Sanderson's Health Is the Offseason Move Ottawa Can't Control

The Senators spent the summer remaking their roster — trading Tkachuk, bringing in Eklund and Jordan Spence, re-signing Giroux — and the whole thing sits on a foundation that may not be ready when the puck drops. Jake Sanderson, who logged 24.5 minutes a night last season and finished at +7, remains sidelined with an injury that has his opening-night availability in question. That's not a footnote. That's the plan.

Spence was signed specifically to play alongside Sanderson, a pairing Ottawa is counting on to stabilize a blue line that was already thin before Artem Zub went down too. Without Sanderson, that math doesn't work. The Senators are asking a new addition to anchor a defense corps that lost its anchor.

The rest of the roster has its own fragility — Ridly Greig suspended, Tim Stutzle carrying the offense largely alone, the left wing situation still unsettled even after the Eklund acquisition. But those are problems the organization can at least manage around. Sanderson's recovery isn't something they can scheme their way out of. He either plays or he doesn't, and right now nobody knows which it is.

Ottawa finished 44-38 last season and missed the playoffs anyway, largely because they couldn't close games when it mattered. They've reset the roster to try again. Whether that reset is functional on night one depends almost entirely on a defenseman who isn't practicing.