{"id":403988,"date":"2026-01-12T20:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403988\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T20:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:55:10","slug":"reimer-didnt-know-if-he-played-his-last-nhl-game-before-signing-with-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403988\/","title":{"rendered":"Reimer didn\u2019t know if he played his last NHL game before signing with Senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Reimer<\/a> is grateful he has at least one more game left to play in his long NHL career. <\/p>\n

The 37-year-old veteran goalie, who hasn\u2019t played a game this season at the NHL level, signed a one-year, $850,000 contract with the Ottawa Senators<\/a> for the remainder of 2025-26. <\/p>\n

Reimer joins a struggling Sens team, who currently sits last in the Eastern Conference and are in desperate need of goaltending help with regular starter Linus Ullmark<\/a> away from the team on personal leave. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of times when you\u2019re excited and you believe that something\u2019s going to happen. Then there\u2019s days when you\u2019re a little down and you don\u2019t know if maybe you\u2019ve played your last game or had your last opportunity,\u201d Reimer told the media on Monday after his first practice with the team. \u201cSuper thankful and grateful that this opportunity presented itself and I\u2019m just looking forward to making the most of it and enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite not having much action this season, Reimer has kept busy after the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> released him from his professional tryout before the start of the regular season. <\/p>\n

Reimer has skated with the West Kelowna Warriors and Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League. He also appeared in two games for Team Canada at the annual Spengler Cup over the holidays, posting a 2.54 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. <\/p>\n

The native of Morweena, Man., was between the pipes for the American Hockey League\u2019s Belleville Senators on Sunday and allowed six goals on 29 shots. <\/p>\n

Reimer said he feels good and is taking it \u201cday-by-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFeeling pretty good. It\u2019s kind of a day by day process. I\u2019ve been staying in shape so conditioning wise I feel pretty good. Obviously going over to Europe for a bit and playing in the Spengler get some pro games and pro shooters and what not,\u201d Reimer explained. \u201cThis last weekend down in Belleville, I\u2019m getting some touches there. I feel like my game is coming along. Felt good on the ice today. It\u2019s one of those things where kind of just play it day-by-day and when I\u2019m confident that I can step in and help the team we\u2019ll jump right in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach Travis Green<\/a> doesn\u2019t know when Reimer will make his debut with the team. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to put a time on it. We\u2019ll see from a day to day how it goes, how he feels. Petey will play a bit part in making that call,\u201d said Green. <\/p>\n

Leevi Merilainen is receiving a lot of the workload with Ullmark unavailable, but is struggling with a 6-10 record alongside a 3.48 goals-against average and a .866 save percentage. <\/p>\n

Ottawa has lost four straight games and five of seven since Ullmark took his leave.<\/p>\n

Familiar Territory <\/p>\n

Reimer has a strong track record at Canadian Tire Centre over his 15-year NHL career. <\/p>\n

Over 17 games at the Kanata, Ont., building, Reimer owns a 12-4-1 record with a .935 save percentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joke about the water. Maybe it\u2019s the bed at the Brookstreet. I don\u2019t know what it is. It\u2019s where I played my first game. It\u2019s special in that way,\u201d Reimer said. \u201cThere\u2019s something about this rink and the crowd that it just seems like it\u2019s an earnest excitable fan base. The building – it gets loud and it\u2019s just a fun place to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reimer has played with a number of the current Senators, including David Perron<\/a>, Fabian Zetterlund<\/a> and Dylan Cozens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear a lot of good things about this room over the last couple of years. Obviously I played with a couple of guys in here – DP and Z and Cozens, and even other guys that you\u2019re friends with and know this group and the culture that this organization has right now,\u201d Reimer said \u201cBeing able to be a part of it for three hours, it\u2019s living up to expectations so really excited to join this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 525 game NHL veteran has also appeared for the Detroit Red Wings<\/a>, San Jose Sharks<\/a>, Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, Florida Panthers<\/a> and Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>, who drafted him with the 99th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2006 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

Reimer has a 2.89 career GAA and has 225 wins in the NHL.<\/p>\n

The 20-19-5 Senators will look turn things around on Tuesday night when they welcome the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> to town. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Reimer is grateful he has at least one more game left to play in his long NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,35225,4,33540],"class_list":{"0":"post-403988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-james-reimer-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8473503","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-ottawa-senators-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-9"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115884125280743739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403988","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=403988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}