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 Toronto 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’s important that we continue to improve, that it’s 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’t 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’s up to Kleven to take what he’s learned and build on his development.
"Tyler Kleven showed kind of two sides," Green said. "I didn’t think he put the work in to come into camp to have the best camp that he could last year. You hope that he’s 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,” said Staios. “We 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,” Staios said. “We touched on it briefly at the exit meetings, and everything is still fresh right now.”
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.
“We said it a number of times (Monday), the off-season is important for these players,” Staios said. "Everything that we do here is on merit. It’s open, it’s honest so if they come in and push for a position. We want good players on our team and there’s a few guys down there that are pushing."
When asked about the team’s first-round draft pick, 21st overall, and whether or not they would keep it, Staios initially didn’t want to share plans and then said, "it’s highly likely we’ll keep our pick."
The Senators must forfeit their first-round pick in this year or next year’s NHL draft. The penalty stems from the organization's mismanagement of Evgenii Dadonov’s 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.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press
