As we approach August, one can safely make the assumption that the Ottawa Senators’ business when it comes to signing and retaining free agents is done. They’ve acquired a couple of unrestricted free agents in Lars Eller and Arthur Kaliyev and have re-signed most of the free agents they made a priority in keeping. This includes Claude Giroux, Nick Cousins and Tyler Kleven.
There are still a handful of restricted free agents (RFAs) to deal with as well, but those situations will likely resolve themselves later in the summer. However, there are several players who are currently eligible for extensions and before you know it, July 1 of next year will be here. For the time being with nothing imminently on the horizon, why don’t we take a look at some of the pending free agents for the Senators in 2026?
Giroux, Cousins, and Merilainen
Giroux, Cousins and Leevi Merilainen all signed one-year deals this summer, so decisions will have to be made on their futures with the organization sooner than later. Giroux and Cousins are most likely players who will only be signing one-year deals from here on in given their age and impact at this point in their careers. Alternatively, Merilainen does have a chance to be in Ottawa long-term.
He’s an RFA who will be making $1.05 million this season who got into 12 games last season and was fantastic in a small sample size. He put up better numbers than both Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg and one could make the argument that the Senators would have been better off not sending him down to the minors to make room for Forsberg. It will be interesting to see how he fares with a bigger workload this season and how much bigger of a raise he will command following this season.
The Veterans
General manager (GM) Steve Staios will have to pay close attention to his veterans in Giroux, David Perron, Lars Eller and Nick Jensen who are all over 35 and playing on expiring deals. They are incredibly-valuable players who bring a lot both on and off the ice and there will most likely be no urgency throughout the season to sign them to another contract given they won’t be very expensive.
All of those players clearly enjoy Ottawa enough to sign there once and given the organization’s trajectory moving forward, it could easily be foreseen that all of those players return, potentially after an even deeper run in the playoffs. An exception to that rule could be Jensen given his current injury situation and what his status will be come season’s end.
Shane Pinto
One major RFA who will require an extension come July 1 is Shane Pinto. He is still very young at just 23 years old and last season finished fourth in goals on the team despite being deployed primarily on the third line and not seeing much power-play time. He’s another player who arguably should be above some of the guys currently further up the depth chart.
There’s a distinct possibility that he could push Dylan Cozens for the second-line centre job and that would certainly bode well for him financially if he does. For instance, Cozens is currently making $7.1 million and with a rising cap, Pinto will definitely be hungry to make a good impression and cement himself in that role.
Related: Revisiting the Ottawa Senators’ 2022 Draft Class
Pinto could be moved out to the wing as well to free himself up defensively and to gain more offensive opportunities. However, the third line of him with Ridley Greig and Michael Amadio worked really well and were on the right side of their matchups on many nights, so there is an element of not messing with something that isn’t broken at play.
Staios Must Think Ahead
It’s clear that throughout his tenure so far, Staios has been known to handle his free-agency business in the summer with some exceptions. For example, Pinto signed in January 2024 coming off of his suspension and Ullmark signed right before the 2024-25 season began.Â
However, there’s already plenty of business to think about for 2026 and Staios will have to be cognizant of that as the upcoming season plays out. While you do want to be focused on the task at hand and making your current roster better, as GM, the onus lies on you to look after the long-term future of the franchise as well.
