Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle is brushing off a chirp from Florida Panthers veteran Brad Marchand as remains under consideration for the team’s captaincy.
Marchand replied to an Instagram post last week that noted that Stutzle, Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot were believed to the three finalists to fill the vacant captaincy role.
“Hahahah ….. stutzle…. hahaha,” Marchand commented.
The 24-year-old centre quickly shut down any talk about the shot from Marchand while speaking to reporters at the team’s annual golf tournament Tuesday.
“I don’t care about his opinion,” Stutzle said.
Senators forward Drake Batherson spent his off-season training with Marchand and said he reached out to both parties after the comment went viral.
“I texted him saying, ‘Marchy what are you doing?’” Batherson said with a laugh. “I told Timmy it’s all good. He’s been doing that for 20 years, that’s just Marchy being Marchy.”
The Senators have yet to name their new captain as the team looks to replace Brady Tkachuk, who was traded to Marchand’s Panthers in June after quietly requesting a trade.
Tkachuk’s departure spent shockwaves through the NHL, not to mention the Senators locker room as the trade kicked off the off-season.
“Pretty surprised,” Stutzle said. “At the end it’s his decision. I said before we’re moving on.”
“If you play with a guy for that many years - a good friend to everyone on the team. You can’t worry about that. You gotta keep playing. I’m excited for next season.”
Chabot admitted that he felt slighted by Tkachuk’s trade request, which came after Ottawa reached the playoffs for a second straight season.
“We always do. You want guys to be here,” Chabot said. “You want guys to want to be part of this team and city. When you see something like that - I’d be lying to say I was happy when he decided to leave….we felt like we’re on the verge of starting to make playoffs and building something.”
On the captaincy, Stutzle said the franchise has several good options to choose from, while Chabot opened up on what it would mean to him.
“It would be a huge honour,” Chabot said. “...The way people bring it up to me around town - it’s a huge honour to see that people recognize it quite a lot more than I thought but I don’t control that.”
The Senators open their preseason on Sept. 21 against the Montreal Canadiens before kicking off their regular season with a matchup against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 3.
General manager Steve Staios said there is no timeline in place for naming a captain as puck drop looms.
“I don’t think that’s anything we want to rush into….when I look at our group and the potential players that could be our next captain here it just comes naturally to all these players that we’re talking about,” Staios said.
