Anton Forsberg Nearing Return

The Senators could get some help between the pipes when they play their first game after their bye week next Saturday.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Anton Forsberg is on track in his recovery from a groin injury and might be ready to be activated off LTIR for that game against Toronto.

The 31-year-old is in the second season of a three-year, $8.25MM contract that he signed back in 2022 while in the middle of his best year at the NHL level.  However, since then, Forsberg hasn’t played anywhere near as well and has struggled to the tune of a 3.35 GAA and a .889 SV% in 16 appearances so far this season.  That said, those numbers are better than what Mads Sogaard was able to do in his stint as Forsberg’s replacement so his return will still be an upgrade.

However, Forsberg returning to the lineup will once again bring Ottawa’s cap crunch to the forefront.  Per CapFriendly, the Sens are currently using $1.55MM of LTIR; that amount will need to come off their books before they can bring the netminder back onto the active roster.  That means that two players will need to be cleared off.

One of them is fairly straightforward as Kevin Mandolese, currently the second option on the depth chart after being recalled following Wednesday’s game, can go back to AHL Belleville.  That will clear $775K of that amount, leaving another $775K to come.

That one will be a little trickier to open up.  Ottawa has just two waiver-exempt players, defenseman Jake Sanderson and center Ridly Greig.  Both play key roles for the Senators so it’s safe to say that they won’t be going down.

Winger Zack MacEwen and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker both cleared waivers earlier this season but neither would be a lock to clear again.  MacEwen’s on a three-year deal but at the minimum salary, a team looking for extra grit could easily put in a claim.  Meanwhile, Bernard-Docker has been a regular on the third pairing most nights and as a young right-shot blueliner now with some NHL time under his belt, there’s likely a rebuilding team or two that would claim him now.  Either of them coming off the books would barely squeak them under the cap line, leaving no wiggle room for recalls if needed.

If GM Steve Staios doesn’t want to risk one of those two and doesn’t have a trade on the horizon, one other option might be to waive Dominik Kubalik.  The winger is believed to have been available for a couple of months now with no takers.  With a $2.5MM cap charge, he might pass through unclaimed and while that full amount wouldn’t come off their books, they’d open up $1.15MM in room, creating enough space to activate Forsberg.  It might not be the most desirable option but that could be a short-term fix.

With Ottawa being one of the few teams to play leading up to the All-Star break, Staios still has the better part of a week to determine how to make the money work.  But after being able to delay dealing with this cap crunch which was lingering back in training for more than half the season, it appears the time has come to deal with it.