The Ottawa Senators have been fairly quiet this season, and with the changing landscape of the standings, they have gone from being in the top three of the Atlantic Division to second last in the Eastern Conference in a matter of a couple of days.
Just as fast as they fell, they can rise again and have the team to do so. With Brady Tkachuk, the team still isn’t at full health because Shane Pinto and Thomas Chabot are currently injured, but are looking for some upgrades to really deepen their team.
According to Pierre LeBrun, “I would also downplay the narrative that’s out there that Ottawa is ready to take a big swing. It’s probably more about trying to hit more singles.”
The Senators have spread out their scoring a little bit with Tim Stutzle playing with Fabian Zetterlund and Nick Cousins, Tkachuk playing with Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson, and Claude Giroux playing with Ridly Greig and Michael Amadio.
In terms of who could be upgraded if there were some middle-of-the-pack players out there to target, Cousins has four goals and seven points, Lars Eller has two goals and six points, Greig has two goals and eight points, Amadio has six goals and 11 points, and Zetterlund has six goals and 10 points.
Olle Lycksell and Curtis MacDermid, both healthy scratches and with one combined goal in 15 games, are both expendable as well and can be sent to the minors if better depth is brought in. Ottawa has $3.3 million in cap space, but the defense also needs to be examined as the Senators wouldn’t only look to upgrade on offense.
Chabot is out, but Tyler Kleven, Nikolas Matinpalo, and Nick Jensen are all averaging under 17:30 per game and not contributing very much overall. At the very least, one is going to come out of the lineup when Chabot returns, but the Senators could do with bringing in another upgrade for one of them as well.
