A crowded roster of one-way contracts and a condensed preseason schedule leave almost no room for Sens prospects to compete for NHL jobs.
The Senators have unveiled their 57-man roster for their 2026-27 training camp.
Camp began Wednesday at Canadian Tire Centre and Bell Sensplex and it's composed of seven goaltenders, 18 defencemen and 32 forwards. Players reported for medicals on Wednesday morning, with on-ice practices beginning on Thursday.
Some interesting wrinkles this year will be the camp's brevity and the removal of fitness testing.
The regular season is already less than two weeks away and this is the year the league moves to an 84-game schedule. So they've shortened the preseason (amen) and the Sens will cram in five exhibition games on three dates.
With 14 forwards, six defensemen, and three goalies all on one-way NHL deals, job openings are already scarce to non-existent. Now players on the bubble will also see very little game action to make an impact on evaluators.
Carter Yakemchuk represents one of the few fluid situations. He's easily in the club's top seven, but to stay in the NHL, he'll need to crack the top six. The Sens aren't likely to keep a waivers-exempt, 20-year-old first-rounder in Ottawa to sit in the press box most nights. He needs to play.
Also, as part of the new CBA which starts today, fitness testing is no longer allowed. So you won't see any TV shots of players riding bikes to the point of exhaustion or parting ways with their breakfast.
The Senators say their camp roster features 13 former first-round draft picks and 27 players who were Ottawa selections in NHL drafts. 14 players were signed as free agents, 12 were obtained in trades, two are at camp on professional tryouts (PTO), and two are on amateur tryouts (ATO).
Twenty-five (25) of the camp’s players appeared in at least one game with the Senators during the 2025-26 season while another six (6) players dressed for other NHL clubs. Of the 29 players who were invited to recent rookie camp and tournament, 20 players were invited to training camp.
One new face is Vadim Zherenko, a 25-year-old Russian goalie who's spent the past four years in Springfield of the AHL. With Leevi Meriläinen the third man on the depth chart and on a one-way deal, he may need to be exposed to waivers at some point. That would leave Jackson Parsons and Kevin Reidler to man the fort in Belleville.
Zherenko gives Belleville some serious AHL experience if the Sens decide it's needed.
2026-27 Senators Training Camp Roster (Projected NHL players in bold)
Goaltenders (7)
Linus Ullmark (Ottawa – NHL)
Samuel Ersson (Philadelphia – NHL)
Leevi Meriläinen (Ottawa – NHL, Belleville – AHL)
Lucas Beckman (Baie-Comeau – QMJHL, Chicoutimi – QMJHL)
Jackson Parsons (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL)
Kevin Reidler (Penn State – Big-10, Belleville – AHL)
Vadim Zherenko (Springfield – AHL).
Defencemen (18)
Thomas Chabot (Ottawa – NHL)
Tyler Kleven (Ottawa – NHL)
Nikolas Matinpalo (Ottawa – NHL)
Jake Sanderson (Ottawa – NHL)
Jordan Spence (Ottawa – NHL)
Carter Yakemchuk (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Artem Zub (Ottawa – NHL)
Matthew Andonovski (Kitchener – OHL, Belleville – AHL)
Samuel Bolduc (Ontario – AHL, Belleville – AHL)
Cameron Crotty (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Jorian Donovan (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Gabriel Eliasson (Barrie – OHL)
Tomas Hamara (Belleville – AHL)
Scott Harrington (Belleville – AHL)
Christian Kyrou (Texas – AHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL)
Harris Pangretitsch (Sault Ste. Marie – OHL)
Hoyt Stanley (Cornell – ECAC, Belleville – AHL)
Djibril Toure (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL)
Forwards (32)
Michael Amadio (Ottawa - NHL)
Drake Batherson (Ottawa - NHL)
Andre Burakovsky (Chicago – NHL)
Nick Cousins (Ottawa – NHL)
Dylan Cozens (Ottawa – NHL)
William Eklund (San Jose – NHL)
Warren Foegele (Los Angeles – NHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Claude Giroux (Ottawa – NHL)
Ridly Greig (Ottawa – NHL)
Stephen Halliday (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Kurtis MacDermid (Ottawa – NHL)
Shane Pinto (Ottawa – NHL)
Tim Stützle (Ottawa – NHL)
Fabian Zetterlund (Ottawa – NHL)
Eskild Bakke Olsen (Linkoping – SHL)
Samuel Blais (Laval – AHL, Montreal – NHL, Toronto – NHL)
Tyler Boucher (Belleville – AHL)
Xavier Bourgault (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Louis-Felix Bourque (Drummondville – QMJHL)
Jaxon Cover (London – OHL)
Philippe Daoust (Belleville – AHL)
Lucas Ellinas (Kitchener – OHL)
Kasper Halttunen (San Jose – AHL)
Hayden Hodgson (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL)
Landen Hookey (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL)
Blake Montgomery (Wisconsin – Big-10, Belleville – AHL)
Luke Mistelbacher (Brandon – WHL, Belleville – AHL)
Adam Nemec (HK Nitra – Slovakia, Sudbury – OHL)
Oskar Pettersson (Belleville – AHL)
Ryan Suzuki (Chicago – AHL)
Philip Tomasino (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton – AHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL, Pittsburgh – NHL) Blake Vanek (Wenatchee – WHL, Calgary – WHL)
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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