The Ottawa Senators are still developing from the rebuild they started when they traded Erik Karlsson to San Jose. Now, they should be active in the trade market like the Sharks, who are still early in their rebuild after selling Karlsson as well.
The Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks are both at the bottom of their respective NHL divisions, but both teams are in drastically different parts of their current competitive cycle.
The Senators were supposed to be a Stanley Cup playoff team this season, while the Sharks were never intended to get anywhere near the post-season as they continue on a basement-to-ceiling rebuild. Yet here we are, approaching two-thirds through the regular season, and San Jose and Ottawa are primed to make a big splash by the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline – for different reasons, maybe, but they’re big-splashers nonetheless.
If the Senators are to avoid another painful rebuild – and under new team owner Michael Andlauer, they most certainly are in a position to retool rather than rebuild – they should make some degree of significant roster alterations if only to address the struggle to be consistent winners this year.
The one link between the Sharks and Sens – star blueliner Erik Karlsson, now with the Pittsburgh Penguins – has helped each team’s talent base after he was traded away. In Ottawa, Josh Norris and the draft pick that turned into Tim Stutzle were part of the return for Karlsson in 2018, and both forwards are foundational components of the Senators today. Meanwhile, the Sharks also landed solid assets in last summer’s Karlsson deal with the Penguins – landing a 2024 first-round pick that looks to be in the middle of the first round – but San Jose’s focus is well beyond this season, and their asset base is different because of that fact.
That said, while the Sharks are going to be one of the biggest sellers at the deadline, perhaps Senators GM Steve Staios decides to add players and not trade away pending UFAs, such as veteran wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Dominik Kubalik. We’ve seen speculation Ottawa is interested in Flames defenseman Chris Tanev, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for the Sens to begin planning ahead for the 2024-25 campaign and strike while the iron is hot. Early-bird, worm, etc.
By comparison, San Jose is going to be looking at moving out many of their pending UFAs, including forwards Anthony Duclair, Alexander Barabanov, Mike Hoffman and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen. Sharks GM Mike Grier should also be listening for offers on captain Logan Couture, who may benefit from playing on a contender or a non-rebuilding club.
But indeed, it’s all about the future for the Sharks, who already have four picks in the first two rounds of the 2024 NHL draft. One of those picks could turn out to be the No. 1 overall pick, which is license to draft NCAA phenom Macklin Celebrini.
If San Jose does land the top pick, all this suffering will be well worth it. A core built around Celebrini and 2023 first-rounder Will Smith would set up the Sharks very nicely over the next 15 years, but the more prospects, the merrier for Grier, who has the buy-in from ownership to suffer for the next couple of years. Maybe in 2026 or 2027, the Sharks will be where the Senators are today – in a place where losing is no longer tolerated in lieu of the big picture.
In Ottawa, and unlike in San Jose, the time for excuses has come and gone. Nobody in Canada’s capital city wants to go back to another massive rebuild. As a result, Staios’ job is to make the most of what he and Andlauer had on board, while Grier’s job is to grit his teeth through the next few seasons and come out the other end with a young team worth doubling down on. The two teams share a connection as former Karlsson employers, but the fact is each of them has their own notably different agendas, and what we see from them at the deadline will reflect that reality.