NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Senators qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in eight years last season and have carried that momentum throughout the offseason.<\/p>\n
Indeed, there are plenty of signs for optimism.<\/p>\n
The Senators (45-30-7) were the first wild card from the Eastern Conference, ending a postseason drought dating to 2017 when they lost Game 7 of the conference final against the Pittsburgh Penguins in double overtime. Ottawa lost its best-of-7 first-round series to the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games last season, but it gave young players like captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a> (25), forward Tim Stutzle<\/a> (23) and ascending franchise defenseman Jake Sanderson<\/a> (23) their inaugural taste of playoff hockey.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you\u2019ve been part of it, you have an even greater hunger to keep doing it,\u201d Tkachuk told NHL.com. \u201cNo, we didn\u2019t get as far as we wanted and that was disappointing. But to be part of it, to learn from it, you can\u2019t get experience like that unless you\u2019ve been through it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were kind of frustrating moments the previous couple of years because we weren\u2019t getting the results we thought we should. And yeah, doubt creeps in, but we knew what we could do and kept believing and the belief paid off. But we haven\u2019t come close to getting where we want to be. We believe we have the potential to accomplish whatever we set out to; now we have to go out and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Creating the template for a new culture in Ottawa are owner Michael Andlauer and Steve Staios, who is entering his third season as general manager. Part of that must be attributed to coach Travis Green, who in his first year on the job helped the Senators tighten up defensively, allowing 47 fewer goals than the previous season (from 281 to 234).<\/p>\n Ottawa hopes to be even stingier this season after acquiring 24-year-old Jordan Spence<\/a> in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings on June 28 for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The defenseman set NHL career highs with 28 points (four goals, 24 assists) last season.<\/p>\n The Senators also added another veteran presence by signing forward Lars Eller<\/a> to a one-year contract July 1. The 36-year-old is a candidate to play on an experienced fourth line between Nick Cousins<\/a>, 32, and David Perron<\/a>, 37.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel like we have a good plan in place for this group, mindful of this group and their growth and their development,\u201d Staios said. \u201cI can’t emphasize that enough, (the young core) are taking hold of it. Managers are there to support.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking additions is strategic to this group. I don’t think that they need so much support around them to continue to grow and develop together.\u201d<\/p>\n In the process, the Senators continue to broaden their reach in Canada\u2019s capital, a continuing mandate preached by Andlauer in an effort to grow the team\u2019s fan base across the Ottawa River in Quebec.<\/p>\n On Aug. 11, the Senators and the National Capital Commission announced they reached an agreement for the purchase and sale of land parcels totaling approximately 11 acres at LeBreton Flats, a package of land a slap shot away from downtown Ottawa and the Canadian federal parliament buildings, and just across the bridge from Gatineau, Quebec. It\u2019s the next phase in plans to build a new entertainment district, including an arena.<\/p>\n The proposed venue would offer much easier accessibility for the public than Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators\u2019 current home which is 15 miles west of the city center.<\/p>\n Add it all up, and the Senators are trending in the right direction in the short- and long-term.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great place to play,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cAnd I think we have a lot of great things ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-82979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}