It is truly playoffs or bust for the Ottawa Senators. With a new owner, their staff and players must impress with success right away, writes Adam Proteau.

We’re inching closer to the start of the NHL’s 2023-24 season, and THN.com’s ongoing series on the different types of pressures felt by the league’s players, GMs, coaches and team owners continues with the Ottawa Senators.

Moving alphabetically through the NHL’s teams, we’ll identify one player, coach, GM or team owner as someone on the hot seat, facing heavy pressure to post positive results in 2023-24 or be shifted to their team’s doghouse. A second person will be placed on the warm seat as someone who isn’t facing a firing or trade imminently but who could be traded or moved on from in the next year. A third individual will be put on the cold seat, labelling them as very likely to remain on their current team for the foreseeable future.

On occasion, we’ll have four or five players per team, with ties in one or two categories; today is one such occasion.

Senators’ Hot Seat: (tie) D.J. Smith, Coach, and Pierre Dorion, GM

The Sens are in a new era now that Michael Andlauer has emerged as the franchise’s new majority owner. Andlauer doesn’t become the official new owner until September, but in the days leading up to the transfer of power, there’s no sense he would think about remaking Ottawa’s front office and management/coaching elements.

Andlauer’s patience with the team is an opportunity for Smith and Dorion to save their jobs by making the playoffs and doing some damage once they get there. Dorion has spent upwards of $82.7 million on the 2023-24 lineup – and that’s only for 20 players. There will still be a need to tweak Ottawa’s roster to be cap compliant and re-sign RFA Shane Pinto. 

That said, Dorion has stacked his lineup with veteran additions this summer (more on them below), and he’s been on the job for seven years. He’s going to be judged by the Senators’ season, and if there’s any underachieving going on, Andlauer will almost certainly dismiss Dorion and install a new GM.

The same goes for Smith, who has been the bench boss in Ottawa for the past four seasons, and the Sens have never finished higher than sixth place in their division in that span of time. Granted, Smith has been serving there as the Senators’ full-on rebuild went into high gear, but the team he has in 2023-24 is not one that’s rebuilding. They’re built to win and expected to win now, and Smith knows his future is tied to Dorion in many ways. Should Ottawa miss the playoffs, Smith and Dorion will be gone. Coaching and GM-ing are zero-sum lines of work, and if the Sens miss the playoffs again, there’s no question a new GM and coach will take over.

Senators’ Warm Seat: (tie) Vladimir Tarasenko, RW, and Joonas Korpisalo, G

The Sens added a key piece on defense before the trade deadline last season when they acquired defenseman Jakob Chychrun from Arizona. Dorion did not stop there this summer, dipping into the free agent market by signing veteran goalie Korpisalo to a five-year, $20-million contract that makes him Ottawa’s starting netminder until further notice. Then, in early August, Dorion signed sniper and Stanley Cup champion Vladimir Tarasenko to a one-year, $5-million deal to bulk up Ottawa’s top line.

Spending $9 million per season on Korpisalo and Tarasenko is not insignificant. Both players had relatively subpar seasons in 2022-23. Tarasenko generated 18 goals and 50 points in 69 games, down from his 2021-22 totals of 34 goals and 82 points in 75 games. Korpisalo played well after being dealt from Columbus to the L.A. Kings at the trade deadline, posting a .921 save percentage and 2.13 goals-against average in 11 regular-season games. However, his playoff performance was not ideal, as he produced a 3.77 GAA and .892 SP.

Korpisalo has more assurance he’ll be with Ottawa for the life of his contract than Tarasenko does, but Korpisalo still must play well to avoid being benched in favor of Anton Forsberg or a young netminder – basically, the situation Edmonton has with Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner. That’s a possibility now for the Sens – maybe a remote possibility, but a possibility nonetheless. Meanwhile, Tarasenko is playing this season with a bigger, longer payday in mind. There’s a bit of an issue projected to arise late in the season: although the Senators want Tarasenko to be a 30-goal-plus-performer again, if he does thrive in Ottawa, the Sens may not have the cap room to keep him beyond this season.

Both Tarasenko and Korpisalo have something to prove in '23-24, and if the Sens are to take that next competitive step, they need solid contributions from them.

Senators’ Cold Seat: Tim Stutzle, C/LW

The Senators’ most special player is Stutzle, already a dynamo at the age of 21. He put up 39 goals, 51 assists and 90 points in 78 games last year, all career-best numbers. He’s Ottawa’s first-line center, and he averaged the most time-on-ice (averaging 21:16) for any Sens forward last season. 

Stutzle also is entering the first year of an eight-year, $66.8-million contract extension that has a cap hit of $8.35 million per season – a number that will become more of a bargain with every passing year.

Stutzle is the straw that stirs the drink for the Senators, and he’s going to be a fixture on the Ottawa hockey scene at least through the 2030-31 campaign. The Sens need fellow high-impact players Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson to get themselves into the playoffs, but it’s Stutzle who has to be the one leading the way. He’s going nowhere other than the post-season, and we don’t doubt he’ll be a dominant player yet again this year.