- Earlier today, Senators head coach D.J. Smith expressed optimism that defenseman Artem Zub would be back tonight against Toronto, he wound up being scratched for the seventh straight game, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). It’s the seventh straight game he has missed with a concussion. With Ottawa also missing Thomas Chabot and Erik Brannstrom at the moment, getting Zub back will be a critical addition but they’ll have to wait a little longer for that to happen.
Senators Rumors
Jiří Smejkal Linked To SHL Move
- Ottawa Senators offseason signing Jiří Smejkal has been linked to a move back overseas, where he would play for IK Oskarshamn of the SHL. The report originates from TSN’s Shawn Simpson, who wrote that Smejkal “didn’t come over to play in the minors.” Smejkal, 27, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators that carries an $82.5k AHL salary. There was some hope that Smejkal could make the NHL roster after scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 49 SHL games last season, but he only registered one point in five preseason games. The hope was that Smejkal’s size and ability to play physical could lend himself to a fourth-line role, but that hasn’t happened as he’s played exclusively at AHL Belleville. If Smejkal doesn’t view there to be a viable path to the NHL with Ottawa then it appears he could very well return to Oskarshamn, where he would not only be better lined up to represent Czecha at the IIHF World Championships, but could also potentially take home more money.
Artem Zub To Return Wednesday Against Maple Leafs
- Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith expects defenseman Artem Zub to return to the lineup Wednesday against Toronto after a six-game absence, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia relays. Zub, 28, sustained a concussion in the team’s October 18 win over the Washington Capitals. The shutdown defender projects to return to the lineup in a top-pairing role alongside Jake Sanderson, considerably boosting the depth of a defense now missing Erik Brännström and Thomas Chabot due to injuries. Zub had one goal, two assists, and a +3 rating through four games this season before sustaining the concussion.
Ankle Sprain For Mark Kastelic
- Senators center Mark Kastelic is dealing with an ankle sprain, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). Yesterday, head coach D.J. Smith suggested that the 24-year-old would miss a few games but now stated that Kastelic “won’t play any time soon”. Kastelic was placed on IR yesterday, meaning he’ll be out for at least a week. He has been held off the scoresheet in his first nine games this season.
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Ottawa Senators Recall Roby Järventie, Zack MacEwen
The Ottawa Senators have added two players to their NHL roster, forwards Roby Järventie and Zack MacEwen. These recalls give the Senators a full roster of 23 players, while increasing their number of rostered forwards from 11 to 13.
While both players are wingers and bring decent size to the Senators, that’s about where the similarities between the two end. Järventie is a 21-year-old prospect who was the 33rd overall pick at the 2020 draft. Järventie played a season in Liiga after he was drafted and then one in the AHL before he authored a breakout AHL campaign last season.
The Tampere native scored 16 goals and 30 points in 40 games last season, which is a 54-point pace across a full 72-game AHL season. Although Belleville struggled as a whole last year, Järventie made significant strides in his play and began to show more of an ability to leverage his size and strength to survive the immense physicality of the North American game.
Now recalled to Ottawa, Järventie has a chance to make his NHL debut for head coach D.J. Smith’s side. The Senators don’t appear to have any vacancies in their top nine, although Järventie could fill in on the fourth line due to Mark Kastelic’s injury.
As for MacEwen, the 27-year-old is a more familiar face for NHL fans, as he’s played nearly 200 career games in the league. Owner of a contract lasting through 2025-26, MacEwen is a true grinder, a six-foot-four, 240-pound wrecking ball capable of dealing some serious hurt to the opposition while also racking up quite a few penalty minutes in the process.
MacEwen appears the more conventional choice to take the fourth-line winger role vacated with Kastelic out, although it’s likely that Järventie offers more offensive upside in the role.
Artem Zub Experiences Setback In Concussion Recovery
- Ottawa Senators defenseman, Artem Zub, has missed the team’s last five games due to a concussion and is unfortunately set to miss more time. TSN1200 reports that Zub has experienced some form of a setback in his recovery, and will miss the next couple of games for the team. In his absence, Ottawa has a 1-4-0 record, falling to last place in the Atlantic Division, and second-to-last place in the entire Eastern Conference.
- Back to Ottawa, the team has received some positive news, as they shared that defenseman, Erik Brannstrom, has returned to practice after missing the last two games. As one of the main pieces coming over from the Vegas Golden Knights that sent Mark Stone the other way, Brannstrom has yet to score this season in only seven games played.
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Senators' Greig And Kastelic To Miss A Few Games
The Toronto Maple Leafs have tweeted that defenseman Timothy Liljegren has left tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins and won’t be returning. It is the second time in less than a week that the 24-year-old has had to leave a game with an injury as he was forced to exit a game last week against the Nashville Predators with what was described as an upper body injury.
Liljegren’s injury tonight is being called a lower body injury, but it appears likely it is something in his foot or ankle. The injury happened in the dying moments of the first period as Liljegren and forward Brad Marchand of the Bruins were skating towards the corner and engaging in a puck battle. Marchand appears to give Liljegren the can opener before the Maple Leafs defenseman goes awkwardly into the boards. The move from Marchand was essentially a trip as he appeared to put his stick between Liljegren’s legs and force him to the ice. Liljegren’s skates then smashed into the end boards, likely causing his injury.
In other injury notes:
- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet is reporting that New York Rangers forward Filip Chytil is done for tonight’s game after colliding with Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast in the first period of the matchup this evening. Chytil left with what is being described as an upper-body injury and was last seen on the Rangers bench in obvious pain before leaving the game. The 24-year-old center has six assists in nine games this season and has been working primarily as the team’s second-line center. Should he be out for any period it is likely that Vincent Trocheck was moved up to the second line in his absence.
- The Ottawa Senators have tweeted that young forward Ridly Greig left tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury and did not return. The news was similar for Greig’s teammate Mark Kastelic who also suffered a lower-body injury and was unable to get back onto the ice. Senators coach D.J. Smith offered an update on both players that was covered by Murray Pam of Full Press Hockey. Smith said that he figures both Greig and Kastelic will miss a few games due to their ailments. Greig has been filling in admirably for the suspended Shane Pinto and has registered two goals and five assists in eight games while Kastelic has no points and 21 PIM in eight games this year. Given the Senators’ predicament, it does seem likely that the team will have to recall some players from the Belleville Senators of the AHL.
Morning Notes: Pysyk, Clifton, Zub
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL have signed defenseman Mark Pysyk to a professional try-out. Pysyk is a 521-game veteran of the NHL, most recently playing for the Buffalo Sabres in the 2021-22 season.
Pysyk scored 12 points in the 68 games he was awarded in 2021-22, six points shy of his career-high in scoring. He set that career-high with the 2019-20 Florida Panthers, reaching 18 points in 58 games. It speaks to the modest career that Pysyk had, with much of his value being provided on the defensive side of the puck. How Pysyk will be utilized on his newly-signed PTO is up in the air but if he plays AHL games, it will be his first experience in the league since 2015-16. It will also be his first time playing with a minor league club other than the Rochester Americans, whom Pysyk totaled 145 games with throughout the early stages of his career.
Other notes from around the league:
- Buffalo’s Connor Clifton is set to return from the two-game suspension that he was levied for a high hit on Nico Hischier. Hischier remains out with an upper-body injury as a result of the hit, with it being announced yesterday that he is likely to miss at least four games.
- Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub will not suit up for the team’s Thursday night game against the Los Angeles Kings. Zub has been battling a head injury for much of the early season, with a concussion holding the defender out now. Ottawa is also facing injuries to Thomas Chabot and Erik Brännström. Rookie defender Nikolas Matinpalo is operating as the Senators’ seventh defenseman and will likely slot into Zub’s place.
Ottawa Senators Fire General Manager Pierre Dorion
The Ottawa Senators have relieved general manager Pierre Dorion of his duties. The announcement was made on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after it was announced that the team would lose a First Round pick for their mishandling of Evegnii Dadonov’s trade away from the club.
This was the last straw for Ottawa, says Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, as the club has faced a string of bad news and scandals to start the season. Only last week it was announced that Shane Pinto would face a 41-game suspension for going against the NHL’s betting policy. This comes after a laborious contract negotiation with the restricted free agent that carried into the regular season.
Ottawa is off to a fine enough start to the season, despite the off-ice theatrics, with a 4-4-0 record through their first eight games and the seventh-most goals in the NHL. They’re being championed, once again, by the powerful duo of Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk – the former leading the team in assists (8) and the latter leading them in goals (6). The two have spent 123 minutes of ice time together and have been on the ice for 12 of Ottawa’s 32 goals so far this season. Their even-strength line is rounded out by Claude Giroux, who has nine points of his own through the team’s eight games.
Dorion was also the man to bring in free agent Vladimir Tarasenko, whose brought a defiant punch to the team’s second line, with three goals and nine points. With Dorion now out of the picture, all attention turns towards who the Senators may entertain as his replacement. New team owner Michael Andlauer announced that Dorion has stepped down and Steve Staios will take over general managing duties in the interim at a press conference on Wednesday.
Ottawa Senators To Forfeit First-Round Pick
The NHL has announced that the Ottawa Senators will forfeit a first-round draft pick for their role in the July 2021 trade of Evgenii Dadonov from the Senators to the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent, invalidated March 2022 Dadonov trade between the Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks.
According to the league’s announcement, the Senators will have 24 hours after the conclusion of the NHL Draft lottery to determine if they will surrender their first-round pick in that given year, and they will be able to choose between giving up a pick in either the 2024, 2025, or 2026 drafts.
The Vegas Golden Knights issued a statement regarding the Senators’ punishment, stating:
We appreciate the league’s diligence on this matter and respect the decision. The club will have no further comment.
This issue originates from 2021, when the Golden Knights acquired Dadonov from Ottawa. No official statement regarding how exactly the Senators mishandled that trade has been released, but The Athletic’s Jesse Granger writes on X that the issue relates to the Senators’ handling of the no-trade list in Dadonov’s contract. 
While the league did not elaborate on any specifics as to what the Senators did that merited such a punishment, the fact that a first-round pick has been docked sends a signal that the league deemed serious punishment in order for the Senators.
Per the league’s statement, the NHL nor any of the involved clubs will comment further on this matter, meaning no official explanation of the reasons for this punishment will come.
Thankfully, reporting from Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch sheds some light on the situation. Garrioch reported that today’s punishment has come “as a result of general manager Pierre Dorion giving the Knights the wrong information about the existence of Dadonov’s 10-team ‘no move’ clause.”
The Golden Knights, seemingly believing that Dadonov did not possess no-trade protection, attempted to trade the player to the Anaheim Ducks in a move that was eventually vetoed by the league.
Garrioch added: “The Knights were under the impression that Dadonov hadn’t entered a 10-team no-trade list before the 2021-22 campaign so he no longer had one.”
This appears to have been an issue for Golden Knights management, as Garrioch cites a source who said: “Vegas president of hockey operations George McPhee and GM Kelly McCrimmon refused to let this matter go and appealed to the NHL’s head office to look into it,” a move that resulted in today’s punishment.
Garrioch also laid out the Senators’ argument in defense of their actions, stating that at the time of the trade, the Senators “argued that Vegas had the contract on its books for eight months” and had not looked “at the details” of the contract. While it’s true that the Golden Knights had employed Dadonov for quite a bit of time before the trade, it seems this argument was not sufficient to stave off punishment from the league.
This reported chain of events has not been officially confirmed, and the league’s statement today makes clear that no official confirmation is set to come. But regardless of what exactly happened in Ottawa to merit this kind of punishment, the reality the Senators now face is that they have lost a key asset for their future.
Their right to choose which draft pick they surrender does offer them some crucial flexibility in the matter, especially if the team misses the playoffs this season and ends up in the draft lottery. Just a few years after the Senators had to watch the Colorado Avalanche draft Bowen Byram fourth-overall with a draft pick that once belonged to them, the Senators will not want a repeat of that situation.
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