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Senators Expected To Begin Extension Talks With Adam Gaudette Soon

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With free agency now less than three weeks away, the Senators have been busy trying to get their top pending unrestricted free agent, Claude Giroux, locked up before he hits the open market.  It appears that he’s not the only UFA that they intend to try to sign early as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Sens are expected to start talks on a new deal with Adam Gaudette.

The 28-year-old has largely bounced around his eight-year professional career, spending time with five different organizations.  Gaudette came back for a second stint with Ottawa last summer, inking a one-year, two-way deal with an eye on him being a key contributor with AHL Belleville and coming up for stints with the big club when needed.

That didn’t go quite as planned.  In fact, it went better.  While Gaudette cleared waivers in October, he never actually suited up in the minors this season.  Beyond a few one-day stints with Belleville, he was exclusively up with Ottawa.  Along the way, he played in 81 games, scoring a career-best 19 goals along with seven assists; that goal total is particularly notable considering he averaged just 10:25 per game of ice time.  He added three points in six games in their opening-round playoff loss to Toronto.

While Gaudette had 33 points back in 59 games with Vancouver, this was his first season of being a full-time NHL player.  Overall, he has suited up in 301 contests at the top level, notching 46 goals and 50 assists along the way.  All told, not a bad showing from a fifth-round pick.

However, despite the success he has had at times, Gaudette has yet to earn a seven-figure single-season salary throughout his career.  He should have a chance to do that this time around but he might not beat the $1MM mark by too much considering the limited ice time he had this season and the fact he had primarily been a minor leaguer the previous two years.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see Ottawa, like a lot of teams, try to keep their spots at the end of the roster close to the minimum salary to increase their spending flexibility so it will be interesting to see if an early agreement can be worked out to keep Gaudette off the open market.

Claude Giroux, Senators Continue To Work Toward New Deal

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  • The Ottawa Senators and veteran Claude Giroux have reportedly been negotiating a new contract for a few weeks, and Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Citizen shares that those contract talks have reached a pivotal stage. The two sides met last week during the NHL Combine in Buffalo, and they continue to work toward an agreeable deal. Giroux recently completed a three-year, $19.5MM contract with the Senators in which he scored 71 goals and 193 points in 245 games.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Senators Not Planning To Use Full Amount Of Cap Space This Summer

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With a $7.5MM increase to the Upper Limit of the salary cap for next season (from $88MM to $95.5MM), there is a big expectation of spending going up across the league.  But not every team is obviously going to spend to the new ceiling and it appears the Senators will be one of them.  Speaking with reporters including Postmedia’s Janson Duench, GM Steve Staios indicated that he’s not expecting to spend to the maximum:

“It’s probably not going to be up there and we’ll leave ourselves a little bit. You got to remember, when I first got here, we had no room and it’s nice to be able to create some flexibility, lengthen the roster, lengthen the lineup and give ourselves some options.”

While Staios spoke of staying enough below the cap to create some flexibility for in-season movement, owner Michael Andlauer went a step further, noting to Sportsnet’s Alex Adams that they are a “cash over cap” team at the moment in terms of their spending which is playing a role in things.

Per PuckPedia, the Senators have just over $80.47MM in cap spending for next season.  However, their actual cash spending on their roster and dead cap spending (between a salary retention and a buyout) is a fair bit higher, checking in at $85.675MM.

Notably, the Sens still have several roster spots to fill, including re-signing RFA winger Fabian Zetterlund and UFA forward Claude Giroux with discussions underway on both those fronts.  Between getting new deals done for them and rounding out the group, it’s quite possible that their actual cash spending runs closer to the $100MM mark.  For a smaller market team like Ottawa, it appears that’s a concern.

With that in mind, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Staios trying to backload some contracts where possible to try to balance out the cap and cash spending numbers to an extent which could also open up more budget room to spend closer to the Upper Limit.  Not all players are open to doing so, of course, which could limit them in free agency.  Alternatively, if there is a player-for-player swap that presents itself, acquiring someone with a cash cost below the cap could become more appealing.

With more than $15MM in cap space, it’s fair to say that the Sens likely still have considerable spending capacity within their budget.  But as names start coming off the board over the next couple of months, it appears that Ottawa won’t be using all of its spending flexibility during that time.

Senators Say “No Truth” To Drake Batherson Trade Rumors

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June 6: General manager Steve Staios told reporters Friday that “there’s no truth” to the speculation regarding Batherson’s trade availability, per Claire Hanna of TSN.

June 3: The Senators are willing to part ways with winger Drake Batherson via trade as they look to acquire an upgrade for their top-six forward group, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen said Tuesday.

Batherson’s name popped up in trade conversation around the deadline, but he ultimately wasn’t moved. Those talks also stemmed more from teams calling on Batherson, not Ottawa actively shopping him. While saying the Sens are trying to move on from him outright is a stretch, there’s a belief “some within the organization are frustrated with his lack of consistency,” Garrioch writes, and they’ll be open to including him in a trade package for a more established scoring forward.

Senators general manager Steve Staios already made one notable change to the core of young players Ottawa had built up before his arrival, swapping out Joshua Norris for Dylan Cozens at this year’s deadline in lieu of a Batherson move. It certainly stands to reason he’d pull off a similar maneuver to help jumpstart the Sens’ offense, which only ranked 18th in the league in 2024-25, as they try to piece together a second straight postseason appearance for the first time since 2012 and 2013.

Batherson’s run in Ottawa began in 2017 as a fourth-round pick. The 6’3″, 200-lb winger nonetheless made his NHL debut less than a year and a half later, and he was a full-time piece by the time the shortened 2020-21 season rolled around.

The comment about his lack of consistency comes across as puzzling. While he may have in-season hot and cold stretches, there are very few more known commodities in the league at present than Batherson. He’s played all 82 games for three years in a row – during that span, he’s recorded 22, 28, and 26 goals and 62, 66, and 68 points, respectively. His usage has also barely varied, averaging between 18 and 19 minutes per game.

He’s now 27 years old, though. That consistency also means his ceiling, at least long-term, has been established as that consistent 25-goal, 65-point winger. Ottawa only had one player, top center Tim Stützle, top that mark this season. With no one else in the system aside from captain Brady Tkachuk slated to routinely hover around or break that plateau, it’s understandable why Staios would be on the hunt for a winger with more game-breaking potential while sacrificing Batherson’s projectable output.

Still, for a relatively cap-strapped team like Ottawa, getting rid of Batherson at his extremely reasonable price point should create some pause. His cap hit is just $4.975MM through 2026-27, after which he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

Offseason Checklist: Ottawa Senators

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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.

Senators Sign Tyler Kleven To Two-Year Extension

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The Ottawa Senators have signed defenseman Tyler Kleven to a two-year, $3.2MM contract extension per Chris Johnston of The Athletic. Kleven was set to become a restricted free agent this summer. The team has made the deal official.

Kleven played through his rookie season in the NHL this year. He operated from Ottawa’s third pair and managed 10 points, 27 penalty minutes, and a minus-11 through 79 games. It was a quiet year across the board, but Kleven stepped it up when the games mattered most. He recorded two assists and eight blocked shots – good for third on the team in blocks – through six playoff games. He played physical and instinctive throughout Ottawa’s First Round matchup against the Maple Leafs, and even earned a career-high 23 minutes of ice time in the Senators’ overtime win in Game 4.

The late-season flash seemed to reaffirm Kleven’s upside. Just one year into his career, he’s clearly still learning to keep up with the pace of NHL forwards. But at his best, Kleven is an effective shutdown defender who uses his stick and body to separate opponents from the puck. He’s a strong option to return to Ottawa’s third pairing next year, and could find his way up the depth chart with a hardier season. This new contract will carry Kleven through his age-25 season, and gives him a chance to earn a deal that could carry him through the bulk of his career on the other side.

Senators Begin Contract Talks With Claude Giroux

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May 30th: A few weeks after this initial report that informal discussions had begun, Garrioch shared today that face-to-face talks between Giroux and the Senators would start next week. The expectation is that if everything goes well, a new contract will be agreed upon then.

May 15th: Forward Claude Giroux highlights Ottawa’s list of pending unrestricted free agents but if they get their way, he won’t make it to the open market altogether.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the two sides have started informal discussions on a new contract for the 2025-26 season while GM Steve Staios is expected to meet with Giroux’s agent in the next few weeks to try to hammer out a deal.

Giroux joined the Senators three years ago as an unrestricted free agent, inking a three-year, $19.5MM deal on the opening day of free agency.  It’s fair to say the contract worked out quite well for Ottawa as the 37-year-old put up 71 goals and 122 assists in 245 games with the Sens while winning 59.1% of his faceoffs, one of the top rates in the NHL over that time.  This past season, he had 15 goals and 35 helpers in 81 outings while logging over 18 minutes a night of ice time.

While his age makes a raise quite unlikely, it wouldn’t be surprising if term is a key element in these negotiations.  Garrioch cites league executives who feel a one-year deal between $3MM and $4MM would be palatable for both sides while it’s worth noting that Giroux would be eligible for performance incentives in his deal if it’s a one-year pact.  However, given the anticipated demand for centers on the open market this summer, Giroux could have enough leverage to try to get a second year on the deal while also making him ineligible for those performance bonuses.

A veteran of 1,263 NHL games over parts of 18 seasons between Philadelphia, Florida, and Ottawa, Giroux has recorded 365 goals and 751 assists.  His 1,116 points put him in 66th place in NHL history in that regard.

Ottawa enters the offseason with around $17.5MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, giving Staios some flexibility to work with.  However, with that money, he has to re-sign or replace Giroux, re-sign trade deadline acquisition Fabian Zetterlund, add a second goalie (or promote Leevi Merilainen to the role), and fill out the roster with a handful of other pieces.  While that probably won’t leave them a lot of room to go shopping on the open market, they should have enough space to work with to get something done with Giroux in the coming weeks.

Rasmus Andersson Reportedly Has Senators On No-Trade List

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While the Senators have been tied to the Flames’ Rasmus Andersson in their search to upgrade the right side of their defense this offseason, it appears he won’t be an option. Ottawa is among the six teams on his no-trade list as part of his modified no-trade clause, sources tell Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff.

Andersson, entering the final year of his contract at a $4.55MM cap hit, would have been the most needle-moving option available for the Sens in their price range. Pending unrestricted free agent Aaron Ekblad might be a more desirable pickup if he reaches the open market in a few weeks, but he’s projected to earn a seven-year deal north of $7.8MM per season, according to AFP Analytics.

Without a cap-clearing trade, that would be a tight fit for Ottawa, which enters the offseason with $16.627MM in cap space to spread across eight roster spots, per PuckPedia. While they could place right-shot rearguard Nick Jensen on long-term injured reserve to begin the campaign for increased spending flexibility if he’s not ready for the start of the year, he’s not expected to miss the whole 2025-26 season and they’d still need cap space to activate him when he’s ready to return.

Andersson’s inavailability will likely leave the Sens looking for some of the second-tier stay-at-home options on the free agent market to help steady the waters in Jensen’s projected absence and add depth when he returns. It’s not a very long list, but Cody Ceci and Dante Fabbro may be out there as potential impact second-pairing pickups and high-tier third-pairing options.

As for Andersson’s long-term future in Calgary, it remains uncertain a year away from a potential trip to unrestricted free agency. While the Flames have at least explored trading him multiple times in the past couple of years amid their retool, they’ve quickly pulled him off the market – either because they weren’t impressed by the offers they were getting, didn’t want to disrupt team chemistry amid a strong start to 2024-25, or had mutual interest in retaining the player.

It looks like they’re going through that same song and dance again. “After ’looking around’ the landscape of the NHL, keeping Andersson ’might make the most sense at the right number,'” DiMarco wrote.

With the salary cap slated to jump to $104MM for 2026-27, an Andersson extension, if agreed to this summer after he’s eligible to sign one on July 1, would likely be a seven-year deal in the $8.5MM range per season, AFP Analytics projects. Suppose his camp holds firm to that framework. In that case, it’s worth questioning whether that’s a deal general manager Craig Conroy is willing to sign following a season in which Andersson posted his worst offensive totals (31 points in 81 games) in four years, along with a career-worst -38 rating, worst on the Flames by double.

Senators Exploring Right-Shot Defense Market

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The Senators head into the offseason with a young core coming off its first playoff appearance and more than a few roster spots to fill for 2025-26 with a middling amount of salary cap flexibility to do so. They may need to add additional depth on defense out of the gate, with righty Nick Jensen’s availability for the beginning of the season uncertain following a recent lower-body surgery. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports it was a “hip or knee” injury that Jensen played through all during the second half of the season, which will likely activate general manager Steve Staios’ previous commitment “to address the club’s defence after learning the extent of Jensen’s ailment.”

Adding on the back end is one of the more reasonable priorities for a Senators club that’s got a bona fide starting goaltender in Linus Ullmark and a wealth of top-six-caliber forwards. They also shouldn’t have too much trouble retaining pending UFA Claude Giroux to augment their offense, considering there’s strong mutual interest in keeping the hometown vet in Ottawa.

But if Jensen is out to begin the campaign, that leaves Nikolas Matinpalo and Artem Zub as the Sens’ only NHL-caliber right-shot options, and the former is untested outside of limited bottom-pairing minutes. Jensen’s injury could open a pathway for 2024 No. 7 overall pick Carter Yakemchuk to get a look in Ottawa’s top four to begin the campaign, but that’s a questionable choice for a team with playoff expectations, especially given Yakemchuk’s underwhelming output this season with WHL Calgary.

But suppose the organization is still high on Yakemchuk. In that case, it may make more sense to ride out Jensen’s absence with a depth free agent signing rather than making a long-term splash for a right-shot D that would block Yakemchuk’s ascension over the next few years. As Garrioch writes, there aren’t many quality top-four options available on the trade or free-agent markets, and acquiring any of them would require Ottawa to subtract from a position of strength. The only needle-moving UFA available at present is Florida rearguard Aaron Ekblad, who’ll likely end up being out of Ottawa’s price range for a free agent pickup and would require them to make a cap-dump trade (maybe veteran winger David Perron and his $4MM cap hit?).

Trade options league sources highlighted to Garrioch were Calgary’s Rasmus Andersson and Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen, both of whom would command a first-round pick in addition to an established NHL forward, presumably centers Ridly Greig or Shane Pinto, based on the offers those clubs turned down at the trade deadline. Andersson is also entering the final year of his contract and would likely command north of $8MM per season on an extension. Is that a figure Ottawa is willing to pay with two $8MM blue-liners already in Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson?

That leaves Staios likely looking for secondary options on the UFA market in July to help augment his defense. With Jensen sidelined, they’ll likely look for a comparable stay-at-home presence to aid his usual partner in Chabot. Names like Brent Burns and Tony DeAngelo don’t fit that bill, but a reunion with 2012 first-rounder Cody Ceci might. He’s almost certainly hitting the market this summer with the Stars in a cap crunch. Although he has plenty of experience averaging north of 20 minutes per game, his possession metrics last year paled compared to what Jensen provided in his first year in Ottawa. Beyond the Blue Jackets’ Dante Fabbro and the Sharks’ Jan Rutta, though, there isn’t much else out there in terms of defensive-minded righties.

Senators Sign Luke Ellinas To Entry-Level Contract

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The Ottawa Senators announced they’ve signed forward Luke Ellinas to a three-year, entry-level agreement. The Toronto, ON native recently finished his second year with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.

Ellinas’ second year in Kitchener ushered in notable improvements. After scoring 16 goals and 33 points in 67 games during his draft year, in which the Senators selected Ellinas with the 104th pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, he registered 20 goals and 37 points in 50 games this past season.

His real coming-out party came during the 2025 OHL Playoffs. He helped bring Kitchener to the Western Conference Final, in which he scored eight goals and 16 points in 14 contests with a +6 rating. It wasn’t enough to be one of the playoff scoring leaders, but it was enough to lead the Rangers in postseason scoring.

It was an unforeseen run for a grittier player. Ellinas is a workhorse in the offensive zone, but his offensive production hadn’t caught up to how hard he was working until now. The Senators have inked a playoff-style performer if Ellinas continues on his trajectory.

It’ll be interesting to see where the Senators place Ellinas to begin the 2025-26 season. Their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, could use the help in a hotly contested North Division. Still, Ellinas may benefit from another year in the OHL to wholly hone in his offensive game before making the jump to professional hockey.

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