One-on-One with coach Travis Green: Why the Senators are ready for to take next step

Article content

“There’s coaching, and then there’s the players receiving the coaching, and every coach is a little different, and every player is a little different, and you’ve got to find what works for your team.”

Article content

Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stutzle acknowledges the crowd before the home opener at the Canadian Tire Centre on Oct. 3, 2025. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Article content

New faces in different places

Article content

The Senators have made several changes since the end of last season.

Article content

Staios had his hands tied by captain Brady Tkachuk when he demanded a trade to the Florida Panthers in May. Chabot was named Tkachuk’s successor as the captain on Tuesday with Stutzle, Sanderson and veteran Claude Giroux acting as the alternates.

Article content

Under the circumstances, Staios was able to get a strong return with four first-round picks and he parlayed one of those into a trade for winger William Eklund from the San Jose Sharks.

Article content

Eklund, 23, is a skilled forward who has the speed to play with either Stutzle or Cozens on the top two lines. But he’s coming from a San Jose team that was rebuilding with young players who were trying to learn to play on both sides of the puck.

Article content

“I like him. First of all, he’s highly skilled,” Green said. “You can see that he can skate. He’s fast, and he’s tenacious. The one thing I talked to him about coming into camp was that there is a certain way that we want to play.

Article content

Article content

“I think he’s going to blend into that. We want to play with a lot of tenacity, and I’m excited to watch him play regular-season games. He’s shown that in practice.”

Article content

Eklund isn’t the only new face, he’s just the most high-profile.

Article content

Winger Andre Burakovsky was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks and the club brought in goaltender Samuel Ersson from the Philadelphia Flyers to be the backup to Linus Ullmark. Burakovsky is also tabbed to play in a top-six role.

Article content

Centre Stephen Halliday will anchor the fourth line. Injuries to Artem Zub and Sanderson in camp have meant the club has kept young blueliners Carter Yakemchuk and Hoyt Stanley around to start the season. Whether they’re here all year remains to be seen.

Article content

The media keeps talking about the club needing another top-six forward, but the Senators did finish 10th in scoring last season.

Article content

“Would we like to have a 40- or 50-goal scorer? Yeah, sure. Everyone does, but we scored enough goals to win. It’s not even in my head right now,” Green said.

Article content

The elephant is no longer in the room

Article content

It felt like last year that Tkachuk took up a lot of oxygen.

Article content

Article content

It started with his injury in the club’s home opener, which required thumb surgery and a six-week absence. Then, he and his brother, Matthew, started The Wingmen Podcast, which turned out to be a distraction at times.

Article content

Tkachuk’s contributions with the Senators weren’t the same before he won a gold medal with Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Italy. He came back and helped this team get to the playoffs, but you knew he wouldn’t finish his career here.

Article content

What’s the next step for this team? Tkachuk was a physical presence who led this team into battle many nights. No matter what one may think of his legacy in Ottawa, he gave the Senators a lot of strong efforts.

Article content

“It’s taking another step. But we’re a different team this year,” Green said. “I don’t talk about the Brady trade a lot. We haven’t talked about it at all. We made a big move. Now, we’ve got a new team and new players.

Article content

“Just because you took a step the year before doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to take a step the next year. Everyone else is trying to get better as well. And, for me, it’s not saying, ‘Hey, this is what we have to do this year.’ We want to get better and then we can take another step.