Nick Jensen's latest injury potentially leaves the Senators with minimal return after the buy-high, sell-low Jakob Chychrun deals.
Veteran defenseman Nick Jensen may have played his final game as an Ottawa Senator.
According to TSN 1200, Jensen will undergo knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be sidelined for approximately six weeks. With the NHL regular season now entering its final month, that timeline would probably push any potential return into at least the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
If they get that far, it will be because they're playing excellent hockey. It's hard to imagine the coaching staff would drop a rusty veteran defenceman on a freshly repaired knee directly into the intensity of a playoff series.
In all likelihood, Jensen’s season, and possibly his time in Ottawa, may be over.
So with that in mind, and the Senators set to play his old team in Washington on Wednesday, it’s difficult not to take another glance at the 2024 Jensen-for-Jakob deal and the complete asset management picture.
Jensen represented the biggest remaining branch of Ottawa's Jakob Chychrun trade tree, which is starting to look like something Charlie Brown might drag to his school play.
Back on March 1, 2023, then-GM Pierre Dorion finally landed his coveted top-four defenceman, acquiring Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes for a high cost: a first-round pick and two seconds.
Skip forward to a year later, and a new regime led by GM Steve Staios had a different vision.
With Chychrun a year away from unrestricted free agency and likely commanding at least $8 million annually, Staios opted to rebalance his roster. With Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, he already had two Chychrun-types, both now making $8 million-ish, so he prioritized a right-shot, shutdown presence.
So Chychrun was dealt to Washington in exchange for Jensen and a 2026 third-round pick. Some fans grumbled about the return. They understood the reasoning and the concept, but still felt like the compensation for a highly-coveted defenseman like Chychrun was still a bit light.
Whether Jensen plays for the Sens again or not this season, he's not likely to get another contract here, and maybe he doesn't want one. Regardless, the Ottawa fruit basket sitting at the base of the Sens' Chychrun trade is now looking pretty empty.
In all, by acquiring Chychrun and then moving him out 15 months later, this is how it looks:
Sens Gave Up:
- Chychrun, now 27, with 23 goals and 51 points this season
- 2023 1st-round pick 12th overall
- 2024 2nd-round pick, 49th overall
- 2026 2nd-round pick
Sens Received:
- A season and change of Chychrun (gone)
- Two seasons of Nick Jensen, now 35, with 4 goals and 17 points (probably gone)
- Washington's 2026 3rd-round pick
That upper list is a lot to part with to end up with only a 2026 third-rounder, especially when it's only been three years since Chychrun first arrived in Ottawa.
To be fair, Staios was trying his best to clean up someone else's mess, and while his reasoning was good, his luck was not. But he also acquired Jensen on the wrong side of 30, and injury luck rarely favours the old. First, it was hip resurfacing surgery last May, and Jensen has never really been the same. Now, it's knee surgery.
Meanwhile, Chychrun, who once wore the injury-prone label himself, is loving life in Washington. He's still just 27, and his offensive game is continuing to evolve in year one of an eight-year, $9 million (AAV) deal.
Jensen deserves nothing but credit for playing through injury, helping the Sens finally get to the playoffs, and working his ass off to be ready for this season. But any man who has metal pieces where some of his hip used to be just isn't likely to be the same player anymore.
It’s a reminder of how quickly the stock can fall on a player in his mid-30s. It's worked out with Claude Giroux, who's been an iron man. But they weren't as fortunate with Jensen, who moved from capital to capital with some hard miles on him.
Maybe the Senators can do something special this summer with that lonely third-round pick that remains, but because they ended up buying high and then selling low, their side of the Chychrun trade tree is just about ready to wither away.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was originally published at The Hockey News. For more Senators news, analysis, and features, visit the Ottawa Senators site at The Hockey News.
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