The Senators hope to take another step next season, but with a depleted prospect pool and UFAs on the horizon, Steve Staios has some tricky decisions to make.
With the curtain closing on another NHL season, the offseason is officially here.
But not for Steve Staios. Staios is now in his third summer as Senators general manager, and with the draft and free agency just a couple of weeks away, it's time for the heavy lifting.
After watching the Carolina Hurricanes hoist the Cup on Sunday night, he and the Senators can at least say that, while they lost in round one, they lost to the champs.
Now the trick is to figure out how to get his team to that level. Do they need help, or can they get there on their own?
Remember, Carolina's core took a long time to get here, and the sting of several past playoff failures served them extremely well this spring. The fear of reliving heartbreak and missed opportunity can be a great motivator.
Maybe the plan for Ottawa's group is to stay the course and acquire the playoff scars required. They've already learned a lesson or two from their two first-round exits.
But if the plan is to make meaningful changes to help push this thing along, maybe as early as this summer, then it's hard to see a way for Steve Staios to make those changes without involving some of his core.
To this point, he's made several significant moves to support the group he inherited from previous management. He traded away Josh Norris and Jakob Chychrun, who were both once seen as part of this core, and it helped the Sens get to the playoffs again.
If the Senators fail to take another significant step forward in 2026-27, Staios may be forced to conclude that the core is flawed and that meaningful change is required. Maybe that day is here already.
The challenge is that he doesn't have many options to make those meaningful changes.
He'd love to use some of his prospect pool right now to make big trades and "go for it," but his predecessor already did that, well before the Sens were ready to make the playoffs, let alone contend.
Case in point, the Senators just failed to receive a single vote in NHL All-Rookie Team voting for the third straight season. They also don't have a full-time NHL player to show yet from their last five draft classes.
So the prospect pool has nothing major to offer other teams right now. It badly needs refilling, and draining it of more first-round picks wouldn't be ideal.
Meaningful improvement through free agency is a long-shot option. In Ottawa, it can yield mid-tier and support players, but whether Sens fans like it or not, the organization has never been a preferred destination for the elite, unrestricted free agents who truly move the needle.
So, unless the core is involved as trade bait, Staios is limited in what he can do.
And the clock is ticking, because the window for this core to win is now open. That doesn't mean they will win. But based on age and contract status, this is their time.
Brady Tkachuk is 26.
Tim Stützle is 24.
Jake Sanderson is 23.
Shane Pinto is 25.
Thomas Chabot is 29.
Artem Zub is 30.
Drake Batherson is 28.
This team isn't old, by any stretch. But it's also not the young, emerging group that fans still sometimes picture when they think about the Senators. Most of the core players are now in or entering their prime years.
And that clock is ticking in more ways than one, because within the core, free agency is looming. Batherson and Zub are eligible for extensions this summer. Tkachuk and Chabot are eligible next summer.
Will Staios sign them all?
Can he sign them all?
Should he sign them all?
Maybe.
If this core can't take a significant step forward next season, Staios would have little choice but to act, and for fans who love their core guys, they hope it doesn't come to that.
But if Staios wants to make meaningful improvements, maybe as early as this summer, it has to be something he's already considering.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This story was first published at The Hockey News' Ottawa Senators site. Check out more from THN.com/Ottawa at the links below.
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