This season, Tim Stutzle continues to dazzle Ottawa Senators fans. Yet there’s no denying that through the Senators’ 15 games so far this season, his eight goals and eight assists, while solid, aren’t the stuff of superstardom. The question many in Bytown are starting to ask is whether he has plateaued after his breakout year in 2023 when he racked up 31 goals and 90 points. Some say yes, while others argue that he is evolving into a more complete two-way player whose contributions to the team go well beyond the scoresheet.
Related: Senators Fans’ Patience Running Thin After Poor Start to Season
So, is the young gun from Germany following his countryman Leon Draisaitl to superstardom, or has he hit a barrier he’s struggling to break through?
Does Stutzle Fit the Definition of Superstar?
The answer to that question lies in your definition of superstar. There’s no agreement on what it means to be one in the NHL. What’s more, the term is as hackneyed as the superlative “generational talent” – a tag applied to five or six players now playing at the same time in the NHL. Seriously, they can’t all be generational talents, can they?
Without doubt, the word superstar has been liberally applied to Stutzle in barstool debates all along the Rideau Canal. It began when former Senators general manager, Pierre Dorion, funneled praise his way after signing him to an eight-year contract extension in 2022, saying that “We have a budding superstar. Whether he’s going to be a top five player in the league, a top 10 player, he brings me out of my seat.”
Management isn’t alone in pronouncing Stutzle a superstar. Former Senator Jason York, waxing eloquent on him last season, said, “This is, to me, what I classify a superstar as: Can you bring fans out of their seats? Are you worth the price of admission? How many guys are really worth the price of admission like “wow”? Not to be outdone, starting Senators’ goalie Linus Ullmark said flatly during training camp, “He is a superstar.”
There’s no question that Stutzle often brings fans to their feet. Even so, it’s hard to make the case that he has achieved even star status in the league. This season, he’s on track for a solid, but unspectacular 76 points. His best season in the six he has skated in the NHL was in 2022-23 when he notched 90 points – a number he hasn’t matched since.
Here’s a comparison of where he ranked in the league last season on key metrics as compared to the numbers he notched in that glorious 2022-23 season.
| 2022-23 NHL Rank | 2024-25 NHL Rank | |
| Goals | 22nd | 85th |
| Assists | 27th | 34th |
| Total Points | 19th | 29th |
| Even Strength Goals | 23rd | 70th |
| Power Play Goals | 38th | 99th |
Forget Dorion’s musings about Stutzle becoming a top-five or top 10 player. After a while, a player is what his numbers say he is. And what they say about Stutzle is he’d be hard-pressed to crack the league’s top 20 players on any metric that counts.
What Is Holding Stutzle Back From Superstardom?
As one of the Senators’ deadliest offensive threats, Stutzle is being forced to adjust to far more attention from other teams than he garnered during his first few years as an NHLer. There is no doubt that at times he has had difficulty being targeted, losing his focus and sometimes taking dumb retaliatory penalties.
Stutzle has become more responsible defensively. Back-checking and playing a 200-foot game are things that Senators head coach Travis Green is emphasizing. As he put it, talking about Stutzle’s defensive growth, “any championship team that wins, their star players don’t just play offence; they don’t cheat. They play at both ends of the rink. They’re able to create offence and play good defence.”
Stutzle seems to be trying hard to transition from his earlier flashy self to the more complete player Green and his coaching staff are demanding. As he explained it, “I want to win more games, and it doesn’t do the job if you score 50 but you lose every game. It helps when I produce. We’re winning the games. But in the end, I think that if I played better defensively and shut down other guys, we have the same chance to win games too.”
Perhaps this transition has dampened his offensive firepower, but it may well be setting him up for future success. After all, he is just 23 years old and superstars rarely emerge that young.
Stutzle: Superstar in the Making or Plateaued?
It’s too early to say that Stutzle is regressing. This season may instead show his growth in his mastery of the less glamorous aspects of NHL stardom. After all, true superstars evolve by expanding their game, not just pumping up their stats.
If Stutzle can approach his career-best 90 points and at the same time live up to Green’s standard of what it is to be a complete player, he will have taken the next step toward true stardom in the NHL – however that may be defined.
