has won four in a row and is now just six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wildcard spot.

  • One of the players that have been key in this recent run is prospect Ridly Greig, who is still undefeated at the NHL level. The 20-year-old has two points in four games so far and has brought new excitement to the group. He was sent down to the AHL last night, but Garrioch notes that Greig will only practice with the Belleville Senators, not play, and then the organization will reassess.
  • Mads Sogaard and Mark Kastelic have also been reassigned to Belleville, but it’s not clear if the latter will return immediately following the break. Kastelic hasn’t played since January 21 and will likely need some time to get back into game form.

Zub Should Be Back After All-Star Break, Talbot Less Likely

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There’s some good news and bad news on the injury front for Ottawa.  On the positive side, TSN’s Claire Hanna relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Artem Zub is expected to be ready to return after the All-Star break.  It has been a tough year on the ice for the 27-year-old who has been limited to just 21 games this season while missing time with three separate injuries, the current one being an upper-body issue.  It hasn’t been all bad, however, as he inked a four-year, $18.4MM extension with the Senators last month.

Meanwhile, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays (Twitter link) that goaltender Cam Talbot might not be ready to return after the break.  He suffered a lower-body injury last Wednesday and it’s the second time this season that injuries have held him out of the lineup.  If the Senators are going to climb back into the playoff race, they’ll need him healthy while if they’re going to try to move him by the March 3rd trade deadline, he’ll need to get back and show potential suitors that he’s ready to go.

Josh Norris To Undergo Surgery; Out For Season

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Jan 30: Hanna reports that Norris’ surgery is scheduled for the next few days.

Jan 23: Excitement for Ridly Greig’s recall quickly turned to sadness for Ottawa Senators fans, as the team announced Josh Norris’s season is over. He will be going for shoulder surgery in the near future. It is the same injury as earlier this season. Norris has been moved to injured reserve.

After scoring 35 goals in 66 games last season, life was good for Norris. He signed a new eight-year, $63.6MM contract that entrenched him as one of the league’s young stars, and was ready to leverage the team’s improved forward depth for an even better year.

Then he suffered a serious shoulder injury in October after just five games. Weeks went by with Norris consulting five different doctors and two specialists before it was determined that he wouldn’t need surgery.

Senators general manager Pierre Dorion told Claire Hanna of TSN that Norris “felt a subluxation” over the weekend, leading to this decision. He had returned just three games ago, meaning he’ll finish this season appearing in only eight. His two goals and three points are a far cry from what was expected, especially with a new $7.95MM cap hit in hand.

Now he faces another lengthy rehab, while the Senators try to salvage anything this season. The club is slipping down the standings, and has completely shuffled its lines around at practice today in an attempt to get things back on track.

Without Norris, the Ottawa center depth looks mighty thin, with Greig inserted into the second line between Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux before ever playing a game at the NHL level.

Ottawa Senators Recall Mads Sogaard

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Now that he has recovered from his own injury, Mads Sogaard is up with the Ottawa Senators to help fill in for Cam Talbot’s absence. The team sent Kevin Mandolese back down yesterday.

Sogaard made his return to the Belleville Senators net on Saturday, allowing six goals on 44 shots and taking the loss. Overall, it’s been a rocky season for the 22-year-old goaltender, with a .901 save percentage in 19 appearances.

Last season, when the Senators were rolling through goaltenders with Matt Murray often injured, Sogaard played in two NHL games. He allowed six goals on 54 shots for an .889 save percentage, and earned his first NHL win.

The 37th-overall pick from 2019 still has a lot of developing to do, but has oodles of talent in his 6’7″ frame. If the Senators can find a way to get him to his ceiling, there’s a chance they have a legitimate difference-maker. There’s work to be done, though, and his recall likely doesn’t change the fact that Anton Forsberg will be carrying the lion’s share of the work for the next little while.

Latest On Tyler Motte

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Yesterday, we covered how Ottawa Senators netminder Cam Talbot could be a name in play around the trade deadline. Today, The Fourth Period has added Senators forward Tyler Motte’s name to the mix, reporting that Senators GM Pierre Dorion has “started to get engaged in trade discussions” involving players such as Motte.

The Senators have been long-rumored to be seeking a blueline upgrade, and perhaps dealing Motte is one way they can reach that goal. Motte, who will turn 28 in March, signed with the Senators this past summer on a one-year, $1.35MM deal. He’s a well-regarded bottom-sixer who was dealt as a rental last year, helping the New York Rangers make a run to the Eastern Conference Final. Perhaps he’ll find himself in a similar situation this year.

Cam Talbot Less Likely To Re-Sign With Senators?

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It’s not shaping up to be a particularly strong trade market for veteran goaltenders but Postmedia’s Ken Warren posits that Senators netminder Cam Talbot could be in play, suggesting the possibility of the veteran re-signing seems less likely now than just a few weeks ago.  The 35-year-old – who has already been ruled out of the next two games – has a 2.90 GAA and a .905 SV% in 28 games with Ottawa this season, numbers that are close to league average.  While it would likely take some retention on his $3.667MM AAV, the pending unrestricted free agent could certainly serve as an upgrade on the second-string option for several contenders and essentially keep Talbot in the role that he was acquired to fill for the Sens this season.

Ottawa Senators Recall Jacob Larsson

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The Ottawa Senators have announced the recall of defenseman Jacob Larsson from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. The move adds a seventh defenseman to the Senators’ roster and leaves the team with a full active 23-man unit.

Larsson, 25, heads to the Senators’ roster with a chance to play in some more NHL games. He’s gotten three games in Ottawa so far this season, averaged just under 13 minutes of ice time in those games. The 2015 first-round pick arrived in Ottawa over the summer, signing a one-year, two-way league minimum deal with a relatively hefty $300K AHL salary.

Larsson’s play in the AHL has been somewhat uneven. While he’s managed to contribute on both special teams, he hasn’t been able to have the top-of-the-lineup impact many would hope he’d have at this stage of his career in the AHL. He’s scored nine points in 33 games this season, and as can be seen here is often playing on Belleville’s bottom pairing.

In Ottawa, the Senators are hoping to put together a quality run of games to get them into the playoff hunt so they can play meaningful hockey in the spring. While this recall of Larsson adds a seventh defenseman to their roster which gives them some valuable reinforcement, the team is likely better off if Larsson remains depth rather than a counted-on contributor to coach D.J. Smith’s blueline equation.

For Larsson, this recall presents an opportunity. While his AHL performance isn’t going to wow people, strong performance on an NHL stage could go a long way toward earning him his next contract. As things currently stand, the Senators will have a chance to retain Larsson beyond this season as he’ll be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent.

Ottawa Senators Recall Kevin Mandolese

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The Ottawa Senators lost Cam Talbot partway through last night’s game, and according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia, the veteran netminder will be out at least through the All-Star break. Unfortunately, he isn’t the only goaltender in the Senators organization dealing with an injury.

Both Antoine Bibeau and Mads Sogaard are hurt, meaning the only recall option was Kevin Mandolese. Garrioch reports that Anton Forsberg is expected to make both starts of the upcoming back-to-back in Toronto and Ottawa.

Mandolese, 22, hasn’t appeared in the NHL yet, and is barely even holding onto an AHL spot. Through 12 games with the Belleville Senators, he has posted an .886 save percentage. That performance has earned him some extra time in the ECHL, where he has a .927 in six games.

In short, he’s not who the Senators need in the crease right now as they continue to try and compete in the Atlantic Division. Forsberg will have to try and take down the Maple Leafs and Canadiens on his own, and the club will have to hope that Talbot can return soon after the break.

Cam Talbot Suffers A Lower-Body Injury

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It has been a tough season on the injury front for the Senators who have had several key players banged up at times.  They lost another key piece on Wednesday night as the team announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Cam Talbot sustained a lower-body injury against the Islanders.  He exited the game in the second period and did not return.

Ottawa acquired the 35-year-old in an effort to build a quality tandem between the pipes with Anton Forsberg.  However, things haven’t gone according to plan as the team entered play tonight a little below league average in goals allowed with both netminders taking a step back relative to their play from a year ago.  Talbot had just a .903 SV% heading into Wednesday’s contest, the second-lowest of his career while Forsberg’s SV% has dipped 18 points from a year ago.  Between that and a surprising lack of improvement offensively, the Sens are battling to avoid being last in the Atlantic Division.

Notably, it’s a contract year for Talbot who is set to hit the open market this summer.  Suffering a second injury (he missed nine games with a rib issue earlier this season) on top of him struggling a bit more certainly isn’t helping his market as he looks to get a raise on his $3.67MM AAV.  While it’s unknown how long he’ll be out at this point, an extended absence could take a potential trade deadline swap off the table as well.

It’s also worth mentioning that Mads Sogaard, Ottawa’s top goalie prospect with AHL Belleville, is injured at the moment and hasn’t played in the last week and a half.  That means their recall options will be veteran Antoine Bibeau or Kevin Mandolese who has split the last two seasons between the AHL and ECHL and is still looking for his first NHL appearance despite three recalls already in 2022-23.

Rourke Chartier, Nikita Zaitsev Activated From Injured Reserve

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It’s been an up-and-down (mostly down) day for the Ottawa Senators. First they recalled prospect Ridly Greig, but then followed it up with news that Josh Norris would be out for the rest of the season. Now, the team has activated two other players from injured reserve.

Rourke Chartier and Nikita Zaitsev are both active again, though the former was sent immediately to the minor leagues.

The return of Zaitsev gives the team six healthy defensemen again, after yesterday’s demotion of Jacob Bernard-Docker. The veteran was skating next to Erik Brannstrom on the third pairing today, and is expected to return to action on Wednesday. Zaitsev hasn’t played since December and has been rather ineffective when in the lineup. Through 19 appearances he has just three points (all assists) and is averaging fewer than 17 minutes a night.

For Chartier, it’s been even longer since he appeared in a game with Ottawa, last playing on December 22. The 26-year-old minor leaguer has six games under his belt this season but is still looking for his first point of the year. His previous 13 NHL appearances, all with the San Jose Sharks in 2018-19, resulted in one goal.

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