NHL Hot Seat Radar: Which Ottawa Senator Faces the Most Pressure as Team Looks to Take Significant Leap

Welcome back to THN.com’s Hot Seat Radar series. In this group of files, we’re moving through each NHL team in reverse alphabetical order, and picking a player, coach or management member we see as being on the 'hot seat' as an individual with major pressure on them to produce big and positive steps or deal with ramifications that can jeopardize their position with their current team. In addition in every file, we’re identifying someone on the 'cold seat' as a person highly probable to remain on their current team until further notice.

Every so often, we’ll turn the spotlight on a hockey figure who sits in the mid-ground between the hot and cold seats as a 'wild card' individual. But for the most part, we’ll be pointing out solely hot and cold seat people. Today, we’re moving close to the halfway point of this series as we pick hot and cold seat occupants for the Ottawa Senators:

When he first broke into the NHL in 2017, Chabot was a breath of fresh air for a Senators team that needed as much oxygen as possible. In his sophomore season, Chabot posted 41 assists and 55 points in 70 games. However, since then, the blueliner has struggled, not just to produce as much offense – other than that second NHL year, his highest point total was 41 points in 2022-23, but otherwise, he’s been in the 30-39-point range – but also to stay healthy, as Chabot has averaged just 59.3 games played per season in the past three years.

Now, Chabot’s production is still a general positive for Ottawa, but the problem is Chabot’s $8-million-per-season salary. Other teams might very well perceive him as a high-end talent they can bring back to his peak, so there’s very likely a market for Chabot if Sens GM Steve Staios shops him around. And it’s not like Chabot can veto any trade he wants, as his modified no-trade clause only allows him to pick 10 teams he wouldn’t accept a trade to. But if Chabot steps his game up and gets back to that second-season production form, the Sens will be happy to keep him in Canada’s capital.

Chabot is still only 27 years old, so he’s got some time left to figure things out. But as the Senators battle for a wild-card berth, they desperately need him to become the elite performer he’s shown flashes of being in the past. This is a line of work where recent success and performance are king, and that’s why Chabot’s salary puts him on the Hot Seat. If he were earning half of his current salary, you might not hear a peep about his production. Alas, he’s making elite-level money, and he needs to generate elite-level on-ice results.

Many NHLers are on the cold seat this season, but few cold seats are colder than the two seats Stutzle and Tkachuk are on at the moment. Put statistics aside for a second and think if you foresee any realistic situation in which either Tkachuk or Stutzle are traded this coming year. Not too easy.

Both guys are in their early 20s; both are the highest-paid players on the team; and both have been very public in their desire to win in Ottawa. These two aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Of course, things can always change with a bad year here or there, or if a more attractive employment alternative pops up. But Stutzle and Tkachuk are locked into contracts for the next four seasons, and beginning next season, Tkachuk has a full no-trade clause in his deal. There’s a two-way commitment that’s been made between the two players and the organization, and it’s now on Staios and Sens brass to surround the duo with capable talent.

Barring some catastrophic losing skid that sours them on the organization, Stutzle and Tkachuk will remain foundational assets for the Sens for years and years. And if and when Ottawa does become a championship-caliber squad, the two young forwards will have played a major part in it.