Staff Grade: A-; Reader Grade: B+

We open our 2025-2026 season grades with an underrated gem in Michael Amadio, who held down the fort on the third line for the Sens this season.

It’s no surprise that Amadio fared well in our end-of-season grades this year, because it’s hard to find any big faults in his game. As a career bottom-six forward making $2.6 million a year, and now with 11 seasons under his belt, you know exactly what you’re getting with him. Amadio is here to be defensively responsible and contribute a goal or two here and there; nothing more, nothing less.

Amadio did that and more in 2025-26. Playing almost entirely on the third line with Shane Pinto, he suited up for a career-high 81 games and scored a career-high 35 points, including 15 goals. More importantly, he was an integral part of one of the best (regular season) shutdown lines in the league, putting up some of the best defensive numbers out of all NHL forwards, not just those in Ottawa.

Evolving Hockey gave Amadio a +4.4 defensive rating this season, which is 23rd in the entire league among forwards, and their Goals Above Replacement and Wins Above Replacement models have him as one of the most valuable players on the team. His player card shows that he’s on the positive side of every metric except the powerplay (which he doesn’t play), giving him a very high defensive score and a perfectly acceptable offensive score.

The Athletic’s model was even kinder to him, giving him a +5.5 defensive rating, which is second in the league among forwards, behind only the probable selke winner in Nick Suzuki.

Defence can be a bit hard to evaluate, especially for forwards, and that’s probably why there’s a bit of variance between these models, but everyone ranks Amadio – and his entire line – quite highly.

Travis Green trusted the Pinto-Amadio line (I’m calling it that because the left winger varied a lot over the course of the season, while that part stayed consistent) with the toughest defensive matchups all season long. Amadio was second only to Artem Zub in defensive zone starts among Ottawa skaters, and was often matched up against opposing teams’ top lines. 

That line was obviously a huge part of Ottawa’s success in the regular season, especially in possession metrics. Most analytics models ranked the Sens as the best defensive team in the entire league this year, an accomplishment that unfortunately went underappreciated outside of analytics circles because of historically bad goaltending. A huge part of Ottawa’s dominance in this respect was the fact they had a third line that could completely shut down other teams’ top lines, freeing up the first and second lines to feast on weaker competition. Amadio was a big part of that. He led the whole team in takeaways, with 29, and consistently proved himself capable of breaking up plays without taking too many penalties.

Amadio also was one of Travis Green’s most trusted players on the penalty kill, with just over 91 minutes of ice time.

On top of all that, Amadio scored 15 goals and 20 assists, and it’s easy to see how he did it. When your team always has the puck when you’re on the ice, scoring chances will naturally follow. Most of Amadio’s goals this year were the result of him having high hockey IQ, working hard, and just knowing where to be on the ice. He’s not the most offensively talented player on the team, obviously, but he can finish his chances.

This one feels like a good example of what he does well: his line creates pressure down low, and Amadio is in the perfect spot at exactly the right time.

Michael Amadio has his 10th goal of the season 🙌 pic.twitter.com/YoLvas8LmN

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 8, 2026

He knows how to pick his moments, too. According to Natural Stat Trick, nine of Amadio’s 15 goals this year were scored when the team was trailing by one goal, and two of them were scored when the team was tied. He’s a surprisingly clutch player.

(He also only took 2 penalties while his team was within 1, which is a lot fewer than every other regular skater. His teammates should really try following his example there).

Unfortunately, all of Amadio’s accomplishments this season need to be accompanied by the asterisk that they happened during the regular season. He was shockingly ineffective in the playoffs, and I’m not just referring to his 0 points in 4 games.

His line with Pinto, which had been so effective in the regular season, ended up being one of the main difference makers in the short series against the Hurricanes, in a bad way. They got completely caved in by the Stankoven line.

Amadio also famously missed a perfect scoring chance in overtime of game 2, so he wasn’t providing clutch goal scoring either.

I say that his postseason performance was shocking because Amadio has always been one of those players who elevates his game during the playoffs. He had 5 goals in 16 games with the Golden Knights the year they won the cup, including an overtime winner in the first round. He’s never been a star, but he’s the kind of depth piece that teams are always looking for heading into the playoffs. It’s disappointing that he hasn’t been that for Ottawa in either of their (very brief) postseason appearances.

The good news is that Amadio’s playoff performance was the only real negative thing about his season. 35 points, a bunch of clutch goals, and a defensive performance that ranked near the top of the league, all while making just $2.6 million a year, is just about the best you can ask for from a third liner.