Offseason free agent addition Olle Lycksell will make his first ever opening night roster, eight years after being drafted in the sixth round by the Flyers.
Lycksell came to the Senators with one goal and 10 assists in 45 NHL contests, all with Philadelphia.
The Oskarshamn, Sweden, native scored an empty-netter against the Leafs in preseason, while averaging over 18 minutes over his four preseason games with the Sens.
Left-shot defenceman Donovan Sebrango, drafted 63rd overall by Detroit in 2020 and acquired by the Senators in a July 2023 trade, will also make his first-ever opening night roster. Sebrango played two games with the Sens last season and scored eight goals and 20 points with Belleville in 50 games last year.
Meanwhile, 2024 seventh-overall draft pick Carter Yakemchuk will have to wait a little longer for his NHL regular season debut. Yakemchuk will start the season with Belleville after a strong preseason — and a lot of discussions amongst Senators management.
“It’s never an easy decision when you’re talking about a young guy that we feel has a bright future in the NHL,” said Travis Green after practice and before the team announced their final roster. “And, making sure that we put him in the best place to succeed is a delicate question, and answer, so we’ve got to make sure we put him in the right spot.”
Green added that the decision is about finding what is best for both Yakemchuk’s development and what’s best for the Senators. “[It’s about] combining both into the right answer — finding the right answer.”
Forwards Jan Jenik, Hayden Hodgson, Arthur Kaliyev, and defenceman Lassi Thomson, and goaltender Mads Søgaard all cleared waivers and will report to Belleville.
Tyler Kleven (injured against Toronto on Sept. 21) and Drake Batherson (injured at practice on Sept. 23) will start the season on injured reserve. Green said that Batherson and Kleven’s outlook is “going in the right direction,” and that both skated for about 45 minutes on Monday.
Sens wrap up training camp with ‘hard skate’
Tim Stützle spoke after practice about what he’s seen and felt in his sixth training camp with the Sens. “I’ve been feeling really good,” said Stützle.
“I think everybody took another step, and that’s what you expect out of a young group. I think it was a really successful camp, I think we worked really hard. Today was another hard skate, but I felt like it wasn’t even as close to as hard as it was at the start.”
“I’m happy with camp in general,” said Green, entering his second season coaching the Sens. “Our guys have worked hard, we haven’t had many days where I didn’t think the effort was there [or] the attention to detail, I liked our last game, [we] looked better, dialled in, we still had a lot of guys that didn’t play, but I think everyone’s excited that we’re through the camp, and we’re getting ready to play for real.”
“The good thing about this year is, I think our guys have a strong understanding of our game, and what it looks like when we’re on top of it is,” added Green. “I think we’re ready to start the season.”
Penalty kill will continue to be a team effort
Throughout preseason, the Senators have used a plethora of forwards, including Stützle, Dylan Cozens, and Fabian Zetterlund, on the penalty kill. Green says that using a larger group of forwards, including those three, is something that could continue during the regular season, thanks to the style of kill the Sens use.
“I think they’ve done a pretty good job,” said Green. “There’s still some corrections that have to be made, almost from kill-to-kill. I think the one thing people don’t understand is penalty killing, there’s a lot of details within it, and it takes some time. A guy like Eller who’s done it his whole career comes in and it’s not such a big adjustment for him. So there will be a learning curve for some of the new players, but they’re smart players, and one of the biggest things is a guy really embracing doing the job, and if you don’t have that, you’re just not going to be a very good penalty killer.”
Stützle spoke after practice about just that. “I think if you’re an offensive player and you play the power play yourself, I think you can read the game a bit different on the [penalty kill] too.”
“I think we have a lot of guys who can [kill],” added Stützle. “I don’t know if I’m going to be in or not, I just know it fires me up if I’m out there, and if not, I fire the other guys up. I’m fired up, I think that excites me the most, when the [kill’s] doing a great job, kind of shutting their best players down. So I’m just really excited to be a part of it, and learn something new, and try and get better.”
Loose Pucks
Stützle and Green both spoke about the versatility and depth amongst the forward group. “Almost every one of our wingers can play both wings,” said Green. “We have a lot of right shots… maybe Drake and Brady kind of stay right, left, they haven’t played a lot of their off sides, but almost every other winger — I might be forgetting a guy — can play both sides.”
“Everybody can play with anyone,” said Stützle. “I think it’s really important, and especially throughout the season, there’s going to be injuries, there’s going to be times where guys are not able to play, and then the other guys have to step up, so I think the depth is going to help us a lot during that.”
Stützle responded to a question from the media asking what excites him most about this season by pointing to the team’s depth. “Since I got here, I don’t think we have been this deep, ever.”
Green characterized his relationship with Kurtis MacDermid, acquired via trade from the Devils on Friday, as “great,” while also calling him a very smart player. “I have a lot of time for ‘Dermie’, he works on his game hard,” said Green. “He knows what his game’s about, too… you’re not going to find a better teammate than Dermie.”
The Sens will open with expansion sibling Tampa Bay on Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena. This will be the first opening night meeting between the two since they entered the league in 1992.
