After former captain Brady Tkachuk demanded and received a trade out of Ottawa this summer, who are the best candidates to wear the 'C' for the Senators next?
This summer, the Ottawa Senators took the extremely rare but, in this case, necessary step of choosing to trade their captain while he was still in his prime.
Brady Tkachuk reportedly played and podcasted his way out of Ottawa, leaving the Senators as one of a whopping 10 NHL teams without a captain. The good news for them is that there is no shortage of good options, and reports out of Ottawa indicate they'll name one soon.
So who's the right fit? Well, there's really only one perfect option, but some others might be in the mix as well:
1. Thomas Chabot
This feels like a borderline lock.
Thomas Chabot is already an alternate captain, and has been since 2019-20. That's a pretty clear sign the organization, from the top of the front office to the bottom of the depth chart, believes in his leadership abilities.
He's been a consistently good to very-good player for many years now, which is key for a modern captain in a way that it didn't used to be. For a team that needs a PR win, it's easy to make Chabot the face of the franchise in that specific way.
However, there are two main reasons why this may not be the direction the Senators decide to go.
Most NHL teams elect for younger captains or guys who have been around the franchise forever (apart from the New York Rangers' bizarre JT Miller pick last year). Chabot mostly falls into the latter category but not in the way that, say, Victor Hedman did when the Tampa Bay Lightning gave him the C after Steven Stamkos left.
To put it another way, giving a 28-year-old the captaincy would be a departure for what most teams are doing these days. But that shouldn't be a huge issue considering what a good soldier Chabot has been for them for the better part of a decade.
The second reason is more pressing: He's a UFA in two years. That means he's eligible to sign an extension in the not-too-distant future, and you can agree to that in principle as part of the captaincy agreement — they just can't put it in writing. Get that sorted out, make him a Senator for life, and off you go.
2. Jake Sanderson
Few teams in NHL history have probably ever felt like they steered themselves in the wrong direction by putting the 'C' on the jersey of their No. 1 defenseman, who is also only only 24.
In theory, Jake Sanderson can pick up more or less where Tkachuk left off, having more than learned the ropes in his four NHL seasons. He seems like an extremely obvious candidate.
However, the recent exodus of American-born players on Canadian franchises may raise concerns for the Senators and the long-term viability of Sanderson's relationship with the organization.
They would, of course, know better about the state of that relationship than we do. It may not be a huge concern (for now), but it's a factor that has to be considered by the Senators in this decision-making process.
3. Tim Stutzle
"Young center who puts up a bunch of points and is signed long-term" is always a good archetype for a captain these days.
Tim Stutzle was drafted with the No. 3 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft and has put up the most points (409) and has played the most amount of games (447) out of anyone on the Senators since making his debut in the 2020-21 season.
The 24-year-old didn't really get the opportunity to wear a letter because of Chabot and Claude Giroux holding them for a good chunk of his career, and it would be weird if he leapfrogged those two guys, but it wouldn't be surprising, either.
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