Atlantic Notes: Tkachuk, Gadjovich, Johnson, Liljegren
The Ottawa Senators have announced that team captain Brady Tkachuk will miss the team’s Saturday night game with an upper-body injury. This announcement came just over 20 minutes before game time. The nature of the injury isn’t clear, though Tkachuk did leave the team’s Friday night game early after colliding with Arizona Coyotes forward Liam O’Brien early in the third period. He managed roughly 19 minutes of ice time, six hits, and a +2 before exiting.
Tkachuk has been a major contributor this season, leading the team in goals with 26 and ranked third in points with 50. He’s also recorded 104 penalty minutes on the year – one of just three NHL players to cross the century mark in penalty minutes, with O’Brien leading the league in that category. Ottawa is not currently carrying an extra forward, likely meaning they’ll play Saturday down a player – which would make them eligible for an emergency call-up after the game. Rourke Chartier has served as the team’s de facto recall this season, playing in 34 NHL games and scoring three points, though he’s one of five different Belleville Senators forwards to play with Ottawa this season.
Other notes around the Division:
- Florida Panthers forward Jonah Gadjovich is expected to return when the team visits the New York Rangers on Monday, per the team’s Senior Digital Content Manager Jameson Olive. Olive describes Gadjovich’s injury as “minor”. Gadjovich also sat out of Florida’s Thursday night win over the Montreal Canadiens. He’s recorded four points, split evenly, and 90 penalty minutes in 31 games this season.
- Buffalo Sabres defenseman Erik Johnson will continue to sit out of the lineup with illness, per Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News. Johnson also missed Buffalo’s Thursday night game, after being a surprise absentee from the team’s practice. He’s appeared in 50 games this season, with three goals marking his only scoring. Johnson is in the 16th season of his career, totaling 970 games and 340 points in the league.
- Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren will be a game-time decision on Saturday, per TSN’s Mark Masters. The 24-year-old defenseman took part in the team’s practice on Saturday, making progress from an undisclosed injury that’s held him out of the team’s last two games. He has 16 points in 40 games this season.
Senators Recall Max Guenette And Leevi Merilainen
The Senators have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against Philadelphia, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Max Guenette and goaltender Leevi Merilainen from AHL Belleville.
Guenette’s recall is a bit of a surprise since the Sens had all six of their defensemen get through last night’s game without an issue so it appears Guenette is up for injury insurance purposes with Travis Hamonic listed as out week-to-week. The 22-year-old has made one appearance in Ottawa this season and has spent most of the season in Belleville where he has 29 points in 48 games.
As for Merilainen, it also might seem a bit surprising that a second goalie was recalled. Joonas Korpisalo was a late scratch on Friday due to illness, resulting in the Sens not dressing a backup goalie until Mads Sogaard arrived. But with Anton Forsberg being banged up last night and not traveling with the team, another netminder was needed. Merilainen has split the season between two minor leagues, putting up a .904 SV% in 16 AHL games and a .926 mark in 13 ECHL appearances.
With the two promotions, Ottawa’s roster is now at the maximum of 23 players. Meanwhile, cap space isn’t an issue for them in the short term following Friday’s placement of Josh Norris on LTIR so they can afford to carry a full-sized roster, a luxury they haven’t had for most of the season.
Senators Recall Zack MacEwen, Move Josh Norris To LTIR
10:03 a.m.: Norris has been placed on LTIR, per CapFriendly. The Senators are now cap-compliant.
9:21 a.m.: The Senators recalled right-winger Zack MacEwen from AHL Belleville on Friday, per a team statement. The 27-year-old enforcer had been on a minor-league assignment since clearing waivers over two weeks ago.
Ottawa doesn’t have cap space for any recalls, so a corresponding transaction must be made to accommodate MacEwen. That will likely be moving center Josh Norris, who’s expected to miss “extended time” with an upper-body injury, to long-term injured reserve.
Moving Norris to LTIR rules him out through most of March. If his pending placement is retroactive to the date of the injury, Feb. 27, the earliest he could return would be March 23 against the Devils, satisfying a minimum 24-day absence.
That would cause him to miss Ottawa’s next 11 games. Norris also missed four games in January with an upper-body injury, plus the first three games of the season while he was completing his recovery from shoulder surgery that limited him to eight games last season.
MacEwen returns from Belleville to serve in a fourth-line role for tonight’s game against the Coyotes. The lack of any recalls on defense indicates that Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub, who were questionable with undisclosed and lower-body injuries, respectively, will play.
The Prince Edward Island native has struggled to lock down an everyday role after signing a three-year, $2.325MM deal to join the Sens in free agency. He has two goals, one assist and 46 PIMs in 22 games but has been productive in limited AHL action with five goals and two assists in 10 games for Belleville.
That’s nothing new for MacEwen, who has been a solid point producer in the AHL despite his limited scoring and enforcer role at the major league level. He has 43 goals, 63 assists, and 106 points in 167 minor-league games since turning pro in 2017.
MacEwen’s recall puts the Senators at 21 players on the active roster. With Norris on LTIR, they would have cap space to fill their two vacant slots if they so choose.
Josh Norris To Miss Extended Time
- The Ottawa Senators are expecting to miss forward Joshua Norris for an extended time, per the team’s head coach Jacques Martin. Norris recently underwent an MRI to assess the severity of an upper-body injury. He sustained the injury in Ottawa’s Tuesday night game against the Nashville Predators, crashing hard into the boards. The collision seemed to come close to Norris’ left shoulder, which was surgically-repaired after the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championship. This news could make Norris a candidate for long-term injured reserve, which would provide Ottawa with enough cap space to recall extra bodies to fill in for Norris.
Vladimir Tarasenko Willing To Waive No-Trade Clause
The Senators are expected to move winger Vladimir Tarasenko after confirming the Russian veteran will waive his no-trade clause for a Stanley Cup contender, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Reporting from Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch multiple times this month indicated that the 32-year-old may have preferred to stick with the Sens for the rest of the season, but he’s now likely to be on the move before the March 8 trade deadline.
Tarasenko’s willingness to accept a move aligns with what most anticipated at the beginning of the season: if the Senators were out of playoff contention close to the deadline, they’d flip the 2019 Stanley Cup champion after signing him to a one-year, $5MM pact in free agency. The six-time 30-goal scorer surprisingly struggled to secure a commitment when the floodgates opened on July 1, leading to him changing agents less than a week into the new league year.
He settled on Ottawa and their offer of complete trade protection, allowing him to dictate his destiny if they decided to move him at the deadline. While his days of routinely potting 30 in a season are behind him after multiple significant shoulder injuries in 2019 and 2020 with the Blues, he’s been a solid complementary top-six piece in Ottawa with 15 goals, 23 assists, 38 points, and a +12 rating while averaging 15:59 per game across 55 appearances.
Don’t let the +12 rating on a bottom-feeder team fool you – he hasn’t suddenly turned into a high-end shutdown winger. His expected rating is -0.4, middle of the pack on the team, as is his 49.2 CF% at even strength. Nothing about his numbers indicates he’s become a genuine liability, either, posting a solid 51.4% expected goals share with Drake Batherson and Tim Stützle this year, per MoneyPuck.
Any team acquiring Tarasenko is getting a similar talent to what the Rangers picked up from the Blues at last year’s deadline. He’s a solid middle-six scoring winger with Cup-winning experience, and if the Sens opt to retain half of his $5MM cap hit down the stretch and make him a $2.5MM player for whoever acquires him, they should be able to get a second-round pick at the very least.
Artem Zub To Return; Three Others Undergo MRIs
The Senators’ top four on defense has rarely been healthy at the same time this season, mainly due to Thomas Chabot and Artem Zub struggling to stay healthy. Zub has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, and although he appears ready to return tomorrow against the Coyotes, it could be one step forward and as much as three steps back, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Chabot, Jake Sanderson, and center Joshua Norris all underwent MRIs for undisclosed (upper-body in Norris’ case) ailments yesterday, per interim head coach Jacques Martin, putting their statuses for the Arizona game in doubt.
Artem Zub Won't Play Monday
- Senators defenseman Artem Zub will likely miss tonight’s game against the Capitals and is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per TSN 1200 Ottawa. It’s been an injury-plagued campaign for the premier shutdown defenseman, whose pairing with youngster Jake Sanderson has arguably been one of the NHL’s best two-way threats despite Ottawa’s position in the standings, controlling 56.2% of expected goals in nearly 500 minutes together, per MoneyPuck. Zub did not play in Saturday’s win over Vegas. He missed two games with a lower-body injury earlier this month and has sat out of eight other games this year due to an illness and concussion.
Some Talk That Tarasenko Might Prefer To Stay With Senators
With the Senators being nowhere close to a playoff spot, pending UFA winger Vladimir Tarasenko sits atop their list of trade chips. However, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch notes that there is some talk that the 32-year-old might prefer to finish the year in Ottawa. Tarasenko can control his fate as he has a full no-move clause. Sticking with them might allow Tarasenko to play a bit higher in the lineup which certainly doesn’t hurt from a negotiating perspective but at the same time, the potential to go deep in the playoffs and contribute could also help his case for securing a multi-year deal on the open market, something he wasn’t able to do last July, instead settling for a one-year, $5MM pact.
Trade Deadline Primer: Ottawa Senators
With the All-Star break in the rearview, the trade deadline looms large and is now just two weeks away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Ottawa Senators.
This season has not gone according to plan for the Sens. A popular pick to push for a playoff spot, they have instead languished for most of the year and find themselves at the basement of the Atlantic Division even after a coaching and GM change. Despite that, there is still a capable young core to try to build around so GM Steve Staios might not necessarily operate as a true seller in his first trade deadline at the helm.
Record
24-27-3, 8th in the Atlantic
Deadline Status
Seller and Light Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$109.9K on deadline day, 1/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2024: BOS/DET 1st* OTT 1st^, OTT 2nd, DET 4th, OTT 4th, TB 4th, OTT 5th, OTT 6th
2025: OTT 1st^, OTT 2nd, OTT 3rd, OTT 4th, OTT 5th, OTT 6th, OTT 7th
*-Ottawa will receive the lowest of Boston and Detroit’s first-round picks as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade.
^-Ottawa must forfeit its own first-round pick in either 2024, 2025, or 2026 as punishment for failure to disclose Evgenii Dadonov’s no-trade list in a voided 2022 trade.
Trade Chips
From the moment that they signed Vladimir Tarasenko to a one-year, $5MM contract, speculation began regarding a possible trade if Ottawa found itself out of the playoff race as it clearly is. After being one of the prizes of the deadline a year ago, he could be a key pickup again for someone this time around as he has 37 points in 52 games so far. However, he does have a full no-move clause so he can control where he goes and he has recently changed agents. The Sens are believed to value his off-ice contributions with their young core group so it’s not a guarantee that he moves. If he does, Ottawa will likely need to retain the maximum 50% of his contract to maximize their return, one that should get them a fairly high draft pick.
The Senators added Dominik Kubalik from Detroit as part of the DeBrincat trade but he has struggled. After putting up 20 goals and 45 points last season, he has been limited to just nine tallies and a dozen points overall. At a $2.5MM price tag, the Sens likely won’t be able to get much for him but he could be a buy-low candidate with a bit of upside for a team looking for depth.
On the non-rental side, Jakob Chychrun’s name has come up in plenty of speculation as well. The Senators have made it clear that they’re not shopping him but with the 25-year-old having another year of team control at an affordable $4.6MM, they’re going to get plenty of calls. Chychrun has 30 points so far, the second-most of his career while he’s averaging nearly 23 minutes a night. If a team strikes out on landing Calgary’s Noah Hanifin, Chychrun could very well be a fallback plan although the price to get him should be high; it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they match the return they gave up for him a year ago (a first-round pick and two second-rounders).
Another non-rental option is blueliner Erik Brannstrom. While he’s on an expiring contract, he’s controllable through restricted free agency through the 2026-27 campaign. An offensive defenseman at the lower levels, Brannstrom has failed to make a significant impact on that front, notching just 12 in 48 games so far while he’s averaging just 15:43 per game. Owed a $2MM qualifying offer, it feels like he’s trending toward non-tender territory if he stays in Ottawa so he’d be a potential buy-low candidate if a team wants to take an early look to see if he’d fit better in another system.
Other Potential Trade Chips: F Mathieu Joseph, F Mark Kastelic, F Jiri Smejkal, D Lassi Thomson
Team Needs
1) Cap Space – If Ottawa wants to try to add a piece, they need to free up cap room. If they need to call up a player for the stretch run, they need cap room. Basically, the Sens need to move out someone first to give themselves some much-needed flexibility before they can attempt to do much of anything else.
2) Veteran Leadership – This has been a long-reported goal since Staios took over for former GM Pierre Dorion. While the Senators have some veterans including Claude Giroux and Travis Hamonic, this is still a fairly young core for the most part. They believe that bringing in the right veteran piece or two could help this team take a step forward. They’re known to have interest in Chris Tanev as the type of veteran addition they want for the back end but that would make more sense for an offseason move than an in-season one. But if they can find a bottom-six forward that fits the bill, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them try to add that piece now.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Sanderson And Zub To Return Saturday
- The Senators will welcome back a pair of defensemen on Saturday as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub will return from their respective lower-body injuries against Chicago. Sanderson has missed nearly three weeks with his injury and he certainly has been missed as he logs nearly 23 minutes a night for them in the final year of his entry-level deal. As for Zub, he was out for the last two games, resulting in Ottawa having to dress only 17 skaters earlier this week before being eligible for an emergency cap-exempt recall. The Sens now have 21 players on their active roster and that’s all they’ll be able to afford as they have less than $75K in cap space, per CapFriendly.