Senators sign Eskild Bakke Olsen to one-year, entry-level contract

The Ottawa Senators have added some young depth to their forward ranks.

On Monday, the team announced that they have signed center Eskild Bakke Olsen to a one-year, entry-level contract.

Bakke Olsen, 24, is fresh off a solid performance for his home country of Norway at the 2026 IIHF World Championship. In 10 games played in the tournament, he put up two goals and three assists for five points en route to Norway earning bronze, and their first ever medal at the World Championship, after defeating Canada 3-2 in overtime in the third-place game.

He played this past season for Linkoping Hockey Club of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), which is the top professional hockey league in Sweden. In 51 games played, he registered 11 goals and 21 assists for 32 points.

Prior to joining Linkoping, he spent two seasons with BIK Karlskoga of HockeyAllsvenskan, which is Sweden’s second-highest professional hockey league. In the 2023-24 season, he notched 10 goals and 27 assists for 37 points in 49 games played, and also contributed five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 12 postseason games. In the 2024-25 season, he showed significant progress by scoring nine goals but adding 44 assists for 53 points in 48 games. He then mildly disappointed by only managing two goals and four assists for six points in 12 playoff games that year.

Beyond this year’s World Championship, Bakke Olsen has also represented Norway at the 2025 World Championship, where he had no goals and an assist in five games, and at the 2024 World Championship, where he had two goals and no assists in four games.

This will be an important offseason for the Senators, who are looking to take the next step after losing in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past two years.