We said it was coming, and for those who waited, it has finally arrived. When we did the previous story on the forwards, we said we’d bring you the other side of the puck. Today, here it is. We will summarize the Ottawa Senators free agents and trades on defence and for goalies, and our analysis on whether they will fair better in 2025-26 than they did in 2024-25.
What Will the Ottawa Senators Free Agents and Other Changes Bring in 2025-26?
Ottawa Senators Way-Too-Early 2025 NHL Free Agents New Forwards Evaluation
It is a few variables to breakdown, and we want to cover the defencemen and goalies together. After all, that is what comprises a team defensively.
Their top tier, in this respect, is coming back in the form of Jake Sanderson and Linus Ullmark. Together, both showed why they are so great. There’s no reason to believe they don’t continue to thrive in 2025-26. Furthermore, Jake Sanderson has seemed to be trending to enter the realm of elite of his position. He is fast, a gamer, and since taking over command of the Sens top power play from Thomas Chabot, has been very productive. Nine of 11 and 26 of 46 assists came in the second half of his 80 games played in 2024-25. It seemed like he raised his game to another level, don’t look for it to stop anytime soon.
For Ullmark, he showed stretches of absolute dominance. Looking at his overall numbers, he went 25-14-3 with a 2.72 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. Believe it or not, there was a time in later November, Ullmark’s record was 4-7-1. It wasn’t long after, he won seven consecutive starts. Also, to end the campaign, he collected wins in seven of his last eight games. Ullmark turns 32 in a couple of weeks, and at the stage of his career you’d consider his prime. If he can maximize his starts and consistency, likely as he gains more and more comfort in his role with the Ottawa Senators, the vibes are good from both a player and a team standpoint. Between Sanderson and Ullmark, the Sens have the top end taken care of, and they should only keep getting better. So, what about the rest of the d-men and goalkeepers?
Focusing In On Newcomer Spence on Defence
One very underrated move was the acquisition of Jordan Spence. Being a gamer at his age, he could be an impactful defender for the Sens in 2025-26. Furthermore, a player like Thomas Chabot could really benefit from his presence. Just as he did in 2024-25 paired with Nick Jensen. Who, oh yeah, is still there for 2025-26. The one major benefit of the Spence acquisition is that it gives the Sens depth on defence. Now, when they call on the farm because of injuries, they can still field six-solid NHL defencemen.
Even Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo made up a very inexperienced NHL pairing at one point last year. Coming into 2024-25, the pair had only combined for 21 games of NHL experience. Now, they both have a season under their belts, with the added bonus of playoff experience. In all, given the ages of the Sens defence corps, and the correlated career trajectory uprise, you have to optimistic as a Sens fan.
If we go a little deeper into Tyler Kleven’s game, we really see how the Sens defence is continually improving. With Kleven, the dude is an absolute wrecking ball. There’s no denying that he stepped up big in the playoffs. Additionally, for a big guy, he can make plays. He is a threat in the O-zone, he has the mobility to drive the net when the opportunity presents itself, and has the slapper to boot.
He still needs to bring more confidence to his game. That way he can produce more. Also, he needs the confidence in order to up his aggression level. He doesn’t want to take undisciplined penalties, and you see it in how passive he can be at times. Therefore, given all these reasons, it’s not hard to visualize why he fits the distinction of potential for improvement. Improvements that will help with the Senators larger defensive gains into 2025-26.
Covering All Angles
We do have to be honest, and realize there’s players at the opposite end of the spectrum. The spectrum in terms of career trajectory growth.
These are the guys that will not improve their skills, and are at a point of their career, that they could realistically be taking a step back. That’s is such a tricky aspect of building your roster, and given the Sens makeup, doubly as hard for general manager Steve Staios.
Following off-season surgery, it is an unknown on whether Nick Jensen can return to form. He was an example of a player who played much better in the first half of 2024-25, than he did in the second. Moreover, that is why the Spence acquisition is potentially so precisely what the Sens needed.
Another player to discuss is Travis Hamonic. He’s a player, that if his analytical statistics are studied, the Sens had success despite his time on ice. In 2024-25, Hamonic played with each of Sanderson, Chabot, and Kleven a fair bit. His best xGoals% was 49.6, perhaps surprisingly with Kleven. However, with both Sanderson and Chabot, Hamonic definitely brought their games down analytically. For instance, when Sanderson was with Artem Zub, they led the team at 56.3 xGoals%. Conversely, the Sanderson and Hamonic duo was 46.2%.
Graphic Credit: https://moneypuck.com/lines.htm
In any case, with it looking more and more unlikely Hamonic is re-signed, the top-seven defencemen are basically set for the Ottawa Senators. The one unknown is their top-defence prospect, Carter Yakemchuk. Yakemchuk made noise at last year’s camp and it seemed to continue into the Sens summer development camp. Staios and company know not to rush young defensive prospects, but hey, if he’s close, and he has the size and toughness already, it wouldn’t be too out of place to give him a legitimate case at cracking the roster. At this point, we can conclude, he is an ideal eighth defenceman to carry on your squad’s depth charts.
Finally, we need to move to net. Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy as league’s top goaltender in 2023, he’s back as the starter. Ullmark has elite talent from the goaltender position, and when the Sens win 2-1, you see it as the forefront.
Their young goaltender, who had been a restricted free agent, Leevi Merilainen is Sens property for the 2025-26 season, at least. He maintains his RFA status at the conclusion of the deal. Also, the team let Anton Forsberg walk, as he’s gone to Los Angeles for the Kings. The play of youngster, the (now) nearly 23-year-old, Merilainen allowed this process to take place. In 14 career games, yes it is an extremely small sample size, but Merilainen’s save percentage is .919. Moreover, Mads Sogaard is signed for a year with an NHL deal, too. Assuming the three goaltenders go into camp healthy, they should be able to handle the load between the trio of them.
Comparison from Around the Atlantic Division
At this point, we have explained why it seems that, internally, the Sens will be better defensively in 2025-26 than were they in 2024-25. Therefore, we could add some commentary on their opposition, mostly their Atlantic Division rivals. Most teams are basically standing pat. For example, the Boston Bruins will run it back with largely the same defence as 2024-25. They’re a team not really looking as 2025-26 as a pressure season, in terms of performance, and expectations aren’t high. Not to say that can’t improve, but from a purely defensive standpoint, Ottawa has improved more than them.
Buffalo is a wild card, but adding Michael Kesselring to their backend makes their blueline better. In contrast for Buffalo, RFA Bowen Byram‘s future is still a question-mark. But between their roster’s obvious skill and lack of results, it is difficult to know where they stand. Alex Lyon in net will also add a layer of reliability to their team defensively.
Florida, is still Florida. Yes, Sergei Bobrovsky is getting up there in age, but acquiring Seth Jones at the trade deadline continues to be one of the best deals of 2025. In addition, Tampa stayed about the same, so with their talent, and guys like Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy leading them, don’t count them out. Toronto is still looking to tinker. However, since adding Brandon Carlo at the 2025 trade deadline, they have a lot of depth defensively. Their biggest question is what to expect from their obviously skilled, but still somewhat unproven, goaltending tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll.
A Couple Big Improvements and Where the Sens Stand
Next, with Detroit, they stayed about the same on the blueline, but bringing in John Gibson could be a difference maker. They are a team, like Buffalo, that is very unpredictable as to where they finish in the standings come April 2026. Finally, the last team to mention, is the Montreal Canadiens. They are the team, that maybe through the entire NHL, took the biggest leap. The rise of rookie Lane Hutson, and trade for Noah Dobson, and not to be taken lightly, but the continuously improved play of Sam Montembeault, this is a team that jumped up the playoff contention pecking order.
What does this all mean for the Senators? Given their youth, mixed with just enough veteran leadership, the Sens should improve. That is considering the rest of the division as well. Based on how the Senators faired last year, and have a lot of the same pieces, as we argue, mostly only better, they should improve. Yes, other teams improved as well, but we like the fact of how similar this Sens makeup is from 2024-25. That way you know what you’re getting, and that it should only get better from here.
Main Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
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