Given everything that happened so far this summer, the Ottawa Senators are apparently not quite comfortable with their roster at this time.
While GM Steve Staios recently told TSN 1200 that the team"feels good" about what they've accomplished so far - moving on from the headaches of Brady Tkachuk, replacing him with William Eklund, bringing back Claude Giroux and Nick Cousins - there are still some nagging issues on the roster.
While the team scored 275 goals last season (eighth-most in the league, but crucially just fourth-most in their own division), they punched above their weight a little bit in terms of expected goals.
Removing the kind of scorer Tkachuk represents, who scores about 30.5 goals per 82 games as a pure net-front, crash-and-bang guy, is a problem. But Staios also told TSN that they would like to add a pure sniper.
The question is whether one is even out there, and one imagines the Senators won't like the answer. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't try, and there are at least a few notable candidates, including the following players:
VLADIMIR TARASENKO, RW, UFA
In terms of just"a guy who shoots the puck and it goes in a lot," Tarasenko has scored 327 goals in his 14-year career (just outside the top 30 among active players). Tarasenko is easy to acquire, given that he's a free agent, and the Sens have about $4.2 million to spend against the cap; he made $4.75 million with the Minnesota Wild last season, and also scored 23 goals for them.
The caveat here is that Tarasenko played for Ottawa in 2023-24, brought in as a one-year rental. He scored 17 goals in 57 games for them, which is a decent total, before being traded to the Florida Panthers.
If all involved enjoyed his time there, and the trade was merely logistical, then it's easy to see them getting back together. But given Ottawa's cap space, Tarasenko would likely have to take a pay cut from last season to return. Not a lot of players seem to be doing that these days.
PATRIK LAINE, LW, UFA
This is another UFA winger who has scored a lot of goals in the past, but there's way more inherent risk with Laine than with Tarasenko. Long gone, it seems, are the days when Laine was a player who could pop in 30 no problem, but even during his limited time with the Columbus Blue Jackets or Montreal Canadiens, he at least scored at a solid clip: 84 goals in 231 games.
But Laine's mental-health struggles and numerous injuries have limited his availability: just five games last season, and he hasn't played more than 56 since 2019-20.
The upside here is obvious. When he's going even at like 80 percent, there are maybe two dozen guys who put the puck in the net more effectively, and his more recent difficulties might lower the asking price to the point it makes sense for the Senators and the player.
But it also feels like there's a really good chance he continues to spend long stretches of the season unavailable or ineffective, so that's a risk/reward scenario the Senators will have to take a really long look at.
WORKING THE TRADE MARKET
Unfortunately for the Senators, the number of"pure snipers" who are currently without a contract pretty much stops at Tarasenko and Laine. That means unless they want to keep their powder dry and save their cap space for a mid-season trade, Staios could work the phones and try to bring in an unsettled sniper from another team. But at that point, you're probably stretching the definition of"pure" to the breaking point.
While it feels like a pipe dream that they could bring in Dylan Larkin, who has cleared 30 goals in each of his last five seasons, Brock Boeser (87 goals scored over the last three years and now a consistent 20-goal scorer) might be a more realistic option.
The Vancouver Canucks are rebuilding, and the Sens still have picks to deal from the Tkachuk trade. But Boeser, along with teammates Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk, have full movement protection. Would he waive to come to Ottawa?
If not, there are options like Pavel Zacha (30 goals scored last season) or Kirill Marchenko (27 goals scored), who are varying degrees of"available" depending on who you believe.
Ultimately, though, it's up to the Senators to determine whether they want to dip into their war chest to pay anything more than money for that kind of help, but given where they are in their competitive cycle, receiving some help feels imperative.
A Tkachuk replacement doesn't need to come in right away; you can see how Eklund and, to a much lesser extent, Andre Burakovsky settle in and go from there.
It's not like the options aren't available. It's a question of whether they're worth it now or whether the decision is put off to November, January, or the trade deadline.