The Ottawa Senators have announced their final roster moves prior to the Oct. 6 5 p.m. deadline. After two impressive rookie camps in his young hockey career, defenseman Carter Yakemchuk has been sent to the American Hockey League (AHL) and will play for the Belleville Senators.
ROSTER UPDATE: Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Arthur Kaliyev, Mads Sogaard, Lassi Thomson and Carter Yakemchuk have been loaned to the @BellevilleSens. Drake Batherson and Tyler Kleven have been placed on IR.
— Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) October 6, 2025
Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Arthur Kaliyev, Mads Sogaard, Lassi Thomson et…
In addition to the Yakemchuk move, the Senators have placed forward Drake Batherson and defenseman Tyler Kleven on injured reserve. This frees up two roster spots for the club. Both players have been dealing with lower-body injuries, but have been skating.
The team also sent Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Arthur Kaliyev, Lassi Thomson, and Mads Sogaard to the AHL after clearing waivers. Olle Lycksell was also waived, but remains with the Senators. Now that he has cleared waivers, the Senators have more roster flexibility and can send him down when Batherson returns.
While there were no major surprises, outside of maybe the Kurtis MacDermid acquisition and spot on the roster, there were some competitive battles for some roster spots.
As of now, the Senators have the following 23 players on their roster:
Left Wingers (4): Brady Tkachuk, David Perron, Ridly Greig, Nick Cousins
Centres (4): Tim Stutzle, Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, Lars Eller
Right Wingers (5): Claude Giroux, Fabian Zetterlund, Michael Amadio, Olle Lycksell, Kurtis MacDermid
Left Defense (3): Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Donovan Sebrango
Right Defense (4): Artem Zub, Nick Jensen, Nikolas Matinpalo, Jordan Spence
Goaltenders (2): Linus Ullmark, Leevi Merilainen
IR (2): Drake Batherson, Tyler Kleven
Upon the return of Batherson and Kleven, which appears to be sooner rather than later, it is likely to see Lycksell sent down, as well as Sebrango.
It is clear that the organization has those two as the next men up, but also in that conversation would be Yakemchuk. The Senators have a good problem by having too many good right-shot defensemen, and while Yakemchuk has shown he deserves an NHL shot this season, at some point, at least, there are two quality players in the way of an NHL spot.
There aren’t any anticipated trades or moves the Senators could make, and this could be what their roster looks like for at least the first few weeks of the season. Injuries happen, but the Senators are bringing in enough organizational depth that at each position, they have some good options to choose from.
