There’s No Shortage of Offseason Storylines For The Ottawa Senators

The offseason starts for the Ottawa Senators shortly after 9:30 pm ET Tuesday in New York City.

While significant change within the organization off and on the ice likely won’t occur immediately. General Manager Steve Staios, Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations Dave Poulin and Assistant GM Ryan Bowness’ plates are full.

With interim head coach Jacques Martin’s tenure concluding, an extensive search to replace him will leave no stone unturned. And what will become of current assistant Daniel Alfredsson and associate coach Jack Capuano? This question should be answered soon, as Capuano’s contract is due to expire.

Staios previously stated Martin will assist the Senators’ management in selecting their next head coach, and one can assume the 71-year-old continues to work in some capacity with the club, as does Alfredsson, who has caught the coaching bug after working with young players daily.

Players will come and go. Forwards Rourke Chartier, Matthew Highmore, Boko Imama, Dominik Kubalik, and Jiri Smejkal are unrestricted free agents. However, it would be wise to keep Chartier in the fold if the team could sign a two-way contract with the hard-working centre.

Among current American League, Belleville Senators with expiring contracts are forward Josh Currie, defensive back Dillon Heatherington, and forward Jacob Larsson.

Several players are due qualifying offers for the Ottawa Senators to retain negotiating rights. It’s not expected that all players will receive offers, thus making untendered players UFAs.

Pending restricted free agent centre Shane Pinto leads the way. While he’s tailed off offensively in recent games (one assist in eight games), Pinto is still getting his scoring opportunities, playing alongside Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson. The 22-year-old remains a defensive presence. As a heady two-way player, Pinto’s 26 points ( eight goals, 18 assists) translate to 56 points over 82 games.

The question remains: Will the Senators sign Pinto to a long-term deal now, or will he ink a one—to two-year bridge contract in the hope of a bigger payday down the road?

Another interesting decision needs to be made on blueliner Erik Brannstrom. The much-improved 24-year-old requires a qualifying offer of $2 million. The Ottawa Senators are currently slated to possess $12.8M of cap space at this season’s end.

Where Brannstrom fits in the organization’s plan for 2024-25 is an unknown, as one of the team’s pressing needs is to procure a top-four right-shot defenseman.

Other players requiring qualifying offers include forwards Angus Crookshank, Boris Katchouk, and Parker Kelly, plus netminder Mads Sogaard and promising d-man Max Guenette. Guenette requires waivers next season, which could keep him on the roster with the big club next season.

Goalie Kevin Mandolese, d-men Nik Mantinpalo and Lassi Thomson, who’s been the subject of rumours of returning to his native Europe, and forwards Wyatt Bongiovanni, Garret Pilon, Jamieson Rees, Cole Reinhardt, and Egor Sokolov are all pending RFAs playing on the “BSens.”

Seems likely Senators’ fans will have seen the last of the affable Sokolov.

In addition, Staios and Poulin are each on record as expressing their team’s desire to acquire a veteran or two to assist Claude Giroux and surround the Senators’ young core.

How they accomplish this will be intriguing.

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With a glut on the left side of the Senators’ blue line comprised of Sanderson, Chabot, and Chychrun, are there enough minutes to share among the three D?

Defenseman Jakob Chychrun is drawing attention heading into the 2024-25 campaign, the last year of his $4.6M deal. It’s believed teams kicked tires on the offensive rearguard at the trade deadline.

Thomas Chabot‘s 10-team no-trade list kicks in this summer, and he’s due to earn $10M USD in actual salary the following three seasons out of the four left on his contract.

It may come down to either Chabot or Chychrun being on the move.

If Staios can sign Chychrun to a hometown-friendly contract extension, can he find a way to keep both Chabot/Chychrun?

There’s little doubt the team needs to add a physical presence to its d-core. Is Tyler Kleven the answer? Does the Fargo, ND resident require more time in Belleville? Kleven, too, is a left-shot, making competition for a spot on the back end that much more challenging.

Goaltending is another area which will be heavily studied. Neither Anton Forsberg nor Joonas Korpisalo had banner years. Both had their moments when they shut down the opposition. However, on the whole, the duo ranked at the bottom or near the bottom league-wide all season in even-strength save percentage.

Forsberg is heading into the final year of his deal, which has a $2.7M cap hit, with Mads Sogaard waiting in the wings. As Sogaard isn’t yet waiver eligible, does the team seek another backstop or remain status quo in the crease?

The organization recently parted ways with long-time professional scouts Jim Clark and Rob Murphy. These spots and possibly others within the Senators’ pro and amateur scouting staff will likely change during the first offseason under Staios and Poulin’s reign.

There will be no shortage of news about the Ottawa Senators during a long offseason, and there is plenty of work to be done.