After a difficult 2025-26 campaign that failed to meet expectations, the Ottawa Senators are entering a crucial period with hopes pinned firmly on a bounce-back season from starting goaltender Linus Ullmark.
While Ullmark certainly was not the sole reason the Senators failed to take a step forward in the standings last year, there is no denying that the team’s goaltending as a whole simply did not deliver the results general manager Steve Staios and the rest of the Ottawa management group were looking for. When evaluating the overall trajectory of the franchise, the numbers posted by the trio of netminders who bore the heaviest workload for the Senators last season are troubling, to say the least.
This reality underscores why it is so vital for Ottawa to extract a strong, reliable showing out of Ullmark this coming season. In 49 appearances during the 2025-26 campaign, Ullmark struggled to find his usual Vezina-caliber consistency, posting an .891 save percentage. The drop in performance created immediate ripple effects across the roster. Meanwhile, 24-year-old backup Leevi Merilainen—who was subsequently claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks—struggled even more to find his footing at the NHL level, registering an .860 save percentage and a 3.51 goals-against average across 20 appearances.
The situation in the crease eventually deteriorated to the point where the Senators had to turn to 38-year-old veteran James Reimer to stabilize the position. While Reimer competed hard, he finished the year with an .886 save percentage in 14 appearances, unable to permanently plug the bleeding for a team desperate for steady defensive play.
Given those persistent struggles, it is easy to understand why Staios looked outside the organization to provide better support and insurance for Ullmark heading into this season. However, the netminder the Senators have now brought into the fold to act as Ullmark’s understudy hardly inspires absolute confidence that he can consistently provide Ottawa with the above-average performances required to keep the Sens in a tightly contested playoff picture.
The 26-year-old goaltender’s numbers during his tenure in Philadelphia trended downward for three straight seasons. After posting a respectable save percentage of .899 from the 2020-21 campaign through 2022-23, his performance dipped sharply to .870 last season. To be fair, some of those declining statistics are undoubtedly tied to the fact that he was playing behind a rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers team that frequently struggled to suppress high-danger scoring chances. Even so, there is a clear reason why the rest of the NHL did not engage in a bidding war for the Swedish netminder—at the end of the day, the recent results simply have not been there.
This creates a significant workload management challenge for the coaching staff. Ullmark has never played fewer than 40 games in a single season since the 2020-21 campaign, but he also has not exceeded 49 games played in any single year over that same span. That structural reality means Staios and Senators head coach Travis Green will almost certainly have to lean on their backup for at least 35 games this year—and potentially even more if Ullmark runs into any injury trouble or needs extended maintenance days over the grueling 82-game schedule.
Compounding matters for Ottawa is the broader macroeconomic reality of the NHL trade and player market: the demand for proven, NHL-caliber goaltenders vastly exceeds the available supply. There simply are not enough quality netminders to go around, and the few who are available on the market command a trade price tag that very few franchises have the surplus assets or capital to pay for.
A quick survey of the Senators’ Atlantic Division rivals reveals an imposing landscape where most, if not all, competing clubs boast superior or more securely established goaltending depth than Ottawa. The Toronto Maple Leafs recently reinforced their crease by adding two-time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Bobrovsky. The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to rely on elite star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, while further bolstering their pipeline by trading for promising up-and-comer Dennis Hildeby. The Florida Panthers brought in seasoned veteran Jacob Markstrom, the Boston Bruins feature standout Jeremy Swayman, and the Montreal Canadiens feature promising young netminder Jakub Dobes.
None of those goaltenders across the division are entirely without faults or vulnerabilities, but looking at that competitive tier leaves any observant Ottawa fan with more than enough cause for concern regarding how the Senators’ crease stacks up in the arms race of the Atlantic Division.
Now more than ever, the Senators need Linus Ullmark to shoulder a heavy burden and carry this Ottawa team directly into a playoff position. Should he falter or find himself bitten by the injury bug over the course of the campaign, having a shaky contingency plan could quickly prove to be disastrous—potentially serving as the single deciding factor that keeps the Senators on the outside looking in at the post-season once again.