2025-26 has not been a good season for Leevi Merilainen. After Linus Ullmark took a leave of absence from the team, the Ottawa Senators were forced to rely heavily on their rookie backup, and it did not go well. After starting 11 straight games, Merilainen had a 4-6-1 record, culminating in a tough 6-5 overtime loss against the Montreal Canadiens that the Senators should have won.
Jake Sanderson was especially frustrated with the result. “I think Leevi made some good saves. But I think, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make more than 10 saves to win a game,” he said regarding Merilainen’s 13-save performance.
Sanderson is right – Merilainen was subpar in that game, to put it nicely. The Senators needed solid goaltending from him with Ullmark out, and he did not give them that. Now Ottawa sits 14th in the Eastern Conference and six points removed from a wildcard spot. But Merilainen isn’t the problem here; it’s the Senators’ failure to properly develop an NHL-calibre goalie. The only way a young goalie will get more comfortable in the NHL is by playing NHL games. While Merilainen may not be a starter yet, he needs to keep playing games to get the chance to become one.
Goalies Need to Play to Get Better
Although goalies are one of the most important positions in hockey, they’re also one of the most misunderstood. “It used to be the most poorly scouted position in all of sports,” said Mark Seidel, who is both the Windsor Spitfires’ Director of Player Personnel and head of North American Independent Central Scouting. Analytics have helped teams better understand their young netminders, but it’s far from perfect, and the biggest current issue is figuring out how long it takes to get a goalie comfortable in the NHL.
“You can’t really ease into it as a goalie,” said current New Jersey Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom in a 2017 NHL.com article. “When you play games, you learn, and I feel like you have to do that to become a good goalie. You have to play games, you have to be in certain situations, you have to play playoff games, you have to get experience to grow as a goalie, and then the mental part is different from being a [skater], for sure.”
That’s led to goalies breaking into the NHL at younger and younger ages. “It feels like goalies are expected to play in the NHL quicker,” said Carolina Hurricanes’ goalie coach Paul Schonfelder, “often after just one or two years in the minors, and not that long ago, a goalie prospect could spend 3-4 years in the minors and come in at age 25 or 26. Now it’s 21 to 24, but I still think it’s OK to be patient and let them spend time in the minors to grow and evolve their game.”
At 23 years old, Merilainen has played 20 games this season and 34 games over his four years with the Senators. That’s not a lot of time to figure out his style, but even in that brief sample size, he’s shown some incredible skill. In a 12-game run last season (also while Ullmark was out), he put up a 1.99 goals-against average (GAA) and a .925 save percentage (SV%). This season, he has a 3.51 GAA and a .860 SV% over 20 games. He didn’t suddenly lose his ability to play goalie; this is just how goalies develop. There are ups and downs, and unfortunately, one of his downs came when the Senators needed him most.
The Senators Don’t Know How to Develop Goalies
Being let down by a goalie has become so commonplace in Ottawa over the last decade that it has transcended bad luck – it’s either evidence of an ancient curse on the city, or the result of poor development practices that have spread through several management groups. While it’d be nice to blame the supernatural, the root cause of the Senators’ goaltending issues is their inability to develop goalies.
Only one goalie in the Senators franchise history has spent more than five seasons with the organization, that being Craig Anderson, who backstopped the team for a decade before parting ways in 2019-20. He, of course, was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche at the age of 29 in 2010-11, with the 25-year-old Brian Elliott heading the other way. That’s often been the model for Ottawa; Patrick Lalime, Damian Rhodes, Ron Tugnutt, and Anton Forsberg were all acquired after spending the first part of their careers elsewhere.
Related: Senators Have Been a Goaltending Carousel Since Anderson
As for the homegrown talent, though, it’s a much bleaker picture. Ray Emery leads the way for Senators’ goalie picks, playing five seasons before tensions on and off the ice forced Ottawa to buy him out. Then there’s Robin Lehner, who was stuck behind Anderson and was sent to the Buffalo Sabres at the 2015 Draft. There was also Chris Driedger, Joey Daccord, Ben Bishop, and Filip Gustavsson, all of whom were moved before they hit their prime in their mid-20s.
As mentioned earlier, goalies need patience, and they need playing time to become NHL-calibre players, yet the Senators have pulled the trigger on their young goalies far too quickly, only to watch them become much better players elsewhere. They are proving that, unlike the rest of the league, they still don’t understand how goalies develop.
James Reimer Won’t Save the Senators’ Season
Somehow, one of the most embarrassing moments of the 6-5 loss to the Canadiens came from off the ice, as the Senators announced that they had signed veteran James Reimer to a professional tryout in the middle of the game. It’s not that Reimer is a bad goalie – he has a career .910 SV% – but the way it was announced implied panic, like the season was on the verge of being lost if they didn’t get a goalie now.
Reimer’s first two games with the Senators have gone well. Against the Detroit Red Wings, he was one of the team’s best performers, and against the Columbus Blue Jackets two days later, he was named the second star of the game following a 21-save performance to hold onto the 4-1 win.
But, at 37 years old, Reimer is unlikely to recapture his youth and become an NHL starter. His last NHL game was in April 2025, and even after two good starts, he doesn’t have the same energy as a younger goalie who has been playing regularly. It also doesn’t address the issues that are plaguing the team in front of him.
“It’s easy to criticize, but it’s not about an individual in this sport,” said captain Brady Tkachuk after the 6-5 loss, “it’s about the whole team, and we gotta do a better job helping him. (Merilainen is) going to have an amazing long career ahead of him. He’s an unbelievable goalie and an unbelievable person. The message is it’s not just one person win or lose a game, it’s the whole team.”
Yes, Merilainen hasn’t been good this season. But if the Senators want him to be good later, they need to keep working with him and giving him playing time. Maybe a new goalie coach will help, or give him some additional reps down in the minors before bringing him back. But, whatever they do, they can’t give up on another talented young goalie, or else Ottawa will be right back in the same situation next season, struggling to find a consistent goalie in net while blaming the young backups for their inexperience.
