{"id":398615,"date":"2026-01-09T01:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/398615\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T01:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:04:10","slug":"senators-activate-lars-eller-move-linus-ullmark-to-non-roster-list-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/398615\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Activate Lars Eller, Move Linus Ullmark To Non-Roster List \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Senators <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Media_Sens\/status\/2009379530876579878?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> they\u2019ve activated center\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/ellerla01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lars Eller<\/a>\u00a0from injured reserve. To open a spot, they moved goaltender\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/u\/ullmali01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Linus Ullmark<\/a>\u00a0to the non-roster list. He\u2019s on an indefinite leave of absence from the club that began on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n<p>Eller\u2019s return tonight against his former team, the Avalanche, comes nearly a month after he sustained a foot injury on Dec. 11 against the Blue Jackets. He\u2019s now missed 14 of Ottawa\u2019s last 16 games due to that and a separate undisclosed injury.<\/p>\n<p>Signed to a one-year, $1.25MM deal in free agency, the 36-year-old has been a serviceable fourth-line piece. No longer expected to churn out the 30-40 points he was good for in his prime, he\u2019s only gotten on the scoresheet six times in 28 games (two goals, four assists). However, he\u2019s been one of the league\u2019s top faceoff men at a 60.5% win rate and has been up to the task as a shutdown specialist at 5-on-5, ranking fourth on the team in GA\/60 at 2.45.<\/p>\n<p>For now, his return pushes rookie\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hallist01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stephen Halliday<\/a>\u00a0to the press box. It\u2019s unclear how long that arrangement will last. The 23-year-old is still looking for his first NHL goal but has already demonstrated good playmaking skills in limited minutes, notching six assists in 18 games despite averaging just 8:12 of ice time per game. That\u2019s a 27-point pace over a full season, and he\u2019s also averaging a shot on goal per game.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s not really a top-nine spot up for grabs for Halliday to push for, though, and Ottawa\u2019s veteran-laden fourth line has had success defensively. If Halliday isn\u2019t going to be a regular, it might behoove the Sens to take advantage of the 6\u20194\u2033 pivot\u2019s waiver-exempt status while they still can and get him more development time in Belleville.<\/p>\n<p>While the non-roster designation doesn\u2019t stop Ullmark from counting against the cap, it does mean he\u2019s no longer taking up one of the Sens\u2019 23 available roster spot while he\u2019s on his leave of absence. There\u2019s still no indication as to when Ottawa\u2019s starter might return. In what\u2019s now been six straight starts for backup\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/merille01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Leevi Merilainen<\/a>, he\u2019s posted a .860 SV% with a 2-4-0 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senators announced they\u2019ve activated center\u00a0Lars Eller\u00a0from injured reserve. To open a spot, they moved goaltender\u00a0Linus Ullmark\u00a0to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4810,539,4,72,25,5157,73,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-398615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-lars-eller","10":"tag-linus-ullmark","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-ottawa","13":"tag-ottawa-senators","14":"tag-ottawasenators","15":"tag-senators","16":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115862455185093047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}