- Steve Staios and Travis Green are closing in on a call, per Bruce Garrioch
- Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle are the three names in the mix
- Read below for why Ottawa wants the C settled before camp opens Sept. 16
Ottawa is close to filling the hole Brady Tkachuk left behind.
Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios and head coach Travis Green are closing in on a decision on the team’s next captain, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen. Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle are the three candidates.
There have been several internal discussions at the Canadian Tire Centre over the past couple of weeks, Garrioch wrote, and the club wants the announcement out before training camp opens Sept. 16.
The job opened up on June 21, when Ottawa traded Tkachuk to Florida after he asked out. Four draft picks came back.
Sanderson is the popular pick. He is one of the best defencemen in the league and his role has grown in each of the last two seasons.
Garrioch went a different way in his column, laying out the case for Chabot instead.
“There is no player more committed to this franchise than Chabot.”
Chabot has been in Ottawa the whole way. He has 78 goals and 335 points in 569 games, all with the Senators, and he missed the playoffs in his first seven seasons without ever asking out.
He already got passed over once. The organization went three years without a captain after shipping Erik Karlsson to San Jose in 2018, then gave the C to Tkachuk in November 2021. Chabot has worn an alternate’s A since 2020-21.
His willingness to play hurt is not in question either. A J.T. Miller slash broke his arm on March 23 and the initial timeline was six to eight weeks. He was back in the lineup 17 days after surgery to help push Ottawa into the postseason.
Stutzle rounds out the list. He is the No. 1 centre, he is signed into the 2030s, and he has already said publicly that the Senators have to move on from the Tkachuk trade.
He is also the guy Ottawa sent overseas this month for the NHL’s European Media Tour, which speaks to the marketing side Garrioch raised. Watch Stutzle check in from Germany:
Whoever gets it becomes the 11th captain in Senators history. Camp opens in three weeks, so the answer is not far off.
