Senators Continue to Show an Unwillingness to Develop Goalies

Final cuts are never easy, and every season, talented players end up on the waiver wire, free for the taking by any team that first puts in a claim. Sometimes it works out; in 2021, the Ottawa Senators claimed goalie Anton Forsberg off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets, who went on to post a .917 save percentage (SV%) and a 22-17-4 record over 46 games that season. Other times, it hardly moves the needle, like when the Senators lost Lassi Thomson to the Anaheim Ducks on waivers, then reclaimed him when they tried to send him to the minors a week later.

But sometimes, a player too good for waivers lands on the dreaded list where a claim is almost guaranteed. That was the case for Leevi Merilainen, who the Vancouver Canucks picked up after the Senators decided Samuel Ersson would back up Linus Ullmark this season. Although Ersson earned the job over his younger counterpart, losing Merilainen for nothing after he emerged as the team’s best goaltending prospect is a huge blow for the organization’s development model that doesn’t exactly have a lot of wins.

Merilainen Needed More Time

Goalies develop very differently than skaters. While forwards and defencemen can make an immediate impact as teenagers, goalies are often 25 years old before taking over the top job on a team. Merilainen looked like he was on that path. He had a great start to his NHL career with a 34-save overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Apr. 4, 2023, and in 2024-25, he recorded three shutouts over 12 appearances, giving him a .925 SV% and a 1.99 goals-against average, the best average of any Senators’ netminder that season by far.

However, last season was a significant departure from those performances and came to be defined by Jake Sanderson’s frustrated response after a 13-save performance on Jan. 17, 2026. “I think Leevi made some good saves,” he said after the 6-5 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, “But I think, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make more than 10 saves to win a game.”

That ended up being the last time Merilainen started for the Senators. After the loss, he was reassigned to the American Hockey League (AHL), where he finished the season. With the Belleville Senators, he put up a very solid .909 SV% and a 2.77 GAA over 19 games and started 16 of the team’s 24 games between Jan. 20 and Mar. 30, nine of which were above a .930 SV%. He was recalled to Ottawa after Belleville’s season ended in late April, but he didn’t make another on-ice appearance.

Merilainen clearly had talent. No other Belleville goalie last season posted above an .895 SV% or under a 3.20 GAA, and only Merilainen had more than one shutout. It’s why Ottawa gave him a one-way NHL contract ahead of the 2025-26 season and expected him to be Ullmark’s backup, and it’s why they re-signed him to another one-year, one-way deal at the end of last season despite his struggles. At just 24 years old, he was just starting to get comfortable with his role in the NHL.

Johansson Doesn’t Fix Goalie Problem

Hours after Merilainen was claimed, the Senators announced they had acquired Jonas Johansson from the Tampa Bay Lightning for future considerations. It was a purely reactionary move; the Senators needed someone to fill out Belleville’s crease alongside Kevin Reidler and Jackson Parsons. Johansson didn’t have to go through waivers to go down to the AHL, making the 31-year-old the perfect stopgap.

Barring injuries, Johansson isn’t likely to see any time with the Senators this season, which means he’ll spend this season battling Reidler and Parsons for minutes in the AHL. There’s an argument that Merilainen also wouldn’t have seen many NHL minutes this season after Ersson signed his two-year deal, but even with other backups, the young Finn has always been the first call-up when things needed a boost.

Johansson doesn’t offer any potential for a boost; after 105 career NHL games, the 31-year-old has never finished a season with a save percentage above .895 except his three-game stint with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022-23, where he had a .932 SV%. That nearly single-handedly earned him a two-year deal with the Lightning, where he was a below-average goalie on an above-average team.

But Johansson’s AHL numbers are much more promising, which will prevent Reidler or Parsons from earning significant minutes this season. That doesn’t bode well for their development, since goalies need to play to get better. Now Belleville is looking at a situation where either one goalie barely plays, or all three play minimally. It’s not ideal for anyone.

The Senators Refuse to Develop Goalies

With Merilainen gone, Parsons and Reidler are the only signed goalies in the Senators’ system under 23 years old, and the messaging from the team is that if you don’t perform, you won’t get chances.

“That’s part of the league,” said head coach Travis Green after Vancouver’s claim. “You’ve got players that you sometimes put on waivers. You want a goalie that can play well. There is nothing else you can see or want to see. You want a goalie that can play well.” (from “After losing Merilainen on waivers, Senators acquire Jonas Johansson from Tampa Bay Lightning,” Ottawa Citizen – 25/09/2026).

That kind of messaging is exactly why the Senators haven’t developed a goalie since Ray Emery. Young goalies need patience and time to develop, and regardless of who’s in charge, Ottawa’s management has continuously given up young, promising goalies in favour of consistent veterans. Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord, Robin Lehner, and Ben Bishop were all shipped out in one way or another, and their spots were given to older goalies who didn’t perform nearly as well. Now Merilainen is set to join that list.

Some may argue that Merilainen had enough chances to prove himself worthy, but look at what the Senators did after one weak season. Ersson, who was one of the worst goalies in the NHL last season, was given a two-year, $4.4 million deal, essentially confirming that he would be the backup ahead of Merilainen. The team had lost faith in their young goalie, and now the Canucks will get to benefit from the Senators’ unwillingness to work with their goalie prospects longer than four years. For the sake of the team’s next wave of goalies, let’s hope Ottawa changes its tune soon.