OTTAWA - After a season of progress, Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios and head coach Travis Green made one thing clear: the work is far from over, and the real challenge starts now.
The Senators reached the post-season for the first time in eight years in 2024-25. While they fell to the 海角社区官网Maple Leafs in six games in their first-round series, it’s something the team and management can build off.
“I believe our team took a good step forward this season,” Staios said. “I’ve said it before but it’s just the first step. Earn the right to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a necessary step, I think, in our growth.”
That message was echoed by the head coach. Both Staios and Green emphasized that every player needs to treat this off-season as a critical period of growth.
Green, in particular, emphasized that no one can come back the same player they were when they left.
“I think it鈥檚 important that we continue to improve, that it鈥檚 not status quo as coaches, as an organization, that we push our players to have a growth mindset of getting better,” Green said. “How you left today isn鈥檛 going to be acceptable if you just come back the same.”
That’s especially true for young players like defenceman Tyler Kleven. After an underwhelming training camp last fall, Kleven showed steady improvement as the season wore on and had a strong showing during the playoffs.
Now it鈥檚 up to Kleven to take what he鈥檚 learned and build on his development.聽
“Tyler Kleven showed kind of two sides,” Green said. “I didn鈥檛 think he put the work in to come into camp to have the best camp that he could last year. You hope that he鈥檚 learned from it.”
But the internal growth mentioned Monday could be impacted by key off-season decisions
Claude Giroux, Nick Cousins, Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore, Travis Hamonic, Denis Gilbert and goaltender Anton Forsberg are all unrestricted free agents. Meanwhile, Fabian Zetterlund and Kleven enter the off-season as restricted free agents.
The Senators did wrap up a bit of business Monday by signing pending restricted free agent Nikolas Matinpalo to two-year, one-way contract extension with an average annual value of US$875,000.
“Nik took a significant step this season and proved he could be a valuable contributor at the NHL level,鈥 said Staios. 鈥淲e look forward to his continued growth.”
Matinpalo appeared in 41 regular-season games, scoring a goal and adding three assists, before playing in all six of the team’s Stanley Cup playoff games.
While Staios normally avoids speaking about contract negotiations publicly, he did share a desire to see Giroux return.
“We love ‘G’. We want to have him back,鈥 Staios said. 鈥淲e touched on it briefly at the exit meetings, and everything is still fresh right now.鈥
A decision will need to be made on whether Forsberg returns or Leevi Merilainen makes the jump full-time to the NHL to back up Linus Ullmark.
Young prospects are being closely monitored, and Staios and Green say any roster spot will need to be earned.
鈥淲e said it a number of times (Monday), the off-season is important for these players,鈥 Staios said. “Everything that we do here is on merit. It鈥檚 open, it鈥檚 honest so if they come in and push for a position. We want good players on our team and there鈥檚 a few guys down there that are pushing.”
When asked about the team鈥檚 first-round draft pick, 21st overall, and whether or not they would keep it, Staios initially didn鈥檛 want to share plans and then said, “it鈥檚 highly likely we鈥檒l keep our pick.”
The Senators must forfeit their first-round pick in this year or next year鈥檚 NHL draft. The penalty stems from the organization’s mismanagement of Evgenii Dadonov鈥檚 limited no-trade clause in 2022.
Notes: Shane Pinto will represent the United States while Matinpalo will play for Finland at the world hockey championship.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.
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