Senators’ David Perron Out Five To Seven Weeks
The Ottawa Senators have lost one of their veteran forwards until the end of February at the very least. Relayed from TSN’s Bruce Garrioch, head coach Travis Green told reporters today that winger David Perron would miss the next five to seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Perron’s recovery timeline indicates that he will return well after the upcoming Olympic break. On the earlier side, he could return as soon as Ottawa’s February 26th matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. If it takes closer to seven weeks for him to return, his absence could extend until the middle of March.
Regardless, it’s the second consecutive year that Perron has dealt with a significant injury. During his first season with the Senators, Perron missed two months due to a back injury shortly after he returned from a family medical emergency. He finished the campaign with nine goals and 16 points in 43 games.
Healthy to start the 2025-26 campaign, Perron has been a solid tertiary contributor to the Senators. Largely in a middle-six role, the 37-year-old winger has scored 10 goals and 25 points in 49 games, averaging 13:26 of ice time per game. Additionally, he’s been productive on the defensive side of the puck, managing a 53.5% CorsiFor% and 90.6% on-ice SV% at even strength.
Fortunately, because of the Winter Olympics, Perron doesn’t stand to lose as much time as he otherwise could have. Despite being out for over a month, the expected recovery timeline projects him to miss anywhere from eight to 15 games.
The injury will certainly have implications regarding Perron’s future in Ottawa or elsewhere. At his age, suffering major injuries in back-to-back years can invoke career-ending ramifications. Being a pending unrestricted free agent, Perron will have some work to do upon his return to ensure that there’s interest in him next summer.
The Senators Have Some Tough Decisions To Make
The Senators are facing a midseason crossroads. The season has not gone as planned, and they are well out of a playoff spot.
They could stand pat and hope James Reimer provides steady goaltending, push for short-term moves to improve the team, or pivot to a sell-off for this season and hope to reload in the summer. It’s a real dilemma in Ottawa, as the Senators are too flawed to contend but too good to tank.
Even if they wanted to aim for an impact prospect in the 2026 draft, they don’t have their first-round pick this year thanks to the Evgenii Dadonov debacle. The Senators are effectively in the worst possible situation this year, and the next few weeks will be crucial in determining where they go from here.
There will be no easy answers for a club that has dramatically underperformed. Rebuilding is absolutely out of the question, given how much long-term money Ottawa has spent on extensions over the last few years.
However, a quick retool could inject much-needed draft capital or prospects into the Senators’ pipeline and net them a fair amount of assets, given how tight the standings are and how few teams appear set to become sellers before the trade deadline. If Ottawa wanted to dump some of its pending UFAs, it could effectively set the trade market on its own terms rather than responding to what other clubs do.
If the Sens start shipping out veteran talent, they have a decent stockpile of players on expiring deals that could be made available, including several former Stanley Cup champions among the forwards: Lars Eller, David Perron, and Nick Cousins. On top of the trio of former winners, forward Claude Giroux and defenseman Nick Jensen are also pending UFAs, giving Ottawa a healthy list of potential players to move should they slide completely out of playoff contention.
But can the Senators move all of those veterans this year?
Giroux is having another solid season, with 32 points in 46 games. However, at 38 years old and playing close to home, does he really want to serve as a deadline rental?
It’s hard to say. On the surface, it seems unlikely, but Giroux is nearing the end of his career and is missing the one thing every NHL player covets: a Stanley Cup ring.
If Giroux agreed to a trade, he could theoretically make the move for a few months and then return next summer to Canada’s capital, or somewhere else close to home. That has happened in the past, albeit not for a long time.
Mark Recchi did it back in 2006 when he accepted a trade from the Penguins to the Hurricanes, only to return to Pittsburgh the following summer. Keith Tkachuk had a similar sequence when he was traded by the Blues in February 2007 to the Thrashers, only to be returned in a separate trade in June.
Jensen is another interesting case and would have been a highly sought-after trade piece before this year, given that right-shot defensemen are always in demand. But this season has been one to forget for Jensen, who was a healthy scratch just a couple of weeks ago and has been trying to find his game for much of the season.
Ottawa has attempted to manage the 35-year-old’s workload, dropping his playing time from over 20 minutes a night to just north of 16 minutes per game in an effort to keep him fresh, but it hasn’t done much to improve Jensen’s play. The biggest knock on Jensen at the moment is that his once-fluid skating now looks disjointed and robotic, which isn’t surprising given his injury history and the fact that he had offseason hip surgery and missed Ottawa’s training camp in September.
Jensen hasn’t looked like himself this year, and the Senators’ goaltending has been terrible, which has only magnified his struggles and dropped his trade stock and, ultimately, his future contract prospects significantly.
Returning to Eller, he is a low-maintenance, plug-and-play fourth-line center who doesn’t contribute much offensively anymore but can still skate and has reasonable puck-handling ability. The 36-year-old has just two goals and four assists in 32 games this year, but has buried himself in a defensive role, which suits his skill set at this late stage of his career.
Eller is the perfect low-cost veteran for contending teams looking to add depth. He is making just $1.25MM on a one-year deal, and with such a low cost, if the Senators move him before the deadline, they should be able to grab a mid-round draft pick.
As for Cousins, no one should want to acquire him, given that he was voted by the players as the NHL’s most punchable player. That said, he is likely only disliked until he plays on someone’s team.
Cousins is the kind of player that teammates love, and opposing players despise. He has a unique skill set that is often overlooked, but he adds physicality, plays a pest-like game, and brings energy that can spark a team, particularly in the playoffs.
The Belleville, Ontario native has historically drawn a lot of penalties and can chip in with offense (six goals and six assists in 45 games this year), although his defensive work leaves a lot to be desired. Cousins is on a one-year deal, making just $825K this season, so, like Eller, there should be demand given that he can fit into almost any team’s salary-cap structure.
Finally, there is Perron, who has been much better this season after posting just 16 points in 43 games last year. The 37-year-old already has nine goals and 14 assists in 46 games this year, and his underlying numbers are much better than they were a year ago.
Perron is no longer a perennial 20-goal, 50-point scorer, but he remains a useful depth scorer and should be in demand if Ottawa makes him available. He’s one of, if not the, slowest players in the NHL, but he hits and is reasonably productive offensively at this late stage of his career.
Perron isn’t going to net Ottawa a first-round pick, but it’s entirely possible they could get a second-rounder should they opt to trade him. He will likely want to stay close to home, but his 15-team no-trade list covers less than half the league and would leave the Senators with plenty of potential suitors for Perron. It’s also possible that he would embrace the move to a team on his no-trade list if Ottawa is out of the playoff picture and a team is appealing enough to him.
Ottawa has rattled off a couple of wins in the last few days, which could be the start of a turnaround. Ironically, the Senators have been deploying Cousins, Eller and Perron as their de facto fourth line in those two games, and they’ve been terrific as a unit.
But even with four points in their pocket, the Senators sit five points back of a playoff spot, with six teams to leapfrog for the final playoff spot. There is also the consideration that those two wins came against the teams sitting at the bottom of both conferences, the Canucks and Rangers.
If Ottawa is going to go on a run, it will need to beat some outstanding teams in the coming weeks. The next two to three weeks will be crucial for the Senators and could ultimately dictate their short-term intentions.
Nick Cousins Returns to Senators Lineup
Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins has been activated from LTIR and is in the lineup for today’s afternoon tilt against the Flyers, per TSN’s Bruce Garrioch. It represents his first game action since suffering a knee injury in late January. He is skating on a Sens’ third line alongside center Shane Pinto and Michael Amadio.
Originally expected to miss three months with the injury, GM Steve Staios recently stated the 31-year-old Cousins has been “attacking his rehab,” and he now returns ahead of his recovery timeline and in time to help make an impact in the playoffs. Cousins will provide the Sens with a reliable bottom-six option for their playoff lineup, as well as a trustworthy penalty killer. In his career, Cousins has appeared in 63 playoff contests and helped the Panthers capture the Stanley Cup just last season. In 47 games this season, Cousins has produced five goals, 13 points, 80 hits, and 24 blocked shots while averaging just under 12 minutes of ice time per game.
Coach Travis Green told reporters Saturday that he’s happy to see Cousins return to the lineup but added he will be rusty and that the team will have to get him up to speed.
Garrioch adds that forwards David Perron and Ridly Greig and defenders Nikolas Matinpalo and Nick Jensen are out of the lineup today, while Cousins, Angus Crookshank, Dennis Gilbert and Travis Hamonic are all playing. As Garrioch notes, Jensen has been playing with an unspecified lower-body injury for some time, and with the Sens already locked into a playoff spot, now serves as good time to give the veteran some recovery time. With Jensen and Matinpalo out, the door was opened for Hamonic and Gilbert to return to the lineup. Hamonic, who has played in 56 games this season and recorded six points and -17 rating, is skating on the team’s second pairing with Thomas Chabot, while Gilbert is skating with Tyler Kleven on the team’s third pairing. Gilbert has skated in 26 games this season and has recorded five points.
While the other absences from today’s game don’t appear to be serious in nature, Green noted the team is also not mailing in these final games of the season, per Garrioch. Green added that experienced teams understand that the intensity picks up in the playoffs, so he’ll look for his team to continue to showcase that energy in the final games of the season. It’s also one of the reasons the team recently recalled winger Hayden Hodgson to add some physicality to the lineup.
Ottawa Senators To Activate David Perron, Move Linus Ullmark To LTIR
Jan. 23rd: The Senators needed to create additional cap space to activate Perron for tonight’s game. PuckPedia reports that Ottawa has moved goaltender Linus Ullmark and his $5MM to LTIR opening up the necessary room for Perron and another $1MM in space. Unfortunately, PuckPedia added that the organization would need to clear an additional $1.9MM from their books when they eventually activate Ullmark.
Jan. 22nd: Longtime veteran winger David Perron is expected to return for the first time since before American Thanksgiving. Although no official announcement has come from the Ottawa Senators, Matt Porter of The Boston Globe reports Perron will suit up tomorrow night against the Boston Bruins.
The timing couldn’t be better for Perron or the Senators. The former has been limited to nine games this season due to unfortunate complications in the birth of his daughter and a nagging back injury for the last few weeks. Even if Perron stays healthy enough to play in Ottawa’s remaining 35 games, it’ll be the first time since the 2010-11 season he’s failed to play 45 or more regular season contests.
Still, his return can’t be seen as anything other than a positive. Thanks to a 14-8-3 run over their last 25 games, the Senators are hanging on to the top wild-card position in the Eastern Conference. Given that Ottawa is the eighth youngest team in the NHL and Perron is only one of three former Stanley Cup champions on the roster, his experience should prove a boon as they compete for a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Perron’s return should also help alleviate some issues in the team’s bottom six. Because the Senators are closer to the salary cap ceiling than they’ve been in seasons past, the bottom six of their forward core is largely composed of spare parts.
The veteran winger should provide more consistency to that group assuming he stays healthy the rest of the way. Ottawa has more pressing needs on the blue line during the trade deadline season which is where much of their focus is expected to go.
Senators’ Linus Ullmark, Travis Hamonic Out Week-To-Week
Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green issued a laundry list of injury updates on Sunday, captured by TSN’s Bruce Garrioch. Most notably, starting goaltender Linus Ullmark was designated as week-to-week with a back injury. Ullmark hasn’t skated since leaving the team’s December 22nd match against Edmonton early after his back tightened up. He’s missed five games since, and will now continue to sit out through the bulk of January.
Losing their star netminder has been a tough blow for Ottawa to bear. They’ve turned to a mix of Anton Forsberg and Leevi Merilainen in his absence, but totaled a bleak 1-4-0 record and 3.20 goals-against per-game. Ullmark has been far more successful in net, ranking 16th in the league wins (12) and seventh in save percentage (.915). He’s everything Ottawa was hoping for when they traded two players and a first-round pick for him this summer. But with him on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the Senators are once again faced with a lack of goaltending depth.
Forsberg should continue his role of de facto starter, giving him a chance to improve on his .885 Sv% in 12 games this year. But Merilainen will receive the biggest opportunity with this news. He’s spent the season moving back-and-forth between the major and minor rosters, in the mix posting a team-best .901 Sv% in 13 games for the Belleville Senators. The 22-year-old has also set a 2-2-0 record and .884 in his NHL appearances this season, and could earn a big role if he proves to be the piece the pulls Ottawa out of their lump.
Green also shared that defenseman Travis Hamonic will miss two-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury. Hamonic played down to the final minute of Ottawa’s Friday loss to St. Louis, and didn’t seem noticeably limited in his final shift. But he’ll now be out for the long-term, likely opening the door for Jacob Bernard-Docker to step back into the lineup. Bernard-Docker has four points in 25 games this season, continuing his scoring slump after he scored just 14 points in 72 games last season. If he proves a shaky addition, the Senators could also turn towards Nikolas Matinpalo, who has only played one NHL game this season but has scored seven points in 24 AHL games.
In brighter news, forwards David Perron and Michael Amadio have both returned to skating. Both are recovering from upper-body injuries. Perron has been injured for much of the season, only appearing in nine games and not yet scoring for his new club. Amadio has been a bit more impactful, scoring 10 points in 33 games in the mix of Ottawa’s bottom-six. Placing Hamonic and Ullmark on injured reserve would clear the space for Ottawa to activate both forwards.
Ottawa Senators Recall Nikolas Matinpalo, Place Three On IR
The Ottawa Senators announced they’ve recalled depth defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. The roster move marks the second time in three weeks that Matinpalo has been recalled to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman.
Ottawa had to make additional roster moves given that Matinpalo is the fifth player recalled by the organization in the last 24 hours. TSN’s Steve Lloyd reported that the Senators have retroactively placed David Perron, Anton Forsberg, and Artem Zub on the team’s injured reserve opening up the necessary roster spots. Perron and Zub reportedly returned to practice yesterday meaning Matinpalo’s time on the active roster should be short-lived.
Matinpalo is in his second year with the Senators organization signing back-to-back one-year contracts out of the Finnish Liiga. He was a quality two-way defenseman for the AHL Senators last year scoring four goals and 14 points in 67 games with a +15 rating. He went scoreless through his first seven AHL postseason contests but still finished with a positive +1 rating.
The Espoo, Finland also debuted in the NHL last year skating in four games for Ottawa from late October through early November. He was rarely used during those contests shouldering seven minutes of ice time a night on average but still found the time to deliver four hits.
He’s had a small uptick in scoring this year in the AHL with two goals and seven points in 23 games but isn’t expected to greatly extrapolate on last season’s totals. He’ll continue to serve as Ottawa’s seventh defenseman for the time being with the team four games through a nine-game road trip.
Atlantic Notes: Matthews, Senators, Boqvist, Vecvanags
The Maple Leafs will be without captain Auston Matthews for at least the next two games, mentions Nick Barden of The Hockey News. The 27-year-old has missed the last two contests due to an upper-body injury that has lingered throughout the season. When healthy, he has been productive with 11 goals and 12 assists in 24 games although that output is below his usual level. Head coach Craig Berube did note that Matthews is getting better which is a positive sign although given how long this injury has lingered, it’s fair to suggest that it’s something the center will be dealing with at times throughout the rest of the season.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Senators winger David Perron (upper body) and defenseman Artem Zub (foot) both skated today as they work their way back from their respective injuries, notes Sportsnet’s Alex Adams (Twitter link). The veterans each last played back on November 23rd when they sustained their respective injuries. Meanwhile, winger Michael Amadio (head) is expected to be out for a while according to head coach Travis Green. It’s unlikely that Perron and Zub will be available to return right away given Ottawa’s four recalls earlier today but the fact they’re both skating suggests they’re getting closer to suiting back up.
- Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist has been cleared to return to the lineup, team reporter Jameson Olive relays (Twitter link). He missed the last three games while being in concussion protocol. Boqvist is in his first season with Florida and has five goals and six assists through 33 games so far while averaging 13 minutes a night of playing time. Although he was eligible to be placed on IR during his absence, the team elected not to do so.
- Canadiens prospect Mikus Vecvanags has signed with QMJHL Acadie-Bathurst, per a team announcement (Twitter link). Montreal selected the netminder in the fifth round (134th overall) back in June. Vecvanags was selected by the Titan in the CHL Import Draft but elected to start the season with BCHL Brooks but playing time was hard to come by as he got into just five games with the Bandits, posting a 3.18 GAA with a .881 SV%.
Atlantic Notes: Panthers, Talbot, Domi, Pacioretty, Kucherov, Guentzel, Perron
It’s never too early to start thinking about the trade deadline, despite being three months away. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic agrees, touching on what the Florida Panthers might do to improve their roster between now and March 7 (Subscription Article).
The defending Stanley Cup champions likely don’t have many complaints as they sit second in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. The only glaring issue for the Panthers this season is the middling defense as the team sits 25th in GA/G at 3.20. It was always going to be difficult for Florida to recover from the departures of Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Still, they’ll want to add a top-four defenseman over the next three months.
The Panthers have some flexibility at the trade deadline with a projected cap space of $5.47MM. This should allow the organization to bring in a rental option for the home stretch of the regular season and the playoffs. Florida could get creative and look beyond this season for their blue line, especially considering that longtime defenseman Aaron Ekblad becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Other notes from the Atlantic Division:
- According to broadcaster Daniella Bruce, the Detroit Red Wings won’t have netminder Cam Talbot available during their two-game road trip against the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. This means rookie netminder Sebastian Cossa will likely be with the team for the remainder of the week under emergency conditions unless Alex Lyon is activated from the injured reserve. Head coach Derek Lalonde has already confirmed Cossa won’t get the start this evening against the Bruins but could make his NHL debut later this week should Ville Husso continue struggling.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without forwards Max Domi and Max Pacioretty tonight but it appears that won’t be the case for much longer. David Alter of The Hockey News reported earlier that they are getting ‘close’ to returning from injury despite being ruled out for tomorrow’s game against the Nashville Predators. Toronto has played extremely well of late despite multiple injuries to their forward group accruing an 8-2-0 record in their last 10 contests.
- Tampa Bay’s first line could look different in their upcoming matchup on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. In two separate reports, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times shared that the Lightning are hopeful that forward Nikita Kucherov will return to practice tomorrow and that Jake Guentzel left today’s practice with an apparent ailment. The team will know more tomorrow regarding the status of both players but there’s growing concern the Lightning will need to pull from their depth up front in a few days.
- It’s been a difficult introductory season for David Perron with the Ottawa Senators. He’s only suited up in nine games this season and it doesn’t appear he’ll be adding to that total soon (X Link). He missed significant time earlier in the season due to a health scare with his newborn daughter but has missed due to an upper-body injury more recently.
Snapshots: Hurricanes, Boeser, Drouin, Perron, Paul, Romanov
Already without Frederik Andersen long-term, the Hurricanes won’t have fellow goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov for the time being as he’s now in concussion protocol, meaning their current tandem is Spencer Martin and Yaniv Perets. To that end, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that Carolina is looking into what options might exist on the trade market. Andersen is out for at least two more months while Kochetkov’s timeline is less certain. The Hurricanes are almost right at the salary cap limit per PuckPedia while they do have nearly $2.4MM in LTIR room if needed. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if Carolina was looking into players on lower-cost deals to try to give them a small upgrade between the pipes in the short term.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- Barring any issues arising from today’s practice, Canucks winger Brock Boeser could return to the lineup on Tuesday in Boston, mentions Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre. The 27-year-old has missed nearly three weeks due to a concussion, putting a strong start to his season on pause. In his contract year, Boeser has six goals and five assists in a dozen outings so far.
- Avalanche winger Jonathan Drouin has been limited to just five games this season after missing more than a month due to an upper-body injury. Now, the team announced (Twitter link) that he’s dealing with another upper-body injury, one that kept him out of the lineup against Tampa Bay. Drouin has been productive when in the lineup as he has two goals and two helpers in his limited appearances so far.
- Senators winger David Perron was a late scratch for tonight’s game against Calgary due to an upper-body injury, relays TSN’s Claire Hanna (Twitter link). The veteran returned to Ottawa’s lineup a little over a week ago after taking time away when his newborn daughter needed to undergo surgery. It has been a rough go on the ice for Perron’s first season with the Sens as he has been held without a point for his first nine games of the season.
- Lightning forward Nick Paul will miss at least this week with the undisclosed injury that has held him out for nearly a week now, notes Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider (Twitter link). The 29-year-old had gotten off to a nice start offensively before the injury, notching five goals and eight assists in 17 games while seeing time at both center and the wing.
- Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov just returned to the lineup after recovering from a nagging injury but was a late scratch tonight. However, it wasn’t a recurrence of the injury as the team announced (Twitter link) that the 24-year-old was scratched due to being sick and is listed as day-to-day. Romanov has two assists, 27 blocks, and 31 hits in 11 games so far this season.
David Perron Returns To Senators
Senators winger David Perron had been away from the team for a better part of a month for a personal reason. Speaking with reporters today including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, the veteran revealed that his newborn daughter had to undergo surgery to remove a tumor. However, things have improved enough to allow the 36-year-old to return to the team.
Perron signed with Ottawa on the opening day of free agency back in July, inking a two-year, $8MM contract with a partial no-trade clause. The Sens reshaped part of their forward group over the offseason with Perron being the most notable addition alongside Michael Amadio, Noah Gregor, and Nick Cousins.
Perron got off to a slow start, certainly understandable given the circumstances. He was held off the scoresheet in his first five appearances while averaging just 13:26 per game, his lowest ATOI since his rookie campaign back in 2007-08. Nonetheless, his return will be a welcome one.
While Perron made the trip to Carolina, it’s not a guarantee that he will suit up as the Sens could elect to wait one more game, allowing him to get a couple more practices in before officially returning to the lineup. He remained on Ottawa’s active roster during his absence so the team doesn’t need to make a roster move when he is indeed ready to play.