This will be the final Senators final home game before the March 6 NHL trade deadline.
Now, where were we?
With the Winter Olympics break now officially behind us, the Ottawa Senators return to action on Thursday night (7 pm TSN5) at Canadian Tire Centre, hosting the Detroit Red Wings.
After the game, there's yet another long break in the schedule, at least as far as Senators home games are concerned. This is how the schedule looks starting Saturday.
Feb. 28 at Toronto
March 3 at Edmonton
March 5 at Calgary
March 7 at Seattle
March 9 at Vancouver
Meanwhile, right in the middle of their Western road swing, the NHL trade deadline will come and go on March 6 at 3 pm Eastern.
So if the Senators decide to be active in the trade market, Thursday night's game against the Wings may be the last time some players ever put on a Sens jersey at home.
This will be Steve Staios' third trade deadline as an NHL GM and the first two couldn't have been more different. In 2024, Staios was handcuffed by Vladimir Tarasenko's no trade clause and shipped the pending free agent to the Florida Panthers for what turned out to be a third rounder.
That was pretty much it, although he made some huge moves in the summer, acquiring Linus Ullmark, Nick Jensen, David Perron, Michael Amadio, and Adam Gaudette.
2025 was just the opposite. Staios went hard at the deadline, getting Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund, then went slower in the summer, acquiring depth players Jordan Spence and Lars Eller.
The trade deadline is usually about two types of teams.
On the one hand, you have playoff-bound teams eyeballing their final chance to bulk up their roster with good established players to try and go deep. On the other hand, you have teams who are already out of contention, who are looking to do business with the great teams that can give them the picks, prospects or young players so they can retool.
But the Senators are caught in between, and in a parity-filled league where the standings are so tight, they're not alone in feeling stuck in the middle.
If the last four games before the deadline go well, maybe Staios fancies himself a buyer and strengthens the roster like he did last year. This year's Senators actually have a better record right now (.553) than they did at last year's deadline (.549) but their Eastern standing is way different.
The Sens held the second wild card last year at the deadline, but right now they're six points out.
Their needs would include a right shot D, but since almost everyone needs help in that area, they won't come cheap. It might cost them a first-rounder next year or one of their good forwards who are still young enough to help a team in rebuild.
If the last four games before the deadline don't go well, and the Sens slip further in the standings, maybe they shift to seller mode and unload some of their older UFAs rather than lose them and get nothing in return. When they dumped pending UFA Vladimir Tarasenko, in 2024 they were 19 points out of a playoff spot, but the strategy is still the same.
The Senators' list of older UFAs on expiring contracts right now includes Claude Giroux, David Perron, Nick Jensen, Lars Eller, Nick Cousins, and James Reimer.
As a dark horse move, Giroux might be a candidate to be one of those rare springtime rentals that ends up back with the team that traded him. He could go for that Cup that's eluded him, and re-sign back home in Ottawa this summer.
But even if someone gave the Sens back a 2026 first round pick (the NHL probably won't), moving Giroux would be highly discouraging to a fan base that's all in on at least the attempt at a making the playoffs.
Moving one or two of their other thirty-something UFAs may be an opportunity to shore up their draft capital without fully giving up on their playoff hopes.
The only thing we know for sure is that we won't see the Senators pulling off the firesale deals we saw from 2018-2020. Some of those deals completely blew up in their face, but others helped build a core that's now in its prime. And while it remains to be seen if they can still salvage this season, or ever emerge as a true contender, the window for this group is now wide open.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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