What the Ottawa Senators Need to do to Make a 2024 Stanley Cup Run

Ottawa Senators Stanley Cup Odds 

1. 🏒 The Senators at 41.00 to win the Cup next season, and 21.00 to win the Eastern Conference at BetMGM Sportsbook
2. 🏒 The Senators are 41.00 to win the Cup, and 21.00 to win the East at NorthStar Bets
3. 🏒 The Senators are 41.00 to win the Cup at PointsBet Canada

We’re on the eve of the NHL’s off-season crazy time, with the draft coming up tomorrow in Nashville, followed by free agency starting on July 1. 

A Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993 (the Montreal Canadiens), an abomination that Canadian hockey fans want to be corrected. 

Let’s take a look at what the Canadian teams need to do to turn the tide on that and bring a Cup back to Canadian soil. Here, we look at the Ottawa Senators.

What the Ottawa Senators Need to Improve Next Season

The Ottawa Senators are a good, young, rising NHL team, that finished 11th in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 39-35-8, for 86 points. There’s a talented roster there, led by LW Brady Tkachuk, LW, Tim Stutzle, C Josh Norris, D Thomas Chabot and D Jakob Chychrun.

But they missed the playoffs last season, and they aren’t going anywhere with the goaltending they have. Thirty-year-old Anton Forsberg suffered two knee injuries and who knows if he is able to come back from that. Mads Sogaard is just 22 and had an .889 save percentage last season. Cam Talbot (17-14-2, 2,93 GAA, .898 save percentage) is a UFA, and is 35. We don’t see the Sens bringing Talbot back.

With around $17 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly, do the Sens bring back restricted free agent RW Alex DeBrincat or let him go and make a splashy deal for someone like G Connor Hellebuyck, now with the Winnipeg Jets (under contract for one more season at $6.1 million)?

Or how about former Frederick Andersen, 33, a UFA who played 34 games for the Carolina Hurricanes last season, with a 2.48 GAA and .903 save percentage, following that up with nine games played in the playoffs (1.83 GAA, .927 SV%)? Health is the gamble with Andersen?

The Senators were 13th in the NHL in goals against average last season, at 3.29.

The Ottawa Senators Can Spend Now

The bottom line is the Sens have cap space to play with, new ownership coming in, and lots of positive buzz around the organization now. 

What they decide to do with DeBrincat is one of the big things to keep an eye. He was OK last season – 27 goals, 39 assists, but was a -31. But this was a guy who was a 78-point man with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021-22 – including 41 goals. The decision on DeBrincat will be the first domino to fall, before they address the rest of the lineup.  

BetMGM has early NHL Futures and lists the Senators at 41.00 to win the Cup next season, and 21.00 to win the Eastern Conference. 

NorthStar Bets has the Sens at 41.00 as well, and 21.00 to win the East. PointsBet Canada has the Sens at 46.00 to win the Cup.