With a surprising 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators recently, the Ottawa Senators seemed to have sorted out their scoring issues that were plaguing them at the beginning of the month. Tim Stutzle is on a five-game point streak, Ridly Greig finally broke his 12-game goalless streak and now has three goals in his last four games, and Jake Sanderson has taken over as the Senators’ top offensive defenceman with three goals and nine points in five games. Ottawa now sits third in the Atlantic Division, and while there are a few areas that could use some tweaking, the wins just keep piling up.
However, with the 2025 Trade Deadline fast approaching, the Senators may have an opportunity to address one of their weaknesses, namely their lack of a top-six scoring forward. The Vancouver Canucks have been dealing with the public fallout between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, and while it was all but guaranteed that one of them would be traded, it’s possible they may decide to move on from both. With Miller already gone, the Senators should look into acquiring Pettersson as he would make Ottawa’s top six much more formidable, and potentially, a playoff threat.
Canucks Are Willing to Move Pettersson
After the public row between the Canucks two biggest forward stars, it was a matter of time before the team moved one of them. That seemingly ended when Vancouver traded the latter to the New York Rangers along with Erik Brannstrom for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a protected 2025 first-round pick. However, it was admittedly an underwhelming return for a player who put up 103 points last season; Chytil is a solid middle-six centre with injury concerns, Mancini is talented but unproven, and the first-round pick is top-13 protected; the Canucks already flipped that to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a package for Marcus Pettersson.
That’s not a lot for a team that should be in its Stanley Cup window. Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek give the Canucks one of the better defensive pairings in the NHL, and both Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser are in the primes of their careers. But, on top of losing goalie Thatcher Demko to constant injuries, Pettersson’s production has plummeted since signing his eight-year, $92.8 million deal last season. After scoring 39 goals and recording 102 points in 2022-23, he is only on pace to hit 18 goals and 54 points this season and fans will be watching him like a hawk now that Miller can no longer be used as the scapegoat for his subpar play.
There were potential trades in the works for Pettersson earlier, too. According to Chris Johnston, “The Canucks may prefer to move Miller, the older of their two star forwards, but they’ve kept an open mind (and open phone line) when it comes to Pettersson. They went well down the road in talks with Carolina before the Hurricanes landed Mikko Rantanen.” (from ‘NHL trade board 5.0: Where the market stands after the Rantanen blockbuster,’ The Athletic – 31/01/2025).
Even with all the drama, the Canucks are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to competing in the Western Conference without Miller, and the addition of Chytil doesn’t change that. Unless Pettersson somehow becomes the All-Star he was two seasons ago, he may also be on the way out so Vancouver can recoup some more valuable assets and retool on the fly.
Senators Could Make a Competitive Offer
While the Senators are one of the more asset-poor teams in the NHL, they may have just enough pieces to entice the Canucks to move their star forward. Normally, players like Pettersson don’t get traded, but less than two weeks ago, Mikko Rantanen was traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Hurricanes for Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick. Carolina also added Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks, who agreed to retain 50% of Rantanen’s salary.
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While there were salary concerns between Rantanen and the Avalanche, it seemed possible that the two sides could reach an agreement before the season ended. After all, he’s a two-time 100-point player and scored 55 goals in 2022-23. Most teams would do anything to keep a player like that, and with the salary cap expected to increase significantly over the next three seasons, you’d think the Avalanche could make it work. Alas, they decided to move on from him for Necas, who’s never hit over 71 points in a season (although he’s on pace to get 89 this season), and Drury, who is an intriguing depth forward with upside.
So, given Pettersson is just a one-time 100-point player, has a career-high of 39 goals, and makes an average of $11.6 million per season, the return would have to be less than Carolina gave up and Ottawa can definitely accommodate that.
Any trade Ottawa makes will have to include Josh Norris. The 25-year-old has been excellent lately, scoring two goals and four points in his last two games, putting him on pace to score 30 goals for the second time in his career. However, he’s also on pace to record just 49 points and injuries are still a concern; he’s projected to miss a couple of weeks following his most recent ailment. Given his nearly $8 million cap hit, that’s someone who could be moved for an upgrade at centre.
Of course, Norris alone wouldn’t cut it and the Senators would need to sweeten the deal, which will likely cost them prospect Carter Yakemchuk. He’s a highly-skilled scorer who projects to be a top-pairing defenceman, and given his right shot, he has a much higher value. However, Vancouver may not be interested after acquiring Mancini, another highly-skilled right-shot defenceman, and they already have Tom Willander in their system.
Instead, the Canucks may want Blake Montgomery, who has broken out in his first season with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights and could be a potential top-six producer in the NHL. The only caveat is that the Senators would likely have to pay a first-round pick along with Montgomery, but if they make the playoffs, that’s manageable. Those three assets are pretty close to what the Avalanche received for Rantanen, and without salary retention, it’s a fair offer both sides.
Cup Winning Teams Have Multiple Stars
There is no rush for the Senators to make a move. They are winning despite the lack of a scoring winger to help drive the play but won’t have that luxury for long. The Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings aren’t far from being competitive and they are drawing from much deeper prospect pools. The Hockey Writers’ Logan Horn placed the Red Wings fifth and the Canadiens third among the NHL’s farm systems, whereas Ottawa sat way back at 24th. Without additional support coming up, the Senators are on track to be surpassed by their closest competitors in the next few seasons.
Additionally, to win the Stanley Cup, teams need to rely on more than just a couple of stars. The Florida Panthers had Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, and Matthew Tkachuk scoring over a point per game with Carter Verhaeghe just behind them, and once they were in the playoffs, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues, and Sam Bennett stepped up their offensive games. That’s just looking at points, too, which ignores the impact of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad, and other defensive stars.
Before them, the Vegas Golden Knights saw Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, and Mark Stone score at a point-per-game clip in the playoffs with support from Chandler Stephenson, Ivan Barbashev, and Alex Pietrangelo. Although they weren’t the most offensive team in the regular season, they had a lot of talent on their roster that helped them score in droves once the Stanley Cup was within their sights.
Then there was the 2021-22 Avalanche. Not only did they have two of the best players at their position in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar but they were supported by Gabriel Landeskog, Rantanen, and Nazem Kadri, all of whom operated at more than a point-per-game clip in the regular season. They also saw fantastic performances from Devon Toews and Valeri Nichushkin, and once in the playoffs, Artturi Lehkonen became one of their best producers.
Te Senators’ current lineup can’t compare to any of those teams. They have a decent assortment of secondary scorers such as Drake Batherson, but outside of their four core members, they just don’t have the firepower to thrive in today’s NHL. They’re not far, but they’ll need to find at least one more top six forward like Pettersson who can push them into the same realm as other Stanley Cup champions and, hopefully, help them win one of their own.
