Hutton in on a PTO. That's Where Ottawa's Blue Line Stands Right Now.

Sanderson is day-to-day, Zub is out, and now Foegele is sidelined too — and that's before you get to Greig's suspension eating into center depth. The Senators opened training camp this week managing four significant absences at once, and the organizational response on the blue line was to bring in Ben Hutton on a professional tryout. That's not a knock on Hutton. It's just an honest description of where the depth chart sits.

Sanderson logged 24.5 minutes a night last season and finished plus-7 — by some distance the most impactful defenseman on this roster. His day-to-day status matters more than any other injury question Ottawa is navigating right now. The piece I wrote two days ago noted the holes; those holes haven't closed. Hutton's arrival is the organization acknowledging it needs warm bodies on the back end while it waits to find out who's actually available.

The Batherson extension was supposed to be the story of this camp — the franchise committing to a direction, an identity, a core. Eight years, $86 million, the largest deal in franchise history. Instead the first week has been triage. None of this is necessarily alarming if Sanderson and Zub are back before October. But the next 10 days will tell Ottawa a lot about whether this is a short-term inconvenience or a genuine problem heading into the season.