It's hard to narrow it down to five, but our choices include depth scoring, D.J. Smith's job, and more.
The Ottawa Senators are one of the most fascinating teams in the NHL. They have burgeoning young stars in Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson; a new ownership group spending to the cap for the first time in a long time; and finally a strong goaltending tandem in Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo.
With the season just beginning, let's examine the 5 major storylines to follow throughout the season.
5. Depth scoring
The Senators finished 18th in goals for last year, primarily on the back of the NHL's 8th-ranked power play. They did have six 20-goal scorers which led the league but outside of those six players they had very little offence, specifically from their 3rd and 4th lines.
If the Senators want to be playoff contenders, their top two lines need to keep scoring and their depth players – Dominik Kubalik, Mathieu Joseph, Ridley Greig and others – need to produce at least a modicum of offence
4. D.J. Smith’s job and a better start to the season
The Ottawa Senators have had terrible starts over the past couple of years. On November 24th last season, they were tied for dead last in the NHL, But D.J. Smith’s teams have generally finished well. After that day, they finished last season 33-23-7, a pace of 95 points, which would have gotten them into the playoffs.
If the Senators jump out to a poor start this year, Smith won't have a chance to finish strongly.
3. Jake Sanderson leap
Jake Sanderson is coming into this season with a freshly minted eight-year, $64.4 million dollar contract that kicks in next season. Sanderson had a breakout rookie season, growing into his game as the season progressed. He has all the intangibles to be a great defensive defenceman and was Ottawa’s best last year.
The question is: what's his ceiling offensively? So far, Sanderson has been much more aggressive, but will he be able to produce at a higher rate than last year? If he can get closer to 50 points, while maintaining his defensive prowess, the Senators will have a true number one defenceman. If he can make that leap, the Senators could leap into the playoffs.
2. Josh Norris health
Down the middle, the Senators only had Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris and Shane Pinto together for eight games last year. The Senators were 4-4-0 in those games, albeit a small sample size, and the Sens looked to be coming together before Norris got injured, riding a three-game winning streak in October.
Coming into training camp this year, the Senators proclaimed Norris was ready for training camp. Near the end of camp, Smith said he “never saw this coming” that Norris would miss all of the pre-season and the beginning of the regular season. If Norris can come back and play the majority of the season, Ottawa should be in a good spot. If not, then they'll be hard-pressed do any better than they did without Norris last season.
1. Steady Goaltending?
The Senators have not had consistent goaltending since Craig Anderson led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. The Senators were 20th in team save percentage last year, spread out over seven goaltenders. Since the 2016-17 season, the Senators have only had one year where they weren’t in the bottom half of the league in team save percentage. That was 2021-22 when they were 16th and led by Anton Forsberg.
If Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo can provide Ottawa not only stable, but potentially high-level goaltending, they can beat anyone. If they get poor goaltending, they'll lose to anyone. The Senators hope this tandem gives them the goaltending they need to make it into the playoffs for the first time since 2017.