The Senators have a long road ahead next season
Of the many teams that have had success in recent years, the Ottawa Senators find themselves in a bit of a pickle heading into the 2026-27 season.
The Senators have risen from the depths of the Atlantic Division and have snuck into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the past two seasons. However, there has been some notable changes in the nation’s capital, most notably former captain Brady Tkachuk being traded to the Florida Panthers.
Even while the team possesses talented assets such as Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and the newly added William Eklund, the chances of them making it back to the postseason seem to be trending downward.
On this week’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk discusses how much concern there should be regarding the Senators this coming year.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Even if the locker room was tired of Brady Tkachuk, and the fan base was maybe even a little tired of Brady Tkachuk, whatever it was, losing him still sucks. Now, you got Eklund, but is Eklund’s ceiling a point-per-game player? Probably. I don’t know if there’s a lot more than that to Eklund’s upside, production-wise, at least. I think, defensively, very good. It’s good that they went and got William Eklund. I’m not trying to say that was bad, it was great. His ceiling, production-wise, is Brady Tkachuk.
I’m worried about them finding ways to produce. They have a young piece on the blue line in Carter Yakemchuk that I like. They have a bunch of players up front that I like. They’re also in a wildly, wildly competitive division. When you look at the Atlantic, Buffalo was 109 points last year. I think they might take a step back. They’re going to be in the mix. Tampa’s in the mix. Montreal’s in the mix. Boston’s in the mix. Florida, they’re in the mix. They just got Brady Tkachuk. Toronto, they’re looking to take a step forward. They’re in the mix. Like seven of the eight teams in this division are like authentic playoff contenders, and someone’s gonna have to slip up and not be as good as we think they’re gonna be.
I love a lot of guys on this team. I’m just worried that they might be a 95-point team that doesn’t make the playoffs.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…