As the Ottawa Senators go into the 2026-27 campaign looking to improve on last year’s first-round playoff sweep at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, general manager Steve Staios says he is comfortable with his team.
“We feel good about the work that we’ve done,” Staios said of the off-season on TSN 1200 Wednesday morning.
Outside of dealing captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers and acquiring William Eklund in a package from the San Jose Sharks, the Senators have not made significant additions to the roster so far this off-season.
They acquired veteran winger Andre Burakovsky in a minor deal with the Chicago Blackhawks while forwards Claude Giroux and Nick Cousins as well as defenceman Jordan Spence re-signed with the team.
The Senators had 11 players on last year’s roster reach double digits in goals with Tkachuk (22 goals) the only major departure from that group. Staios said that he isn’t against making further additions in the goal-scoring department.
“We were eighth in goals for in the NHL last year,” said Staios. “Do we have a pure sniper? ... We’d love to add that.”
Ottawa currently has just over $5 million in cap space with most of their core signed long term, with the exception of forward Drake Batherson and defenceman Artem Zub, who are unrestricted free agents next summer. Staios said “there has been discussions” with the duo on extensions.
The Senators are also banking on Eklund being a big piece for the team going forward after flipping the ninth-overall pick in the draft they got from the Panthers in the Tkachuk deal to the Sharks to secure Eklund.
The 23-year-old, who was the seventh-overall pick in 2021, scored 15 goals with 53 points in 78 games last season for San Jose.
Staios says that Eklund is more of a playmaker and hopes he will complement the team’s top shooters like Tim Stutzle (34 goals), Batherson (33) and Dylan Cozens (28).
He also believes that players like forwards Fabian Zetterlund (17 goals and 33 points in 82 games) and Warren Foegele (six goals and eight points in 21 games) have the capability of playing bigger roles.
Zetterlund averaged 12:55 of ice time last season while Foegele was a trade-deadline addition in March.
“We feel like we have internally the ability for players to move up our roster,” said Staios.
