The Ottawa Senators are driving hard to lock up one of the two Eastern Conference wild card spots in the 2025 NHL Playoffs. The team’s stars, including Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle, are leading the charge, but they alone won’t be enough to carry the Senators into the playoffs and on to success in the first round.
Playoff runs are often stories about unlikely heroes who found a way to make their mark when it counted. So, as the Senators battle their way into the postseason, who are the X-factors on their roster who could be the difference-makers? Below, I offer my picks.
Why Depth Counts in an NHL Playoff Push and Beyond
Depth scoring and contributions from players down the depth chart are critical to teams in a fight for a wild card spot. Late in the season, the top guns on any team are banged up and worn down. They can’t carry the entire load. What’s more, other teams key on them heavily in order to keep them off the scoreboard. There simply must be contributions from the back end of the roster if a team is to go very far in the postseason.
It’s also true that teams facing scoring threats from more than just a few of an opposing team’s top players are quickly put back on their heels. Defense becomes more difficult when offense can come from anywhere. Relying on a few set defensive plays and focusing on the other team’s top skaters just won’t cut it when scoring threats can come from anywhere on the depth chart.
Goals are important, and it’s true that depth players don’t get a lot of them. Still, they step up in other ways such as setting up plays, shutting down rushes, penalty killing and creating scoring chances for teammates.
Looking back over the long history of the Senators, many unsung heroes could inspire those who may come to the fore this year. Who could forget the performance of a young third-line centreman from Gatineau in a second-round playoff series in 2017 against the New York Rangers? Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored a hat trick in Game 2 of that series to put the Senators up 2-0. One of his three goals in that game was the overtime winner.
In that same year, Clarke MacArthur, struggling to overcome repeated concussions, stepped up in the Senators’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins to score the series-winning goal in Game 6.
Could any Senators fan forget then-19-year-old Jason Spezza’s play in the 2003 Eastern Conference Final against the New Jersey Devils? In Game 5 – in his first-ever NHL playoff game, Spezza finished off the Devils with a goal late in the third period to draw his team to within a game of tying the series. In the next game, stay-at-home defenceman Chris Phillips scored just his fourth goal of the season late in the third period to force Game 7 back in Ottawa.
Sometime soon, a new generation of unsung heroes must step up to write a new chapter in the annals of Senators history. Who will they be? Here are three I’d bet on.
Fabian Zetterlund
When the Senators picked up right-winger Fabian Zetterlund just minutes before the 2025 Trade Deadline, head coach Travis Green described him as a player who “goes hard to the net, likes to shoot the puck and has a good shot. He’s got a nose for the net.” Senators fans could be forgiven for asking whether Green was talking about Zetterlund since the 25-year-old Swede has produced just one assist in the 16 games he’s played in a Senators uniform so far this season.
Yet if they look at his breakout year in 2023-24, they’ll find some comfort. In 82 games with the San Jose Sharks, he marked up the scoresheet for 24 goals and 20 assists for a total of 44 points – nearly double his previous career high of 23 points. This season, these numbers would put him among the Senators’ top four point-getters and alongside Tkachuk and Stutzle in goals scored.
Fabian Zetterlund, Ottawa Senators (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
What’s important is that 17 of his 24 goals last season were scored at even strength – something the Senators could use. While their goal scoring has improved lately, they are still only ranked 18th in the league in total goals scored.
Related: Fabian Zetterlund Brings Offense and Grit to Senators’ Roster
Fans should expect Zetterlund to have an impact as their team charges down the stretch and into the first round of the playoffs. Skating with a playoff contender is something he’s never experienced. Not only that, but as a pending restricted free agent (RFA), he’ll be trying hard to show that he’s worth a long-term extension with a big salary increase.
Tyler Kleven
The playoffs are a golden opportunity for 23-year-old Tyler Kleven to repeat what Spezza and Pageau did for Ottawa in the postseason all those years ago. In this, his first full year in the NHL, the 6-foot-5, 221-pound blueliner has marked up the scoresheet for just four goals and eight points. Even so, there are signs he could break out offensively.
So far this season, he has 69 shots on goal – the third highest among the team’s D-corps and a close second to Nick Jensen’s 71. What makes that impressive is that his shot total comes with an average time on ice per game of just over 14 minutes – the second lowest of any defenceman on the team. Not only that, but with a 5.8% shooting percentage, he’s as much a sniper as Jake Sanderson can be.
Kleven also brings a snarl to his game that could prove critical in the playoffs. With the second most penalty minutes among Senators defencemen, he’s not afraid to play on the edge and mix it up. Not only that, but he has racked up 95 hits to this point in the season – the most of anyone patrolling the Senators’ blue line. That ruggedness extends to blocking shots with 90 to his credit, ranking him number four among Senators defencemen.
Kleven will also be motivated to put in a strong performance in the playoffs this year. He becomes an RFA in July and will want to ensure that he’s in a strong bargaining position.
Anton Forsberg
It goes without saying that strong goaltending is essential for playoff success. Yet in long playoff runs it can’t all come from just the starting goaltender. Nor can it come from a starter who is injured. And so it is that if the team needs him, fans will look to backup twine-minder Anton Forsberg to be the X-factor between the pipes.
The 32-year-old Swede has at times been inconsistent in net allowing some goals so soft that you could put your head down on them and take a nap. Still, with a save percentage (SV%) of .901 this season and a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.68, he has demonstrated he has the potential to provide what Ullmark has delivered with his SV% of .908 and GAA of 2.75.
Anton Forsberg, Ottawa Senators (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
If there was ever a time for Forsberg to shine, it’s now. He becomes an unrestricted free agent in July, and how he performs down the stretch and into the playoffs will decide whether he stays in Ottawa or moves on.
The Senators Playoff Push
While the Senators don’t yet have an asterisk next to their name indicating they’ve clinched a playoff spot, it’s all but certain they’ll be lacing up for playoff action. Moneypuck sets the odds of that happening at 99.4%. What’s more, I’d be willing to bet it’s as the first Eastern Conference wild card team up against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Even so, some tough matches remain, including tilts against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes currently sitting in second spot in the Metropolitan Division, and two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets battling for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Not only that, but the Senators will welcome the Montreal Canadiens to town on April 11, who will be looking to take home two points to push past Ottawa in the standings.
All of this provides Zetterlund, Kleven and Forsberg with plenty of opportunity to make their mark. Not only that, but other depth players will have a chance to shine as well. That includes Stanley Cup winners Michael Amadio and David Perron as well as young guns the likes of Ridly Greig, Shane Pinto, Angus Crookshank and Dylan Cozens.
The Senators Need New Playoff Heroes
What is certain as the Senators head into the playoffs is that they won’t be able to rely on just their stars for playoff success. Secondary players will need to step up, and Zetterlund, Kleven and Forsberg are three who could.
