Although it feels like an eternity until the start of the NHL season, Ottawa Senators fans are already anticipating the debuts of Vladimir Tarasenko, Dominik Kubalik, Joonas Korpisalo and many others with the team. Not only could this season finally see them making it to the postseason for the first time since 2016-17, but the wind of change brought upon the Senators by general manager Pierre Dorion and his team also has the potential to create some interesting storylines throughout the campaign.
In this article, I am joined by fellow The Hockey Writers contributors Jacob Billington and Paul Quinney as we’ve each submitted a bold take about the Senators for the upcoming season.
Billington: Second in the Atlantic
The Atlantic Division is a powerhouse, there is no doubt about that. However, with teams like the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning on the decline after years of dominance, there is room for another team to step into the top three of the division, and that will be the Senators’ spot.
There is a lot to prove with this group, but I look at the New Jersey Devils’ season in 2022-23 as a comparison. They didn’t make a ton of additions to significantly change the roster, but their young stars continued to develop, they got competent goaltending and managed to make a 49-point increase in the standings. Now Ottawa won’t replicate that, but they have the recipe for success.
Related: Atlantic Division Has Gotten More Competitive This Offseason
As long as they can stay healthy and have the bottom-six step up, they have everything they need to be one of the top teams in the Atlantic. Additions of Tarasenko and Kubalik will help the forward depth and will be a net positive as replacements for Alex DeBrincat and healthy seasons of Josh Norris, Jakob Chychrun, and Korpisalo will be crucial for this to happen.
Quinney: Stutzle’s Year
Tim Stutzle will finish the regular season with over 100 points. Last season, the young gun lit up the goal light 39 times and marked up the score sheet with 51 assists for a total of 90 points. Since coming into the league in 2020-21, he has tripled his points production. There’s no reason he won’t continue up that curve in 2023-24.
With 90 points last season, he put himself in the company of fellow centremen Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (93), Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers (91), and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who tallied 87 points.
We haven’t seen Stutzle’s full potential yet. What’s more, he’ll be skating between Brady Tkachuk and Tarasenko on what should be one of the NHL’s most potent lines. This season, with a solid blue line behind him and much-improved goaltending with Korpisalo in net, get ready to see Stutzle adopt a more free-wheeling, risk-taking style. More points are sure to follow. Buckle up!
Caron: The Korpisalo Show
For the past few seasons, goaltending hasn’t been the strongest aspect of the Sens’ overall game. However, I believe this season it will change with the arrival of a new name in net. For my bold prediction, I think that Korpisalo will have a career year, which will lead him to being the deciding factor for the Sens finding themselves in the playoffs.
Korpisalo’s big five-year, $20 million contract signed via free agency shows that Dorion has faith in what he brings to the table. Having started in Columbus with the Blue Jackets, Korpisalo put up a series of excellent seasons, alongside some poor ones. Despite consistency and injuries being recurrent issues in the past, I think the 29-year-old Finnish goalie will still find a way to build off his play since the trade deadline, where he finished strong with a .921 save percentage (SV%) and a 2.13 goals-against average (GAA) to lead the Los Angeles Kings to the postseason. While these two stats aren’t the only determinants for goalies’ performances, he also seemed more confident in net last season.
That being said, I believe Korpisalo will have over 35 wins and put up stats under a 2.50 GAA and over a .910 SV%. Perhaps even Anton Forsberg will put up solid numbers to form a solid goaltending duo.
This Season’s Expectations
While it would be amazing to see all these bold predictions come true for the Senators, it’s likely that only one, or even none of them come to fruition. However, this doesn’t excuse that expectations are as high as they’ve been in the past half-decade or so for this team.
With Dorion having done everything he could to give them a shot, this roster is now truly built to succeed. The wait this offseason might be long, but surely it’ll be worth it when the puck drops in October.
