The Ottawa Senators need to be bigger, badder but mostly meaner to see a postseason run next spring. To that end, Senators’ general manager (GM) Pierre Dorion needs to take a page from Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM Brad Treliving and “add more snot” to his roster this summer. Still, that’s easier said than done.
To be sure, bookies looking at the Senators’ depth chart would see youth, talent and potential. They’d probably give decent odds that the team will contend for Lord Stanley’s silverware in the next three or four years. Yet many would warn punters that the current edition of the team is not built for the playoffs.
Too Few Senators Deliver Grit
Coming into the Senators’ barn in Kanata doesn’t often strike fear into the hearts of visitors. They know the club depends too much on their gifted captain Brady Tkachuk to inject physicality into their game.
With 136 penalty minutes to his credit last season, Tkachuk was the third most penalized player in the NHL only outdone by the Minnesota Wild’s Pat Maroon and the Philadelphia Flyers’ Nic Deslauriers – affectionately dubbed a “loveable hockey psychopath” by pundits in the City of Brotherly Love. He also led his team in hits laying 242 of them on opponents standing between him and the puck.
Even so, no Stanley Cup contender can have their captain and number two points-getter slugging it out with other clubs’ tough guys every night. Exposing Tkachuk to injury in tilts with fourth-liners is bad business for the Senators. Even so, it’s not like they can look to many others on their current roster to replace Tkachuk in his role as Mr. Uncongeniality.
Related: Senators Brady Tkachuk Needs To Be Less Physical in 2022-23
Senators’ winger Austin Watson was a close second to Tkachuk in 2022-23 for time spent in the sin bin at 123 minutes. One hour of those minutes was for fighting, putting him third overall in the league for fights (that’s 12 in total for those of you interested in tracking this sort of thuggery). Yet the Senators no longer have his services after he decided to decamp the city that fun forgot to try his luck in free agency.
As disagreeable on the ice as Watson may have been, he was outdone by a large margin in the hits department by Tkachuk, registering 165 of them last season compared to his captain’s 242. In fact, 23-year-old forward Parker Kelly racked up an average of just over three hits per game compared to Watson who registered just over two.
Mark Kastelic adds toughness down the middle registering over 100 penalty minutes last season and rivaling Watson in hits. While Travis Hamonic and Artem Zub, each with over 100 hits last year, add a physical dimension to the Senators’ game, neither they nor Kastelic will be able to handle the NHL’s best scrappers when the gloves come off.
All of this is to say that while there is some nastiness in the Senators’ dressing room, too much of it comes from too few players.
NHL Atlantic Division Arms Race
Being soft in the Atlantic Division in 2023-24 will be costly for Ottawa given the murderers row of skilled and physical players many of their division rivals are assembling. The Atlantic is arguably the most competitive in the NHL. Teams will need more than just talent to compete in it.
To wit, most armchair coaches would grant that the Maple Leafs had great gobs of talent last year. Yet they were eliminated handily in the second round of the playoffs by a much less gifted Florida Panthers team prompting Treliving to say his new team “needs a little bit more snot in its game”. So in early July, he acquired former Detroit Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi, ex-Dallas Star Max Domi, and Wild pugilist Ryan Reaves in free agency. Call snot what you will, but Ottawa needs more of it too.
The Boston Bruins added a nuclear missile to its lineup after free agency opened welcoming back Milan Lucic to Beantown with a one-year $1.5 million contract. He’s sure to finish off what trouble the Bruins’ rat par excellence, Brad Marchand stirs up.
In mid-season last year Montreal acquired 6-foot-4, 238-pound blueliner Arber Xhekaj. The 22-year-old had the moxy to take on Edmonton Oilers’ enforcer Vincent Deharnais last year injuring his shoulder in the effort. Yet he also has talent notching five goals and 13 points in 51 games along with 101 penalty minutes. He’s sure to cause some grief for the Senators in their matchups this year.
Other afflictions the Senators will face this season in the Atlantic Division include the likes of the Red Wings’ Moritz Seider and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Eric Cernak. As for the Panthers, they’ll be offering up Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour. All of these players combine physical play with skill, size and mental toughness.
Dorion Adds Grit to Senators With Zack MacEwan
Dorion knows that he needs more grit in his lineup and can’t rely exclusively on Tkachuk and a few others to provide it. That was behind his move to sign Zack MacEwan as a free agent.The 6-foot-3, 205-pound forward signed a three-year, $2.32 million contract providing him with the league minimum pay of $775,000 per year.
Last season the rugged Prince Edward Island native racked up 10 points in a total of 56 games played with the Los Angeles Kings and Flyers, along with 150 hits and 66 penalty minutes. Among the 20 players in the league with the most fights last season, MacEwan should make opponents think twice before taking liberties with the Senators’ finesse players (from Bruce Garrioch, “Ottawa Senators sign rugged winger Zack MacEwan to three year deal”, Ottawa Sun, 6/7/2023)
MacEwan is a depth player to be sure, but alongside Kastelic and Parker, his arrival means Ottawa could ice a formidable fourth line against opponents playing a physical game. Even so, he aims to bring more than nastiness to the Senators roster this year saying in a recent interview that, “offensive production for me is something that always could be improved, but I think with the opportunity I can surprise people in that aspect.” That will be important since in today’s NHL there isn’t much room for players who bring only physicality to the game. They’d better be packing some skill too.
While MacEwan is a welcome boost to Ottawa’s grit, he only replaces Watson, leaving the team in much the same place they were last season. They may still have to rely on Tkachuk and a few others to furnish a physical dimension to their game.
Senators Have No Easy Way to Add Grit
Some Ottawa fans are floating the idea of acquiring Tom Wilson from the Washington Capitals. There’s no doubt that he would add proverbial snot to the Senators’ roster.
Even so, the idea is one straight out of fantasy hockey. It’s not going to happen. The Caps’ GM Brian MacLellan recently said that the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder is not on the trade block. He isn’t calling teams about Wilson, doesn’t want to trade him, and doesn’t know why rumours saying he does are being spread.
Even if Ottawa wanted him, Wilson would be a tough acquisition for Dorion to pull off. He is in the final year of a six-year, $31 million contract and his cap hit this season is $5.17 million. Ottawa only has about $5 million in cap space left and still needs to sign Shane Pinto. Not only that but there’s a case to be made that Ottawa’s remaining cap space would be better spent on other additions – Vladimir Tarasenko among them.
Related: Senators’ Pinto Contract Should be Similar to Newhook’s with Habs
Washington is sure to want a solid roster player for Wilson and it’s hard to imagine who Dorion would be willing to give up for the aging 29-year old forward. Ottawa is not flush with picks and prospects at this point and even if they were, why would Washington give up a top-six player to take a flyer on them? If Wilson goes anywhere in the final year of his contract it will be as a playoff rental at the trade deadline.
For more grit, Dorion may get lucky to pick up a skater this summer who’s both tough and skilled. However, there just aren’t many of those players on the market at an affordable price. More likely is that the Senators will need to rely on character players emerging from the baby Sens in Belleville and their inventory of one-year league minimum contracts they recently signed. Training camp is where Ottawa fans may get a glimpse of them.
