With opening night rosters due tomorrow at 5:00 pm EST, the Ottawa Senators have sent multiple players down to the AHL, retaining a 29-man roster of 16 forwards, 11 defencemen, and 2 goalies.<\/p>\n
Senators cut their roster down to 29 players.<\/p>\n
Notably: Carter Yakemchuk, Hoyt Stanley, Blake Montgomery, Jorian Donovan and Ben Hutton remain with the team. pic.twitter.com\/8CJlRiOw15<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Alex Adams (@alexadamsBTP_) September 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n With Artem Zub, Warren Foegele, Kurtis MacDermid, and Jorian Donovan likely on IR to start the year, along with Ridly Greig’s suspension, the forward corps appears to have been finalized with Hayden Hodgson making the team, at least initially. Carter Yakemchuk, Hoyt Stanley, Ben Hutton and Cameron Crotty all remain with the big club as well, so expect another big decision to be made by tomorrow.<\/p>\n Celebrini and Pastrnak Take the Lead<\/p>\n The two newest captains in the NHL may vary significantly in experience, but both carry their respective teams, arguably more than anyone else in the league. On Friday, the San Jose Sharks named Macklin Celebrini their 11th captain in franchise history at 20 years of age. The first-overall pick in 2024 finished 4th in scoring with 115 points, and is set to become the NHL’s highest-paid forward next season after signing a five-year extension worth $18.8 million annually.<\/p>\n Yesterday, the Boston Bruins followed suit, naming David Pastrnak, the 8th-leading scorer in the league last season, their 28th captain.<\/p>\n With these two announcements, the Senators remain as one of four teams (Vancouver, Columbus, and Detroit) without a captain. Considering they did better last season without a captain in the lineup as opposed to with one, I don’t think they’re in any rush to make a decision on that front. <\/p>\n Links, News, and Notes:The Sens don’t always draft quality prospects, but when they do, you can exepect them to run into some horrible injury luck. Adam Nemec was injured in the 4-2 loss to Montreal on Saturday after taking a hit on the boards from Florian Xhekaj. Nemec, a third-round pick from the 2026 draft, was set to lead the Sudbury Wolves in scoring this season, but this unfortunate injury will potentially set him back for weeks, maybe even months. No further update has been provided as of now.Kasper Halttunen’s trademark weapon is his shot, but the former Sharks prospect has spent the offseason rounding out his game \u2013 see this piece<\/a> on the Sens’ official site.Thomas Chabot became a girl dad on Thursday<\/a>, with his wife, Marion, and his newborn, both in good health.Standings projections are being released around the world wide web, and those who value some kind of expected goals model are pretty high on the Senators. Evolving Hockey has their playoff odds at above 85%, while MoneyPuck has them at around 62%, ranking Ottawa 2nd and 3rd in the Atlantic, respectively, with Tampa unsurprisingly being the universal favourite.<\/p>\n THE NHL SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!<\/p>\n Our Team Projections for the ’26-27 season are now updated. Like every year, we wrote some stuff about it and also made some handy tables to set expectations. As always, have fun but be safe. <\/p>\n Projections: https:\/\/t.co\/K27bX9N6L9<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/NIvtVKrtp7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Evolving-Hockey (@EvolvingHockey) September 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Hockey is back! https:\/\/t.co\/RbnckCLHNP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1eSRMmDw6d<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) September 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n