Ottawa Senators Latest Roster Moves Prioritize Team Toughness

On Sunday, the Ottawa Senators made their final cuts from training camp, placing forwards Jan Jenik and Adam Gaudette on waivers, and leaving 24 players on the main roster.

This is one player above the 23-man limit, but Matthew Highmore, who sustained an injury in the last preseason game, may be bound for LTIR. An injured player cannot be waived and sent to the AHL.

So, if we make that assumption, the opening night roster will look something like this:

If there are no further moves today, this means that 19-year-old Carter Yakemchuk has made the team, Zach Ostapchuk beat out Janik for the 4C role, and Zac MacEwen beat out Gaudette for the extra forward position.

This is curious for a few reasons. Not only did Jenik and Gaudette appear to have better training camps than MacEwen and Ostapchuk, but keeping the latter two is much riskier from an asset management perspective. Jenik and Gaudette are now available to be claimed by any of the other 31 NHL teams, should one wish to keep them on their 23-man roster.

Ostapchuk, who is waiver-exempt, could have been assigned to Belleville with zero risk of losing the player. MacEwen would have to clear waivers, however. He’s on a one-way contract, meaning he makes the same salary in the NHL as in the AHL, making him much less likely to be claimed. It is also worth noting that he cleared waivers last season.

So why is management taking this “risk”? First and foremost, it is unlikely that Jan Jenik and Adam Gaudette will be claimed by another team. Although it is a risk in some sense, those two players are among a huge list of names waived by other teams in the same position and there are often very few claims made during this period.

Secondly, it has been abundantly clear that there is a mandate from management and the coaching staff that this team needs to be harder to play against. From mentioning it several times in interviews and acting on it by acquiring players such as David Perron and Nick Cousins, this team wants toughness to be part of their identity.

Although Janik and Gaudette could likely provide more offence and skill, Ostapchuk and MacEwen are a better fit with the new identity. MacEwen has been a known tough guy around the league for a while now and is often willing to fight. Ostapchuk’s toughness has been well-documented throughout his young career, including a decisive win in a fight over New York Rangers’ enforcer, Matt Rempe, when playing in the WHL.

Only time will tell if going in this direction with the roster will be successful, or worth the “risk” of placing useful players on waivers. One thing that can be said for sure, however, is that this new Senators’ regime from Michael Andlauer to Steve Staios to Travis Green, has a vision for this team and will continue to shape it how they see fit, ignoring all outside noise.