Senators Recall Xavier Bourgault; Reassign Mads Sogaard
According to a team announcement, the Ottawa Senators have recalled forward Xavier Bourgault from the AHL’s Belleville Senators. Additionally, the team has reassigned netminder Mads Søgaard in a corresponding roster move.
Toward the end of Ottawa’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, depth forward Stephen Halliday left with an undisclosed injury. The Senators haven’t elaborated on Halliday’s injury, but the belief is that it isn’t too severe.
Furthermore, since the team activated Linus Ullmark from the non-roster list on the same day, there was little need for three netminders on the roster. For the Senators’ sake, they’ll hope to get better results from the tandem of Ullmark and veteran James Reimer.
Bourgault, 23, has spent much of the season with AHL Belleville. He’s had an inspired season, placing second on the team in scoring with 14 goals and 37 points in 43 games. He made his NHL debut this past December, going scoreless in 6:43 of action against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Meanwhile, Søgaard will look to get his performance back on track in the AHL. He’s only two years removed from providing a .916 SV% in 32 games with AHL Belleville, but has been wholly disappointing since. He’s managed a 4-8-4 record in 18 games this season with a .889 SV%. If he wants a realistic chance to make Ottawa’s opening night roster next season, he must rediscover his game by the end of the 2025-26 campaign.
Senators Recall Mads Sogaard, Reassign Hunter Shepard
Jan. 25: After making it through last night’s game without a goalie injury, the Senators reassigned Shepard to Belleville today, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports. After Reimer allowed four goals on 19 shots for a .789 save percentage in last night’s loss to the Hurricanes, that means Søgaard is the likely starter this evening against the Golden Knights. They’re now back to having an open spot on the active roster.
Jan. 24: The Senators have recalled goaltender Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville, per a team announcement. To open a roster spot, they placed winger David Perron on injured reserve, per PuckPedia. They announced on Thursday that Perron will miss five to seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Ottawa has spent much of the season swapping depth goaltending options to serve as backups to Linus Ullmark or, now, to recent free-agent signing James Reimer while Ullmark remains on leave. This isn’t that. The Senators have had Hunter Shepard backing up Reimer for the last two games, and he’s sticking around. Instead, Ottawa plans to carry three goalies amid the winter storm slated to hit the Eastern seaboard during their back-to-back home games tonight and tomorrow, to avoid a situation where weather prevents them from adding a Belleville netminder in case of injury.
It is the 25-year-old Dane’s third recall of the season. He backed up Ullmark in an overtime loss to the Oilers on Oct. 21 and also dressed for a pair of games earlier this month. He entered an 8-2 loss to the Avalanche on Jan. 8 in relief of Leevi Merilainen and allowed five goals on 16 shots for a harsh .688 SV% and 17.22 GAA.
Small sample size aside, it hasn’t been a kind season for Søgaard, nor has it been one for virtually any Sens netminder in the NHL or AHL. In 18 games with Belleville, he’s posted a .889 SV% and 4-8-4 record with a 3.30 GAA and one shutout.
While Søgaard was the third goalie taken in the 2019 draft behind Spencer Knight and Pyotr Kochetkov, it’s becoming abundantly clear that a stable NHL future isn’t in the cards for the 6’7″, 231-lb giant. In 30 appearances for the Sens since debuting five years ago, he’s logged an 11-11-3 record with a .875 SV% and 3.70 GAA.
Nonetheless, he will be heading to Italy next month to serve with teammate Lars Eller on Denmark’s Olympic team. It’s his second time on the men’s national team roster for a non-qualifying tournament, last suiting up as the backup at the 2021 World Championship.
Senators Recall Hunter Shepard, Assign Two To AHL
The Senators have made a trio of roster moves heading into tonight’s game against Florida. The team announced that goaltender Hunter Shepard has been recalled from AHL Belleville while netminder Mads Sogaard and center Stephen Halliday have been sent down.
Shepard was up for a week recently, serving as Leevi Merilainen’s backup before being sent down on Tuesday to get some game action in Belleville. He has played in one game in relief with the big club, stopping 10 of 12 shots on Monday against Detroit. The 30-year-old has also suited up in a dozen games in the minors, posting a 3.41 GAA and a .897 SV%.
Sogaard was recalled on Tuesday to take Shepard’s place on the roster. He played in relief of Merilainen on Thursday in Colorado and struggled, allowing five goals on 16 shots in just 17:25 in action, resulting in Merilainen coming back into the game. The 25-year-old has played in 15 games with Belleville with numbers a little worse than Shepard’s, checking in with a 3.49 GAA and a .887 SV%.
As for Halliday, he received his first NHL recall earlier this season and has held his own so far. The 23-year-old has played in 18 games with Ottawa, picking up six assists despite averaging just 8:12 per game of playing time. He had been a strong playmaker with Belleville before the promotion, picking up a goal and 18 helpers in 17 contests in the minors. He’ll get a chance to go back and play a more prominent role for the time being but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get recalled at some point in the second half of the season.
As a result of these moves, Ottawa now has one open slot on its 23-man roster while opening up some extra salary cap space.
Senators Recall Mads Sogaard
The Senators have recalled goaltender Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville, per a team announcement. He replaces Hunter Shepard, who was reassigned to Belleville in the corresponding move, as Ottawa’s interim No. 2 option while Linus Ullmark is away from the club.
Søgaard, 25, has seen at least one start for the Sens in each of the last four seasons but has failed to make a meaningful leap on Ottawa’s depth chart. The Sens selected him 37th overall in 2019 as the third goalie off the board, following Spencer Knight and Pyotr Kochetkov, but he appears to have topped out as a No. 3/4 option.
The big Dane checks in at 6’7″ and 231 lbs, a frame that has likely kept him under NHL consideration longer than his numbers would have dictated otherwise. After appearing to break out with a .916 SV% in 32 games with Belleville in 2023-24, he spent most of last year on the injured list and only had a .858 mark while going winless in eight appearances. This season, he’s been limited to a .887 SV%, 3.49 GAA, one shutout, and a 2-8-3 record in 15 games.
With a .879 SV% in 29 career NHL appearances, he doesn’t offer a ton of intrigue as a short-term backup option, either. While Ottawa has had goaltending problems all year with Ullmark churning out a .881 SV% and a league-worst -18.3 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, the options behind him aren’t any better. Leevi Merilainen, their top name for the time being, has a .867 mark and -11.8 GSAx in just 14 games. Shepard, 30, allowed two goals on 12 shots in relief of Merilainen in Monday’s 5-3 loss to the Red Wings.
Senators Prospect Tyler Boucher Out Week-To-Week, Mads Sogaard Back
Belleville Senators forward Tyler Boucher will miss “weeks” with an upper-body injury, head coach David Bell told TSN 1200 on Tuesday. Boucher sustained his injury after tangling skates with a member of the Laval Rockets, and falling hard into the boards, in Belleville’s loss on Sunday.
This is yet another injury for the former 10th-overall pick. Boucher has been limited in every season dating back to the 2020-21 campaign – his draft year. Through the years he has sustained a torn labrum that required surgery, a groin injruy, mutliple knee injuries, and a leg injury from a player falling on him last January. Looking back on his string of misfortune, Boucher told TSN’s Claire Hanna that he felt he was due for a good year during Ottawa’s training camp. 12 games into the season, that sentiment has turned into a jinx.
Boucher seemed to be finding his way in Belleville to start the year. He had six points and a plus-two on the year, including two points and seven shots on goal in his last four games. He was gradually climbing the lineup after posting just 15 points in 68 games over the last two AHL seasons. Now, he’ll land on the shelf once again, though seemingly for only a little while this time around.
In positive news, Bell also shared that goaltender Mads Sogaard is healthy to return to the Belleville after recovering from an undisclosed injury sustained on October 27th. It appeared to be a lower-body injury, caused by Toronto Marlies forward Jacob Quillan tumbling into the goaltender. Sogaard had to be helped off the ice, while Qullian had to answer to Belleville bruiser Jorian Donovan.
Sogaard will be a nice addition to Belleville’s lineup, even after a slow start to the year. He posted no wins and a .830 save percentage in three games to start the year – but also boasts the fourth-most NHL experience on the Belleville roster behind Arthur Kaliyev, Scott Harrington, and Olle Lycksell. Sogaard has recorded 11 wins and a .879 save percentage in 29 career appearances with Ottawa, to go with 50 wins and a .904 save percentage in 107 AHL games. His slow start, and injury, should default him to a role behind Hunter Shepard when he returns. Shepard leads Belleville with four wins and a .911 save percentage in eight games. Sogaard should back him up, especially with teammate Leevi Merilainen currently recalled to the NHL.
Senators Recall Leevi Merilainen, Reassign Mads Søgaard
The Ottawa Senators are reversing course on a move made just four days ago. According to a team announcement, the Senators have recalled netminder Leevi Merilainen and have assigned Mads Søgaard to the AHL’s Belleville Senators in a corresponding transaction.
It was apparent that Merilainen’s recent demotion was to reinstate some confidence in the young netminder. After winning the backup job out of training camp, Merilainen’s first game this season couldn’t have gone much worse.
He allowed seven goals on 26 shots against the Buffalo Sabres in 58:06 of ice time, translating to a .731 SV% and 7.23 GAA. Furthermore, his Goals Saved Above Average is already -4.4, while his Adjusted Goals Against Average is 8.26.
His first start in the AHL against the Syracuse Crunch was better, but not by much. Merilainen stopped 35 of 40 shots against, earning a .875 SV% and 5.00 GAA. Fortunately, his most recent start was his best of the year, stopping 26 of 28 shots against the Laval Rocket. Ottawa is hopeful that Merilainen’s play against Laval will give him the needed confidence to add more stability in the crease.
Meanwhile, Søgaard didn’t feature in any games for the Senators over the brief recall. He’s appeared in two games for AHL Belleville this year, managing a 0-1-1 record with a .864 SV% and 2.94 GAA.
The performance of Ottawa’s potential backup netminders wouldn’t be as important a storyline if not for the disappointing play of Linus Ullmark to begin the 2025-26 season. Acquired before last season to give the Senators a legitimate starting option, Ullmark earned a 25-14-3 record in 44 games with a .909 SV% and 2.27 GAA, helping Ottawa reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Ottawa hasn’t even gotten average production from him this season. Ullmark has gotten off to a 2-3-1 record through his first six starts with an .854 SV% and 3.80 GAA, and a disastrous -7.3 GSAA. Hopefully, Ullmark can turn his season around relatively soon, so Ottawa can take more pressure off Merilainen.
Ottawa Senators Recall Mads Sogaard, Reassign Leevi Merilainen
The Ottawa Senators have swapped which goalie will hold the backup’s role on their NHL roster. Per an official team announcement, netminder Leevi Merilainen has been reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, while Mads Sogaard has been recalled.
Merilainen won the Senators’ backup goalie job coming out of training camp, a development that was a continuation of the Senators’ goaltending depth chart order from 2024-25. Merilainen, 23, got into 12 NHL games last season, compared to just two for Sogaard.
Sogaard and Merilainen were polar opposites in terms of form last season, as Sogaard struggled mightily in limited AHL action and couldn’t gain momentum to play in the NHL when he was healthy, while Merilainen excelled in his second full season of pro hockey in North America.
Last year, Merilainen posted a .913 save percentage across 37 AHL games and a .925 mark across 12 NHL games. Sogaard, on the other hand, posted an .858 save percentage in just eight AHL games.
Injuries didn’t help matters for Sogaard last season, but the reality is that the towering netminder, a 2019 second-rounder, looked to have been passed by on the team’s goaltending depth chart by Merilainen, a 2020 third-rounder.
Today’s roster move flips things. Outside of the two netminders’ competition in preseason and training camp (one that Merilainen won, as Sogaard was placed on waivers and sent to Belleville earlier this month) neither goalie has had the chance to make an extended impact in the crease.
Sogaard has played in two AHL games for Belleville this year, going 0-1-1 with an .864 save percentage and 2.94 goals-against average.
Merilainen, on the other hand, has played in just one game, and was unfortunate enough to be on the wrong end of what has been, to this point, the worst game of this young Senators campaign. Merilainen was tagged for seven goals against in an 8-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, and saving 19 of 26 shots against a team that had, to that point in the season, struggled mightily to score goals, is not a performance that is going to inspire a lot of confidence.
It would be unfair, of course, to lay the blame for that loss entirely on Merilainen’s shoulders. But that performance, combined with today’s move, does throw into question the Senators’ goaltending plans behind entrenched starter Linus Ullmark.
The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie wrote that with neither Merilainen nor Sogaard inspiring much confidence, and Ullmark struggling, “a goalie may be needed” from outside the organization in order to stabilize the position.
While it’s too early to say that the Senators’ decision not to retain veteran backup Anton Forsberg over the summer (he signed a two-year, $2.25MM AAV deal with the Los Angeles Kings) was a mistake, things appear highly unsettled in net for the Senators so far this year. In what is a crucially important season in Ottawa, one where the Senators simply cannot afford to take a step back after finally returning to the playoffs in 2024-25, goaltending appears to be emerging as an early problem area for the team.
External help in the crease could become available at some point. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres are currently carrying an extra goalie they claimed on waivers due to injuries to their expected NHL goalies, and therefore it’s possible one or both of Colten Ellis and Brandon Bussi find their way back onto the waiver wire at some point.
That is also the case for Cayden Primeau in Toronto, though the fact that Joseph Woll has taken a leave of absence to deal with a family matter (which understandably does not have as concrete of a return timeline as an injury) does complicate things.
Photo courtesy of Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
Minor Transactions: 10/6/25
The deadline for NHL clubs to ready their opening-night rosters has passed, and as a result there has been quite a bit of roster maneuvering around the NHL today. While some moves are more notable, such as the handful of waiver claims made today, there are a few moves that are more minor, such as expected reassignments or previously reported injuries being made official with IR placements. We’ll keep track of those moves here:
- In preparing their final opening-night roster that can be viewed here, the Utah Mammoth reassigned a pair of first-round picks. 2023 12th overall pick Daniil But was reassigned to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, which is where he will begin his North American professional career. Meanwhile 2024 sixth overall pick Tij Iginla was loaned back to his WHL team, the Kelowna Rockets. But is a big 6’5 winger whose KHL teammate (and fellow 2023 first-rounder) Dmitry Simashev made the Utah roster today, and it’s expected that But won’t be in the AHL for too long. As for Iginla, this season is an opportunity for him to get his development back on track after unfortunate injury luck derailed his 2024-25 campaign.
- The Ottawa Senators reassigned the players they placed on waivers Sunday to their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. Making up the group is Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Arthur Kaliyev, Mads Sogaard, and Lassi Thomson. 2024 seventh-overall pick Carter Yakemchuk was reassigned to Belleville, his Sept. 29 birthdate making him eligible to play in the AHL despite being a 2024 draft pick. In addition to those reassignments, the Senators placed Drake Batherson and Tyler Kleven on IR to further prepare their final roster. Batherson has been out since Sept. 24 with an upper-body injury on a projected two-week recovery timeline, while Kleven has been out since Sept. 21 with an undisclosed injury.
- The Minnesota Wild reassigned forward Tyler Pitlick and netminder Cal Petersen to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, today. Both players were placed on waivers yesterday and went unclaimed. Pitlick, 33, is a veteran of over 400 NHL games and scored 46 points in 59 AHL games last season for the Hartford Wolf Pack – he’ll likely be among the first players in line for a call-up in Iowa. Petersen, 30, was once a $5MM-a-year netminder for the Los Angeles Kings but did not play in the NHL in 2024-25. Signed to a one-year, $775K one-way deal, he’ll be the team’s organizational number-three netminder.
- The Calgary Flames placed forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil on injured reserve today as part of their roster preparations, and also called up 2023 first-rounder Samuel Honzek. Huberdeau left Calgary’s preseason game at the start of the month with an undisclosed injury, and will miss at least the team’s season opener. Pospisil also exited the Flames’ Oct. 1 preseason game with an undisclosed injury, and will also miss the team’s first game at minimum. As a result, Honzek, 20, gets a spot on the roster in their absence. The 6’5 Slovak forward played his first season of North American pro hockey in 2024-25, scoring 21 points in 52 AHL games and also skating in five NHL contests.
- The New York Rangers reassigned forward Brett Berard to AHL Hartford as part of their season-opening roster moves. Despite a solid training camp and preseason, the 23-year-old lost the battle for a middle-six role in New York to veteran Conor Sheary, a longtime favorite of first-year coach Mike Sullivan. The Rangers signed Sheary to a one-year deal earlier today. It’s a disappointing outcome for Berard, who looked to be making a real push for full-time NHL status last season. He skated in a career-high 35 NHL games, scoring 10 points to go alongside the 23 points he scored in 30 AHL contests.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs reassigned defenseman Ben Danford to the OHL’s Oshawa Generals as part of their season-opening roster preparations. Danford missed Maple Leafs training camp and preseason with a concussion, but has since been cleared for contact, paving the way for this reassignment. It’s the expected move for the 2024 31st overall pick, who is entering his fourth season of OHL duty. Danford scored 25 points in 61 games in Oshawa last season and will resume his post as one of the OHL’s top shutdown blueliners for 2025-26.
- The Colorado Avalanche announced several roster moves to go alongside their announcement of an initial roster: Keaton Middleton, who cleared waivers today, has been reassigned to AHL Colorado, alongside Matthew Stienburg. Meanwhile Ronnie Attard, Sean Behrens, Jacob MacDonald, Logan O’Connor, and Nikita Prishchepov have been designated injured non-roster. Ilya Solovyov, who the team claimed off of waivers from the Calgary Flames last week, was also designated non-roster but he is not injured. Solovyov’s placement is due to the fact that, per the Denver Post’s Corey Masisiak, his visa to allow him to play in the United States has not yet been finalized. It should be noted that this is not an abnormal scenario for a player involved in a cross-border transaction between NHL clubs.
- As part of their own season-opening roster moves, the Nashville Predators placed defenseman Nic Hague and forward Matthew Wood on injured reserve. Hague is out with an upper-body injury on a week-to-week timeline, while Wood is also considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Senators Notes: First-Round Pick, Forsberg, Merilainen, Søgaard
After qualifying for the postseason for the first time since the 2016-17 season, speculation began that the Ottawa Senators could look to make a notable addition this summer to continue their winning ways. It doesn’t appear that an addition of that magnitude will be made at the draft, as General Manager Steve Staios shared on TSN 1200 that the Senators are more inclined to move down in the first round, rather than move up.
The Senators should have quality options available to them with the 21st overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft. Still, it makes little sense to move up in this summer’s draft, which has been perceived as weaker than normal, unless they’re willing to make an offer for a top-four selection. According to PHR’s 2025 NHL Mock Draft by Gabriel Foley, the Senators are projected to select center Cole McKinney from the U.S. National Team Development Program, should they retain their pick.
As a counterpoint, the same reason it makes little sense for Ottawa to move up in the draft could be the same reason another team isn’t interested in helping them move down for additional assets. Teams may not see much discrepancy in talent from picks 20 to 32nd, giving them little reason to include additional draft picks to move up a few spots in the draft order.
Other notes from the Senators:
- Stemming from the same interview with TSN, Bruce Garrioch reports that the Senators are interested in re-signing Anton Forsberg, but it’s not a priority. The expectation is that Forsberg will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and make a decision then. Forsberg is coming off a quality season as Ottawa’s backup netminder, managing an 11-12-3 season in 30 games with a .901 SV% and 2.72 GAA. AFP Analytics projects a two-year, $3.4MM contract for Forsberg, which should be feasible for a team with $10.7MM in cap space.
- If the Senators and Forsberg can’t agree on a contract moving forward, Staios suggests he’s comfortable with Ottawa’s in-house options. Garrioch shares that the Senators would use Leevi Merilainen or Mads Søgaard as the backup next season, with a competition taking place during training camp and preseason. Both netminders played sparingly for Ottawa in the 2024-25 season, with the former maintaining a .925 SV% through 12 games. Still, Søgaard is the only one signed through next season, with Merilainen entering the summer months as a restricted free agent.
Senators Recall Twelve Players
With the Senators in the playoffs and their farm team in Belleville not making the playoffs, Ottawa has determined which players will be joining the team as their Black Aces. The team announced (Twitter link) that forwards Zack MacEwen, Angus Crookshank, Stephen Halliday, Cole Reinhardt, Jan Jenik, Tyler Boucher, Garrett Pilon, and Wyatt Bongiovanni, along with defenseman Donovan Sebrango and goaltender Mads Sogaard have all been recalled from Belleville.
In addition, the Sens have also recalled two players from the major junior ranks. Defenseman Carter Yakemchuk was brought up from WHL Calgary while blueliner Tomas Hamara was recalled from OHL Brantford.
Among the recalls, MacEwen saw the most game action with Ottawa this season, playing in 21 games where he had three points and 49 hits in a little under eight minutes a night of action. Reinhardt had two points in 17 outings while Crookshank had an assist in eight contests. Jenik, Sebrango, and Sogaard all got into a pair of games and were held off the scoresheet while Sogaard allowed eight goals on just 40 shots.
Looking at the AHL recalls who didn’t play with Ottawa this season, Halliday and Pilon were Belleville’s top scorers, checking in with 51 and 48 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Bongiovanni tied Crookshank for the team lead in goals with 22. Boucher, meanwhile, had just 10 points in 47 games this season, not a great showing for the tenth overall pick from 2021.
Yakemchuk very briefly made Ottawa’s roster out of training camp before being sent back without playing a game. He was the seventh pick in last year’s draft and had a solid year with the Hitmen, picking up 49 points in 56 games. As for Hamara, he also checked in just below the point-per-game mark with the Bulldogs, notching 55 in 58 appearances.
These recalls could be short-lived, however. Ottawa is down 3-0 in their opening round series against Toronto so the series could be over as soon as tonight. But regardless of how long their postseason push lasts, the Sens now have their extra skaters in place.