What can the Senators learn from this year’s Stanley Cup finalists? 4 lessons for the future

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The Ottawa Senators accomplished their goal of making the playoffs this season. But those standards have already changed months ahead of the 2025-26 year.

It wouldn’t hurt for them to take a few cues from the two Stanley Cup finalists in the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, who will meet again in a rematch of last year’s final. So we put together a list of lessons the Senators could learn from watching both teams over the next few days.

Here’s an encouraging sign for Senators after putting together this list: the Sens have already started on some of these.

Defence wins championships, and those pieces can come from anywhere

Ottawa is already a much-improved defensive team compared to previous seasons. The Sens allowed 3.43 goals per game during the 2023-24 campaign, fifth-worst in the NHL. This past season, it was 2.83 goals allowed per game, 13th-best in the league. Their players committed to playing defence while buying into head coach Travis Green’s game plan. The Sens also received contributions from trade acquisition Nick Jensen, who looked good alongside Thomas Chabot, as well as two youngsters emerging in Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo. Both are now signed on short-term deals.

Jensen reportedly had offseason surgery for a nagging lower-body injury that plagued him in the back half of the season. The defenceman hopes to be ready for training camp, but a question mark remains over his spot in the lineup. It wouldn’t hurt the Senators to add to their depth. The only thing is, depending on what comes of their contract negotiations with Claude Giroux and Fabian Zetterlund, the Sens won’t have much money to make a big-money addition at the back.

The Panthers and the Oilers have sought cost-effective defencemen to build their corps in their respective evolutions. The Oilers acquired Ty Emberson for Cody Ceci and a third-round pick last summer. When the Montreal Canadiens began their rebuild during the 2022 campaign, Edmonton picked up Brett Kulak. At the 2024 trade deadline, the Oilers traded for Troy Stecher, and this year they won a bidding war for John Klingberg and picked up Jake Walman ahead of the deadline from San Jose.

The Panthers drew headlines for landing Seth Jones at this year’s deadline, but their defence has also seen meaningful contributions from players who were less heralded upon arrival. Gustav Forsling was plucked from waivers in 2021 as a Carolina Hurricanes castoff. He’s now the team’s second-highest-paid defenceman. Niko Mikkola was a free agent signing during the 2023 free agency period. Nate Schmidt was signed last July.

It’s on the Sens to continue tweaking their defensive corps, adding bodies for depth on cheap contracts just as the best teams have. And with health questions surrounding their blue line, the Sens could benefit from adding another player regardless.

You don’t need to be the best scoring team, but it pays to be good at five-on-five

The Senators made a series of free-agent moves last summer to insulate their top talent with veteran experience. The problem is, those pieces didn’t turn the Senators into a high-scoring team, even when the Sens acquired Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund at the deadline with the hopes of adding contributors for five-on-five play.

Ottawa doesn’t have to be the absolute best scoring team at five-on-five in the regular season — Edmonton and Florida were ranked 14th and 22nd, respectively — but the Senators could stand to improve after finishing the season at 31st. Ottawa also scored eight goals at five-on-five in the playoffs, tied for second-worst among all teams eliminated in the first round (with Tampa Bay, surprisingly).

Meanwhile, the Oilers (3.06 goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five) and Panthers (3.53 goals per 60) are two of the top three highest-scoring per-game teams in the playoffs this spring. Past investments on goal scorers like Zach Hyman, Evander Kane and Matthew Tkachuk have paid off for both teams, among others.

If pulling the trigger on a trade can net you that goalscorer, the Sens must consider it. It’s worth looking at teams like Dallas that could be desperate for cap space this summer.

Evander Kane’s ability to put the puck in the net has been a difference-maker for the Oilers this playoffs. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

Improve your team’s reputation and make your team a destination

This one’s on Michael Andlauer and Steve Staios.

Yes, winning games should help with this. But if the Senators want to lure more talent to play in Ottawa, they need to continue overhauling their reputation post-Eugene Melnyk. It means enhancing the Canadian Tire Centre until you resolve your downtown arena situation with the NCC. It means continuing to increase your brand and foothold in Ottawa and Gatineau while maintaining the fans’ passion, particularly against opposing fans who swarm the CTC when their teams are in town.

Last month, Staios said Ottawa is the “most underrated market in the National Hockey League.” That phrase will probably be repeated over and over when the Sens make their pitches at prospective acquisitions this spring.

Edmonton and Florida have become destinations for players while boasting unique financial advantages and weather conditions. But at the base, they built winning teams.

Florida has transformed itself from a laughingstock with little playoff success to a perennial Cup contender, with fans crying foul over their tax benefits. GM Bill Zito is just playing the game to his advantage while building a winning team. The Edmonton Oilers were fortunate enough to have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl as pillars of their team. But they still worked hard at creating a Cup contender of their own, surrounding those pieces and getting them to play in Alberta.

(If I were an NHL player and I had to live in a province where polar vortices can make it feel like minus-45 degrees Celsius, but I knew I’d have a chance at a Cup every year playing alongside two top-five players, I’d strongly consider it. As someone who lived in Alberta for two years, I get the appeal!)

The regular season doesn’t matter for the best teams

The Senators entered this year’s playoffs with optimism when they drew the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round. The Sens swept their regular-season series while shutting down the Leafs’ best offensive players. If the Sens matched up with the Eastern Conference-best Washington Capitals, there would’ve been optimism as well, considering how high-octane each of their regular-season matchups were.

But when the playoffs begin, those games do not matter. At all. Those regular-season games are dress rehearsals at best.

The Leafs secured big wins when it mattered in the first round, despite Ottawa holding their own at five-on-five. But Toronto still fell victim to the Florida Panthers, who lulled everyone into thinking they were faulty after a poor final month of their season. Those Caps? Out in the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Sens need to work to make the playoffs as they play in a stacked Atlantic Division. But the league’s best teams turn up regardless of where they’re seeded. Of course, surprises can come from any seed. Ottawa’s playoff-savvy veterans like David Perron and Claude Giroux know exactly what that’s like.

(Top photo of Artem Zub and Sam Bennett: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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