A PGP Guide to: The Ottawa Senators

A PGP Guide to: The Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators aesthetic is Canada’s capital, Roman centurions, black and red jerseys, the Battle of Ontario, Daniel Alfredsson, offensively gifted Swedish players, playoff heartbreak, a deeply inconvenient arena location, a fanbase that has spent years asking when the rebuild is actually going to end, and one of the messiest captain departures of the 2026 offseason. Ottawa is also unusual because this is technically two different hockey histories sharing one name. The original Ottawa Senators were one of the great teams of early professional hockey and won 11 Stanley Cups before folding in the 1930s. The modern Senators were founded decades later and began playing in 1992. The current franchise honors that history, including one retired number from the original team, but the modern Senators do not inherit those 11 Stanley Cups in the NHL record book.

The modern team has never won the Stanley Cup. It has, however, produced some genuinely great eras, reached the 2007 Stanley Cup Final, came within one goal of returning in 2017 and finally ended a seven year playoff drought in 2025. Now, after making the playoffs in back to back seasons, they're entering 2026-27 without Brady Tkachuk for the first time since he arrived in Ottawa.

The Basics

Team: Ottawa Senators

Conference: Eastern Conference

Division: Atlantic Division

Home Arena: Canadian Tire Centre

Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Modern Franchise Founded: 1991

First NHL Season: 1992-93

Team Colors: Red, black, white and gold

Stanley Cups: 0 for the modern franchise

Biggest Rivals: Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres

The Senators currently play at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, well outside Ottawa’s downtown core. The arena opened in 1996 and has been the franchise’s permanent home ever since, although the organization is actively working toward a future downtown arena district at LeBreton Flats. In 2025, the team finalized an agreement to purchase roughly 11 acres of land and owner Michael Andlauer said in June 2026 that the arena would be only one part of a larger mixed use development. There’s still no finalized opening date, so for now the Sens are very much still in Kanata. They’re also one of the few teams who have yet to name a captain going into the new season. Brady Tkachuk was captain from 2021 through 2026, but Ottawa traded him to Florida during this off season.

The Origin Story

The Senators' history is a bit tricky to explain because while it technically started in 1992, you have to go beyond that to understand it. Ottawa actually had one of the most important teams in the earliest era of organized hockey. The original Ottawa Hockey Club was founded in 1883, decades before the NHL existed. Over time, the team became known as the Senators and emerged as one of the dominant organizations of early professional hockey. The original Senators won 11 Stanley Cups between 1903 and 1927, including championships both before and after the NHL was created in 1917. They were one of the NHL’s founding era powers, and the name “Senators” became deeply connected to hockey in Canada’s capital. 

The Great Depression hit the club hard and Ottawa struggled financially, temporarily suspended operations and eventually relocated to St. Louis for the 1934-35 season, where the team played as the Eagles before folding entirely.

Ottawa went without NHL hockey for almost 60 years, then local businessman Bruce Firestone and his partners launched a campaign to bring the league back to Canada’s capital. Their slogan was extremely straightforward: “Bring Back the Senators”, but it worked because the NHL awarded Ottawa an expansion franchise in December 1990, alongside Tampa Bay, and the modern Senators began playing in 1992-93. The old name was revived specifically because of the city’s historic connection to the original club!

The revived Senators even retired Frank Finnigan’s Number 8 before their inaugural season. Finnigan had played for the original Senators in the 1920s and 1930s and had been one of the biggest supporters of the campaign to bring NHL hockey back to Ottawa. He died shortly before the new team played its first game, so retiring his number became a symbolic link between the old Senators and the new ones.

The Vibe Check

The Senators have always had a slightly younger sibling energy within Canadian hockey. Toronto is the giant media market, Montreal has 24 Stanley Cups and a century of mythology, but Ottawa is the younger modern franchise in between them trying to prove that everybody should take it seriously. There’s also something very funny about the contrast between Ottawa itself and Senators hockey. Ottawa is the national capital with Parliament, government buildings, diplomats, bureaucracy, then you get inside the arena and there’s a giant lion mascot named Spartacat, AC/DC playing while someone rings a ceremonial bell, people yelling about Toronto and a team logo based on a Roman senator.

The franchise has also historically leaned heavily into European talent, particularly Swedish stars. Daniel Alfredsson became the greatest player in team history and Erik Karlsson became one of the most electric defensemen of his generation. Now, Tim Stützle and Jake Sanderson are becoming the faces of the next era.

The History You Need to Know

The modern Senators were terrible when they entered the NHL, but the pain eventually produced draft picks. One of the most important came in 1994, when Ottawa selected a relatively unknown Swedish forward named Daniel Alfredsson in the sixth round, 133rd overall. Alfredsson won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1996 and eventually became captain, franchise icon and the best player the modern Senators have ever had. By the late 1990s, Ottawa had developed into a legitimate playoff team. Alfredsson was joined by players like Alexei Yashin, Wade Redden and Chris Phillips, and the Senators began making the postseason consistently.

In the early 2000s, the Senators became one of the NHL’s best regular season teams and won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2002-03. That spring, they reached the Eastern Conference Final against the New Jersey Devils and forced Game 7, only to lose when Jeff Friesen scored with just over two minutes remaining. It was painful, but the franchise’s best team may actually have come a few years later.

After the 2004-05 lockout, Ottawa assembled the famous Pizza Line of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley, and the nickname is exactly as Ottawa-coded as it sounds. A local pizza promotion offered fans a free slice whenever the Senators scored five goals at home. The team started scoring five goals so frequently that the restaurant eventually had to raise the requirement to six. The line became known as the Pizza Line, and for a couple of seasons they were one of the most dominant offensive combinations in hockey. Heatley scored 50 goals in back to back seasons, the only 50 goal seasons in modern franchise history. In 2006-07, he set a Senators record with 105 points! Spezza became one of the league’s best playmakers, and Alfredsson remained the leader of everything.

During the 2007 Stanley Cup run, Ottawa beat Pittsburgh in five games, beat New Jersey in five, then faced Buffalo in the Eastern Conference Final. Game 5 went to overtime, Alfredsson scored, and for the first time in modern franchise history, the Senators were going to the Stanley Cup Final!  The entire Pizza Line finished tied atop NHL playoff scoring with 22 points each. Ottawa faced the Anaheim Ducks in the Final. The Senators won Game 3 at home, the first Stanley Cup Final game ever played at their current arena, but Anaheim ultimately won the series in five. Ottawa never quite returned to that level with that group…

Then came the Erik Karlsson era! Karlsson became one of the most exciting defensemen in hockey, winning the Norris Trophy in 2012 and again in 2015. By 2017, he was captain and playing some of the best hockey of his career. That spring, Ottawa went on a completely unexpected playoff run, beating Boston, the Rangers, then they faced Sidney Crosby’s defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Final. Game 7 went to overtime, then double overtime, and at 5:09 of the second overtime, Chris Kunitz scored. Ottawa lost 3-2, Pittsburgh went on to win the Stanley Cup, and then the entire team fell apart with almost unbelievable speed. Karlsson was traded. Mark Stone and Matt Duchene were, too. The Senators plunged into a full rebuild. Years passed, a lot of prospects were drafted, a lot of “the future is bright” speeches were made, but the playoffs didn’t happen.

Finally, in 2024-25, Ottawa went 45-30-7 and ended a seven year playoff drought. Their reward was the Toronto Maple Leafs, because of course. The Senators lost the Battle of Ontario in six games, making them 0-5 all-time in playoff series against the Maple Leafs. Still, simply getting back mattered.

Last season, Ottawa improved again, finishing 44-27-11 with 99 points and reaching the postseason for the second consecutive season, something the franchise had not done since 2012 and 2013. Unfortunately, Carolina swept them in the first round.

The Controversies

Alex Formenton & the Hockey Canada Case

The Senators drafted Alex Formenton in 2017 and he played 109 NHL games for the organization before his NHL career stopped after the 2021-22 season. Formenton was one of five members of Canada's 2018 World Junior team charged in connection with an alleged sexual assault following a Hockey Canada event in London, Ontario. All five players were acquitted in June 2025. The NHL later conducted its own investigation and said that although the players had been found not guilty criminally, it considered the conduct involved to have fallen short of the league's standards.

Ottawa technically continued to hold Formenton's NHL rights for years after he stopped playing for the team. In May 2026, the Senators finally relinquished those rights, making him an unrestricted free agent and formally ending his connection to the organization. He returned to the NHL in September 2026 after signing a one year contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

The Icons

Daniel Alfredsson

The Senator.

No one else really competes. Ottawa drafted Alfredsson 133rd overall in 1994, and he became the greatest player in modern franchise history. He spent 17 seasons with the Senators, served as captain for 13, and remains the franchise leader in goals, assists and points. He won the Calder Trophy, led Ottawa to the 2007 Stanley Cup Final and scored the overtime goal that actually sent them there. He became the first modern Senators player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022!

Erik Karlsson

The superstar defenseman.

At his peak in Ottawa, Erik Karlsson didn't really play defense the way anyone expected defensemen to play. He skated everywhere, controlled the puck, created offense, and made a position that can occasionally be deeply unglamorous look extremely glamorous. Karlsson won the Norris Trophy twice, in 2012 and 2015, and remains the highest scoring defenseman in modern Senators history. He also captained the team during the 2017 run to within one goal of the Stanley Cup Final. His 2017 playoff performance, much of it played while dealing with serious ankle injuries, is still one of the defining memories of the modern franchise.

Jason Spezza

The playmaker.

Ottawa drafted Jason Spezza second overall in 2001, and he developed into one of the most gifted offensive players in team history. He was the middle of the Pizza Line, routinely making ridiculous passes to Alfredsson and Heatley, and ranks second in modern franchise history in goals, assists and points. Spezza eventually became captain for one season before being traded to Dallas in 2014.

Dany Heatley

The 50-goal guy.

Heatley’s Ottawa tenure wasn't especially long, but it was extremely memorable. He scored exactly 50 goals in both 2005-06 and 2006-07, becoming the only player in modern Senators history to reach the mark. He also owns the modern franchise single season points record with 105. His eventual trade request didn’t exactly make the breakup graceful, but you can’t tell the story of Ottawa's best offensive era without him.

Chris Phillips

The franchise lifer.

Ottawa drafted Chris Phillips first overall in 1996 and he never left. Phillips played 1,179 NHL games, all for the Senators, and became the steady defensive presence connecting multiple versions of the team. 

Chris Neil

The fan favorite.

Chris Neil is one of those players whose importance to a franchise makes a lot more sense if you actually watched the games. He wasn't the superstar, he was the guy who hit people, fought people, annoyed people and somehow spent 1,026 games entirely with Ottawa.

Craig Anderson

The goalie of the modern playoff era.

Craig Anderson played ten seasons in Ottawa and became the most important goaltender of the franchise’s post 2007 years. He backstopped the 2017 Eastern Conference Final run and ranks first among modern Senators goalies in games played and wins. When the NHL selected Ottawa’s Quarter-Century Team in 2025, Anderson was the first team goalie. 

The Current Era

The current Ottawa era was supposed to be built around a core of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson and company finally dragging the Senators out of the rebuild. For a while, that's exactly what happened. Tkachuk became captain in 2021, Stützle developed into a star, and Sanderson became a legitimate top level defenseman. Players like Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto matured around them, Ottawa acquired Linus Ullmark to stabilize the net, then Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund arrived during the 2024-25 season. Finally, Ottawa returned to the playoffs, then made them again this past year. So naturally, just as the rebuild finally looked finished, the captain left.

On June 21, 2026, Ottawa traded Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, where he joined his brother Matthew. The Senators received the 9th and 25th picks in the 2026 Draft, a second round pick in 2027 and a conditional first round pick in 2029. Tkachuk left after 572 games, 213 goals and 463 points with Ottawa.  General manager Steve Staios was very clear afterward that Ottawa was not rebuilding again. 

Two days later, Ottawa used the 9th pick from Florida as trade currency, sending it to San Jose for William Eklund, prospect Kasper Halttunen and the rights to Brandon Svoboda. Eklund is only 23 and already had back to back 50 point seasons, so rather than keeping every draft asset and waiting, the Senators immediately turned one into NHL help. They also acquired Andre Burakovsky from Chicago for a sixth round pick, brought in goaltender Samuel Ersson, re-signed Claude Giroux for one more year and extended Jordan Spence for four seasons (Spenny, LA missed you so much).

Ottawa lost its captain and still got better, how rare is that?

The Players You Need to Know

Tim Stützle

The superstar & new face of the team.

With Brady Tkachuk gone, this is Tim Stützle's team now! Ottawa drafted him 3rd overall in 2020, and he has developed into one of the NHL's best young centers. He finished 2025-26 with 34 goals and 83 points in 80 games, marking his fourth consecutive season with at least 70 points and his second career 80 point season. Since entering the league, he leads Ottawa in assists, points and power play points. He's fast, creative, emotional and a very good person to build your offense around.

Jake Sanderson

The blue line cornerstone.

Jake Sanderson has become one of the best young defensemen in hockey. Ottawa selected him 5th overall in 2020 and his development has been extremely steady. In 2025-26, he scored a career high 14 goals and 54 points in only 67 games while averaging 24:50 per game, eighth-most in the NHL, and finished as a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy! Stützle and Sanderson as the new co-faces of the franchise and to me, it feels right.

Drake Batherson

The scorer people outside Ottawa don't talk about enough.

Drake Batherson just had the best season of his career, scoring 33 goals and 71 points in 79 games, setting career highs in goals, points and game winning goals. He's now scored at least 20 goals in four consecutive seasons! He's not the flashy first overall pick type of name, he is, however, becoming one of the most reliable offensive players Ottawa has.

Dylan Cozens

The physical center with more offense in him.

Ottawa acquired Dylan Cozens from Buffalo during the 2024-25 season, and his first full year as a Senator was legitimately good. He finished 2025-26 with 28 goals and 59 points, while also recording more than 200 shots and 215 hits. He was the only NHL player that season with at least 25 goals, 200 shots and 200 hits. That combination is perfect for a fanbase that loves players who can score without becoming allergic to contact.

William Eklund

The major new addition.

“So what did Ottawa even do after trading Brady?” They went and got William Eklund, a 23 year old top six winger who had 15 goals and 53 points in 78 games with San Jose in 2025-26 and has recorded at least 50 points in consecutive seasons. Ottawa acquired him along with two prospects for the 9th pick it had just received from Florida. He's skilled, creative and young enough to fit the Stützle/Sanderson timeline. 

Thomas Chabot

The veteran defenseman who survived the rebuild.

Thomas Chabot has been in Ottawa since the years when “the rebuild” felt approximately nine centuries long. He became a high minute offensive defenseman early, lived through basically every version of the bad years and is now one of the veteran leaders on a much more competitive team. With the captaincy open, I’d put Chabot alongside Claude Giroux as one of the players expected to carry more of the leadership load.

Claude Giroux

The hometown-ish veteran hockey dad.

Claude Giroux grew up in the Ottawa area, spent most of his career as the face of the Philadelphia Flyers and eventually came home-ish by signing with the Senators in 2022. He’s a smart veteran, a leader, a player who knows what important hockey feels like, and because of that, he’s become exactly what Ottawa hoped for. Ottawa re-signed the now-38-year-old to a one year deal for 2026-27, keeping him around during this leadership transition. If Ottawa doesn't name a captain immediately, Giroux is one of the people I would expect to function like one anyway.

Linus Ullmark

The goalie Ottawa needs to stabilize.

Ottawa's goaltending history after Craig Anderson has been…a journey, but Linus Ullmark was brought in to end that. He has a Vezina Trophy from his time in Boston and remains Ottawa's starter, but the 2025-26 season was uneven enough that the Senators brought in goaltending specialist Maciej Szwoch, a longtime Ullmark mentor, to work within the organization. Ottawa also acquired Samuel Ersson this summer to provide a different backup option! The Senators have the skaters to be good, but if the goaltending is steady, they become much more dangerous.

Carter Yakemchuk

The young defenseman pushing for a real job.

Ottawa drafted Carter Yakemchuk 7th overall in 2024, and he's one of the organization's most important prospects. He's big, offensively talented and has an actual chance to push for an NHL roster spot in training camp this year. With Sanderson already established, the possibility of another high end young defenseman joining the lineup is extremely appealing.

The Rivalries

Toronto Maple Leafs

Senators/Maple Leafs is the Battle of Ontario. Toronto is Canada's biggest city, but Ottawa is the capital. Toronto has the old Original Six prestige while Ottawa is the younger team that arrived in 1992. Geographically, they're only about four hours apart. The rivalry became genuinely nasty because of the playoffs. From 2000 through 2004, Ottawa and Toronto met in the postseason four times in five years and Toronto won all four. Then, after more than twenty years without a playoff matchup, they met again in 2025, and Toronto won again. So Ottawa is now 0-5 all-time in playoff series against the Leafs, which, understandably, is infuriating.

Leafs fans travel extremely well to Ottawa and have historically filled large portions of the Senators' home arena which drives Senators fans insane. During the early Battle of Ontario years, Ottawa radio literally ran ads telling residents “You live in Ottawa. Not Toronto.”... Yeah… and the 2026-27 Senators season opens where? Toronto.

Montreal Canadiens

Ottawa/Montreal isn't as fundamental as Ottawa/Toronto, but when it gets angry, it gets angry. The rivalry really exploded during the 2013 playoffs. Ottawa beat Montreal in five games, and the series had basically everything you could want from a hockey feud: huge hits, fighting, trash talk, a full line brawl and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scoring a hat trick. Montreal got revenge in 2015, eliminating Ottawa in six games.

Geography obviously helps as Montreal is only a couple hours from Ottawa, so fans travel. The cities share bilingual and national-capital-region cultural overlap and games can get extremely loud when Canadiens fans invade Canadian Tire Centre. It's not Toronto, but Ottawa cares.

Buffalo Sabres

This one belongs mostly to the 2000s playoff era. Ottawa and Buffalo met in the postseason repeatedly, and for a while the teams were among the best in the Eastern Conference at exactly the same time. Buffalo eliminated Ottawa in five games in 2006, with four of the five games decided by one goal and three requiring overtime. Ottawa got revenge one year later, in the 2007 Eastern Conference Final,when the Senators beat Buffalo in five games. Daniel Alfredsson sent Ottawa to its first Stanley Cup Final and gave the rivalry one of the biggest goals in Senators history. The rivalry isn't at its mid-2000s level now, but because they're still Atlantic Division opponents and both franchises are trying to stay relevant in the East, there’s room for it to get annoying again.

The Fanbase

Ottawa fans call themselves the Sens Army, and the fanbase has had to develop a fairly strong sense of humor. They watched an expansion team lose 70 games, then watched one of the NHL's best regular season teams repeatedly lose to Toronto. They finally got a Stanley Cup Final and then watched the organization nearly reach another one in 2017. Then the fans watched basically the entire roster get dismantled and waited seven years for another playoff game. To say the least, this is NOT a fanbase that has been bored.

One of the biggest modern fan traditions is the Sens Mile on Elgin Street. During playoff runs, a stretch of the downtown street becomes a gathering place for fans, complete with temporary “Sens Mile” signage, bars packed with people in jerseys and the general atmosphere of an entire city remembering it likes playoff hockey. It returned during the 2026 postseason!

The Senators also introduced a rally bell at Canadian Tire Centre in 2024-25. A fan or local celebrity rings it before games as a tribute to the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, followed by AC/DC's “Hells Bells” as the team takes the ice. Their mascot, Spartacat, is a giant lion. His hobbies, according to the Senators, include hitting his cowbell and “raking Leafs.”

There's also been a real effort under the current ownership to reconnect the team with the city. For 2026-27, Ottawa is introducing a new fan deck at Canadian Tire Centre and a free Sens Army Express bus program that will pick fans up from participating bars around Ottawa/Gatineau and bring them to the arena.

The Retired Numbers

The modern Senators have officially retired four numbers, although one belongs to a player from the original franchise. 

No. 4 — Chris Phillips

Ottawa drafted him first overall in 1996, and he played every one of his 1,179 NHL games as a Senator. He was tied to basically every important Ottawa team from the late 1990s through the early 2010s.

No. 8 — Frank Finnigan

This is the link to the original Senators! Finnigan played for Ottawa during the 1920s and 1930s, including the original franchise's final Stanley Cup team in 1927. Decades later, he became deeply involved in the campaign to return NHL hockey to Ottawa. The new Senators retired number 8 in his honor in 1992, before the modern franchise played its first season. 

No. 11 — Daniel Alfredsson

The captain, the franchise leader in goals, assists and points, the man who scored the goal that sent Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Final! The modern Ottawa Senator!

No. 25 — Chris Neil

1,026 NHL games, all in Ottawa with more than 2,500 penalty minutes, and one of the most beloved players the franchise has ever had. Not every retired number belongs to the superstar, sometimes it belongs to the guy who perfectly represented how a fanbase wanted its team to play.

The Team Identity

The Senators spent years being defined by potential whether it was a potentially good young core, potentially dangerous offense, potentially ready to make the playoffs, or potentially done rebuilding. That era should be over considering Ottawa has now reached the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Tim Stützle just had 83 points, Jake Sanderson has become a legitimate high end defenseman, Drake Batherson just scored 33 goals and Dylan Cozens scored 28.

They added William Eklund, have young players like Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, Fabian Zetterlund and Carter Yakemchuk still capable of becoming more, and it’s clear that this is a team with talent, but it’s a team without a captain. For years, Tkachuk was basically the human embodiment of Senators hockey. He was physical, emotional, annoying, loud, always in the middle of everything, but now he's gone and Ottawa hasn't named another captain. That leaves Stützle and Sanderson as the obvious long term center of the roster, with veterans like Giroux and Chabot helping bridge the leadership gap. 

Steve Staio, after trading Tkachuk, made it very clear that the Senators are not going backward, and trading the 9th pick for Eklund proved it. They traded their captain and they still expect to win, not hide and start over.

Why You Should Watch Them

You should watch the Ottawa Senators because this franchise somehow manages to combine Canadian hockey history with the energy of a much younger, slightly chaotic expansion team. You get the original Senators and their 11 Stanley Cups, but also the modern expansion disaster. There’s Daniel Alfredsson, the Pizza Line, and back-to-back 50 goal seasons from Dany Heatley. They have the 2007 Stanley Cup Final, too, although painful. They had Erik Karlsson skating around everyone. They experienced the 2017 double OT heartbreak and a 7 year playoff drought that followed.

This is a team actively engaged in the Battle of Ontario, with Toronto repeatedly ruining everything. They have Spartacat, the Sens Mile, a rally bell based on Parliament Hill, and now, a genuinely fascinating new era. Ottawa finally became a playoff team again, then its captain left, and now, Tim Stützle is the face of the franchise with Jake Sanderson becoming one of the NHL's best young defensemen. Drake Batherson just had a career year, William Eklund is the big new addition, and Dylan Cozens gives them goals and chaos. There are still good young players coming, and the organization insists it has no intention of taking a step backward.

The 2026-27 Senators aren’t another chapter of the rebuild, they’re the first real test of what comes after it. For years Ottawa fans kept asking when the future was finally going to arrive, and I’m here to say that this is their future, now they have to figure out whether it's actually good enough to win.