1 Roster Spot Senators Still Must Address

The Ottawa Senators have made some necessary moves this offseason to alter their roster accordingly and get back in the playoff picture, but their team doesn't seem complete. They attended to goaltending by bringing in Joonas Korpisalo, have a capable defense core, but up front, they are lacking a piece.

The Senators were seemingly forced to trade Alex DeBrincat or lose him after the 2023-24 season to free agency. So they traded him to the Detroit Red Wings. The main piece they got back that will help them right now is Dominik Kubalik, who saved them some money, but is also under contract for one final year.

Kubalik did more than alright for the Red Wings last season, scoring 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games, but he is an obvious step down for the Senators. It might not actually seem like a big step down if Josh Norris can stay healthy and Kubalik can have a strong centerman that DeBrincat didn't in Ottawa. The problem here is that while Kubalik is best described as a good middle-six winger, the Senators have still failed to address their fourth line.

If the team were to upgrade over Kubalik, pushing him down to the third line, that means that Mathieu Joseph would likely be the one dropping to the fourth line to provide some actual help. Without any more moves, the Senators have Parker Kelly, Mark Kastelic, and Egor Sokolov/Zack MacEwen, none of whom played a full season in 2022-23 and only combined for 13 goals and 27 points between the four. If the Senators add another skilled forward, the rest of their forward group will shape up very nicely.

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