The Senators were one of the top teams in the NHL offensively last season, ranking eighth in goals scored with 275, an improvement of 33 on the 2024-25 campaign. However, if GM Steve Staios had his way, he’d be adding more firepower to the mix. In a recent appearance on TSN 1200 (audio link), he indicated that he’d like to add more firepower to the mix if he could:
On the surface, do we have a pure sniper? I think everybody’s sort of looking at that
You’d love to add that.
Ottawa certainly lost some firepower this offseason with the departure of Brady Tkachuk to Florida. The former captain was limited to 22 goals in 60 games last season but before that, he had averaged just under 33 tallies per year in the previous four campaigns.
However, the Sens quickly used the top draft pick acquired for Tkachuk, flipping it to San Jose for William Eklund to bring in a top-six replacement. That said, he has been more of a playmaker over his career this far, ranging between 15 and 17 goals over his three full NHL seasons but had 38 assists last season and 41 the year before. Veteran Andre Burakovsky, a two-time 20-goal scorer, was also added from Chicago.
If Staios wants to add more firepower to his roster, Vladimir Tarasenko is the top scorer left on the open market, coming off a 23-goal year. He has some experience in Ottawa as well, spending part of 2023-24 with them where he fared well with 41 points in 57 games. Michael Bunting and Eeli Tolvanen have had a 20-goal season in the past, while Patrik Laine, who missed most of last season due to injury, has a strong track record in the goal department as well.
As things stand, the Senators have a little under $4.2MM in cap room, per PuckPedia. That gives them the flexibility to try to add another piece if the opportunity presents itself. Staios noted that he anticipates there will be a secondary market coming that they’re going to stay close to and see if an opportunity to improve presents itself.
Meanwhile, while Ottawa has taken care of its free agent class for this year, a pair of core veterans are entering the final year of their respective contracts and are now extension-eligible. Those would be winger Drake Batherson and defenseman Artem Zub. Staios wouldn’t say much about how discussions have gone but expressed a willingness to keep both in the fold:
Certainly, there’s been discussions, I could say that. And those two players are players that I really like, and I think fit into our team.
Batherson will have a $4.975MM cap charge for the upcoming season and has surpassed the 60-point mark in each of the last four years, including a career-high 71 in 2025-26. With the state of the market, it’s fair to say that the 28-year-old is going to have a strong shot at doubling that and more on his next deal.
As for Zub, he’s coming off a career year offensively as well, notching 30 points in 81 games last season. It’s only the second time he has played more than 70 games in a single season over his six-year career but when he’s healthy, the 30-year-old is a core defender, logging over 20 minutes per game for five straight years. Zub has a $4.6MM cap charge for 2026-27 and it will likely cost a few million more per season to get him extended now.
If Staios wants to keep his core players in the fold as long as possible, an eight-year deal is on the table until mid-September. Then, when the new CBA officially kicks in at that time, the maximum length of a contract for a player re-signing would be seven years.
The GM was also asked about his goaltending situation. James Reimer remains an unrestricted free agent with the player he replaced midseason, Leevi Merilainen, now waiver-eligible for the first time. However, Samuel Ersson was brought in on a two-year deal to be Linus Ullmark’s backup.
It appears that Staios is at least open to the idea of carrying three goaltenders to start the season to avoid the risk of exposing the 23-year-old Merilainen to the rest of the league on waivers. Carrying three netminders isn’t usually ideal but they have the roster and cap space to do so as things stand. Whether that changes over the next couple of months heading into training camp remains to be seen.