The Ottawa Senators have decided to take a wait-and-see approach with 29 days until the trade deadline.
The National Hockey League’s roster freeze went into effect at 3 p.m. Wednesday and will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 22. With the break for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games set to begin on Friday, the Senators opted to stand pat ahead of the roster freeze.
Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, has been working the phones to find the right fit for the Senators, but, like many executives around the league, he’ll use the break to study his roster and determine what’s available.
Preparing to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night to wrap up a three-game road trip, the Senators were seven points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wildcard spot in the East. The Bruins faced the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night.
League executives have told the Ottawa Citizen that the Senators have been searching the market for a right-shot defenceman who can play in the top four and a top-six winger.
Seth Jarvis of the Carolina Hurricanes gets the puck past James Reimer of the Ottawa Senators for a goal during the second period on Tuesdday, Feb. 3, 2026 in Raleigh, N.C.
Staios would still like to add to his roster rather than subtract. The Senators are holding onto hope that, with 25 games left after the break, they can find a way to string some wins together and close the gap on the clubs they’re chasing in the playoff race.
The club’s 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night in Raleigh followed the same script as many others this season: The Senators play well, can’t score and don’t get enough saves from their own goaltender; in this case, it was James Reimer.
Staios doesn’t want to get caught up in making wholesale changes to his roster just because the Senators haven’t been getting enough saves. There is also hope that top goalie Linus Ullmark, back from his leave of absence for mental health reasons, can lead them down the stretch.
Trying to acquire a defenceman and a winger is difficult because the teams that are willing to move either of those commodities have high asking prices, because there are several teams interested.
The list of sellers is short: The Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames have accepted their reality in the West. In the East, only the New York Rangers have stated they will sell because the standings are so tight from top to bottom.
We’ve stated in this space that the Senators have shown interest in Calgary blueliner MacKenzie Weegar, who has a cap hit of $6.25 milliion U.S. through the 2030-31 campaign. He would stabilize the right side in the club’s top four.
A league executive told the Ottawa Citizen that the Senators’ pursuit of Calgary Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar is serious.
League executives believe the Flames would want a second-round pick and a high-end prospect or roster player in return for Weegar. We won’t speculate on what the asking price would be from the Senators because we haven’t heard.
A league executive told the Citizen that the Senators’ pursuit of Weegar is serious. The Detroit Red Wings may be another team that has held talks with the Flames regarding Weegar.
“He’s underrated,” a league executive said Wednesday about Weegar. “He plays high minutes, competes hard and he plays in every situation. I know they traded him from Florida to get (Matthew) Tkachuk, but Weegar was playing with (Aaron) Ekblad.”
The Senators were hardly the only team to sit still as the freeze kicked in.
The Rangers did deal winger Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for prospect winger Liam Greentree and a third-round pick. Panarin then signed a two-year extension worth $11 million per year.
The Blues sent forward Nick Bjugstad to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for forward Thomas Bordeleau and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
The Senators are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games. Since the start of the calendar year, the Senators have posted a 9-7-2 record and a .556 winning percentage, which ranks them No. 20 in the NHL.
To make the playoffs, the Senators will likely have to win or earn points in 20 of their final 26 games, starting with the visit to Philly. That isn’t an impossible task, but it’s improbable, and that’s a result of the Senators letting too many games slip away this season.
According to the site Tankathon.com, the Senators have the NHL’s eighth-most difficult schedule left when they return.
If the Senators fall too far out of the race when the NHL does return to action on Feb. 26, then Staios will have decisions to make on the club’s unrestricted free agents, including Claude Giroux, David Perron, Lars Eller, Nick Cousins and defenceman Nick Jensen.
Goaltender Mads Sogaard, who will suit up for Denmark at the Winter Olympics, is with the club’s American Hockey League team in Belleville, and there is talk he could get moved.
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