Ottawa Senators All-Time National Teams
Canada
Dany Heatley – Jason Spezza – Mark Stone
Canada has clearly established itself as the best hockey nation in the world. Winning gold in three of the five men’s best-on-best Olympics and four of the six women’s tournaments. Ottawa though has not had a slew of Canadian stars. All six players were very good for Ottawa, but none really even approach the hall of fame status you’d expect from a franchise’s top Canadian talent.
Still, the forward line has the potential to be scary, as in their prime Heatley and Spezza formed two-thirds of one of the league’s best lines. Their usual third man, Daniel Alfredsson, can’t join them, but Mark Stone provides a very capable replacement as a two-way force with a scoring touch.
The blueline was an easy call, with the team’s two defensive leaders in games played being Canadian. Redden could drive the play from the backend while still being reliable in his own zone while Phillips gives them a top-end shutdown defender.
In net, Patrick Lalime was among the best goalies in the world for a short period of time, and while some of that may be attributable to the talent in front of him, this group certainly isn’t lacking in that regard. Between the blueliners and Stone, this team should be able to limit shots against while a more than capable Lalime can make his share of big saves.
United States
Shawn McEachern – Ryan Dzingel – Bobby Ryan
While the franchise’s Canadian stars may have been underwhelming, the Americans fall well short of the national team as a whole. While they’ve never won a men’s Olympic gold in the NHL era, they’ve been right up there with Canada on many occasions, including forcing them to overtime in the 2010 gold medal game. This team though, simply doesn’t have the star power the Canadian squad did, but you never know, they could pull off a miracle.
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Truthfully, the forwards are pretty solid. With McEachern and Ryan being the team’s two longest-serving Americans. Mix in the skill and speed of a Ryan Dzingel and while it may not be a top-line like Canada’s, it could certainly cause problems for some of the lesser teams.
The blue line is where this team truly falls apart though, as Lance Pitlick gets the nod as the only American d-man to top 200 games for the franchise. Joe Corvo actually benefits from the rules here, as his mediocre at best career is ignored in favour of his contributions to the team during their 2006-07 Stanley Cup Finals season.
The United States’ best hope here lies in nets, as Craig Anderson represents the best goaltender the Sens have had and has on numerous occasions carried mediocre or bad teams to better records with Ottawa. In the Olympics, sometimes a hot goaltender is all that’s needed, and Anderson’s as good a bet as any.
Finland
Jarmo Kekalainen – Juha Ylonen – Jarkko Ruutu
Say what you will about that American team, but they were able to put six bona fide NHLers into their lineup. When it comes to Finns, however, the Sens have traditionally avoided them. They were able to put a team together, unlike some teams that we’ll get to in a moment, so we’ll run through the motions before we move onto the better teams.
Upfront the team is led by Jarkko Ruutu, making me the first person in history to type that sentence. Ruutu was a regular on Ottawa’s bottom-six in the post-2007 decline and was part of a fun checking line with Chris Kelly and Chris Neil. The rest of the franchise’s Finnish forwards combine for 33 points however so he won’t get much help. Juha Ylonen is the only one listed as a centre so he’ll get the spot just so someone can take faceoffs, while Jarmo Kekalainen could also serve as GM and get this team some much-needed help.
The blueline looks solid though, with Laukkanen and Salo serving as a poorer man’s Phillips and Redden respectively. While they’re a very capable duo, they’re here mostly by default as the only other competition is three games from Jyrki Jokipakka.
If Finland wants to somehow compete with the other countries, the defence will have to be spectacular as they shouldn’t expect much help between the pipes from Jani Hurme. Hurme spent two seasons in the early 2000s as Ottawa’s backup before spending one year in Florida in the same role. He’s the only Finnish goalie the team has ever had though, so there’s no other option.
Russia
Vladislav Namestnikov – Alexei Yashin – Alexei Kovalev
Sergei Gonchar – Anton Volchenkov
None
As I alluded to before, one team wasn’t able to put together a full roster. That would be Russia as the Ottawa Senators have never had a Russian goalie. That said, there’s plenty of talent on this roster, so let’s run through that before deciding how to deal with the opening in goal.
Upfront Russia has one of the top snipers in franchise history in Alexei Yashin. While he’s now best remembered for his disputes with coaching and management, his hold-out for the entire 1999-2000 season, his trade that brought the team Jason Spezza and Zdeno Chara, or his steep decline and buyout with the Islanders, he topped 40 goals twice with Ottawa and was the lone bright spot on some abysmal expansion teams. He’s joined by Alexei Kovalev, who was far removed from his best days when he came to Ottawa, but he skill showed occasional flashes and was a decent offensive contributor. Namestnikov rounds out the forward group as there isn’t much left to choose from, but his two-way play for the team in 54 games this year could compliment Yashin and Kovalev nicely.
Once again, we go with two different styles on the blueline. Sergei Gonchar was one of the league’s top offensive defencemen before coming to Ottawa, while his production did drop sharply after joining the team, he was still able to make plays at both ends of the ice and help keep the team in playoff contention in years when they probably shouldn’t have been. Lining up next to him is hitting and blocking machine in Volchenkov, who benefits from the focus solely on their time in Ottawa as he largely fell off the map after signing with New Jersey in 2010.
While I was originally going to disqualify this team for not having a goaltender, the mix of players is too inviting to ignore, so I’m going to let them play with an empty net. That means the current defensive centre Artem Anisimov will join the forward group. The question now is can this team beat the Finnish team? Finland lacks offence, but that is mostly negated by the lack of a goaltender. Does Anton Volchenkov simply stand in the crease all game, or does Russia use their superior numbers and skill to keep the puck as much as possible? Either way, I think Finland still wins in this scenario, but the close nature of the matchup speaks to how devoid the franchise is of Finnish talent.
Sweden
Magnus Arvedsson – Mika Zibanejad – Daniel Alfredsson
Fredrik Claesson – Erik Karlsson
If any group of six has a chance against Canada it would probably be Sweden. The nation has long been a strength for the Sens and includes probably the two best players in franchise history. The Canadian team has a lot of talent, but we’ll see if they can keep their status as the top team against Sweden.
Upfront we have Alfredsson, the franchise icon who’s a no-brainer for this team. He’s joined by Zibanejad, who has really come into his own the past few years with the Rangers but was still a solid second liner for Ottawa. Arvedsson may not have quite the same skill level as the other two, but he was a big part of the team in the late 90s and early 2000s as they established themselves as a playoff team and then a championship contender.
Along with Alfredsson, Karlsson on the blueline was the other slam-dunk choice for the team. Perhaps no player has ever played at a higher level in a Sens uniform than Karlsson, who was one of, if not the best defender for almost all of his tenure with the team. He’s joined by his old partner in Claesson, who didn’t stay in Ottawa very long but was able to find some good chemistry with Karlsson when he was and was dependable at both ends of the ice.
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Finally, we go with Robin Lehner in net and while he was only a backup in Ottawa, he was constantly on the verge of taking the reins, only for Craig Anderson to continue to cement his status. The team eventually moved him to Buffalo where he was solid but unremarkable before a combination of personal life adjustments and working with the Islanders coaches and Mitch Korn saw him come third in Vezina voting in 2018-19 in addition to a Jennings win. Even discounting his recent success, Lehner showed flashes of his potential with Ottawa, which is what this Swedish team will be counting on to beat Canada.
Czech Republic
Milan Michalek – Radek Bonk – Martin Havlat
Dominik Hasek
If there’s a team that could challenge Canada or Sweden, it would probably be the Czechs, thanks in large part to the early 2000s with some help from the early 2010s. This team may not be good enough to beat either of the big two, but given the Czechs traditional position at the bottom of the Big 6, a shot at bronze is quite an accomplishment.
Upfront we have Bonk and Havlat, two key members of Ottawa’s early successes as well as Milan Michalek, who had his best years in the league with Ottawa after coming over from San Jose in the Dany Heatley trade. Both Havlat and Michalek have a thirty goal season with Ottawa while Bonk was consistently in the 20 goal range. While it may not be a line of stars, all three forwards are definite offensive threats that defences need to be wary of.
The blueline is solid, if unremarkable, as it consists of two defensive defencemen in Kuba and Rachunek. Both defenders topped 200 games for Ottawa and while Rachunek had minimal success away from the team, Kuba came to Ottawa after nearly a decade in the league and was able to provide experience and a steady presence on the back end. Kuba and Rachunek’s consistent defensive ability could provide a nice balance to the high-flying offence of the forward unit.
Even though he only played 43 games for the team, Dominik Hasek was a force to be reckoned with in his short time in Ottawa, posting a .925 save percentage and a 2.09 GAA, as well as five shutouts. That quality of goaltending has seldom been seen in Ottawa, except for occasional stretches by Lalime and Anderson. While his Senators’ tenure didn’t go the way either side hoped, Hasek is still an easy choice and gives the Czechs a well-rounded unit.
Europe
Pavol Demitra (Slovakia) – Peter Regin (Denmark) – Marian Hossa (Slovakia)
Zdeno Chara (Slovakia) – Andrej Meszaros (Slovakia)
Martin Gerber (Switzerland)
Team Europe was one of two teams created for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and while Team North America stole the show with their young talent, it was Team Europe that had the most success, making it all the way to the final before being beaten by Canada. This team sees two members from the 2016 squad who hope to recapture that glory and then some.
The forward group is led by Hall of Famer to be Marian Hossa, who played the first seven seasons of his career in Ottawa, where he set a career-high 45 goals in 2002-03 en route to a President’s Trophy win for the team. He’ll likely have to do most of the heavy lifting, as his linemates are full of potential but lacking in production. Regin started off strong in Ottawa before injuries and inconsistencies left him short of 200 games played with the franchise. While Demitra had a very good NHL career, we only get the parts of three seasons he played for the team in the 90s. While he did tally 12 goals in 59 games on some bad Ottawa teams, he likely won’t move the needle much with this group.
The blueline sees and all-Slovakian duo with Chara and Meszaros. Although it was in Boston where Chara won his Norris and will be best remembered, his four seasons in Ottawa saw him transform from a lanky fringe NHLer to one of the league’s most fearsome two-way blueliners. Meszaros doesn’t have quite the same track record as Chara, but in all three seasons in Ottawa he played 82 games on a Cup contender while scoring at least 35 points from the blueline.
Wrapping up this squad we have Martin Gerber in goal. Gerber never really firmly established himself as the starter the team was hoping for after he lost his job in Carolina to Cam Ward, but along with Ray Emery, he was one of the better goalies to come along in the half-decade that bridged the gap from Lalime to Anderson. Unlike some teams, Europe is able to start a regular NHL goaltender between the pipes, something that could help them jockey for position in the lower half or surprise some teams with a hot run.
At the risk of sounding like every other national team roster exercise, I’m pretty sure Canada wins here. Sweden gets Alfredsson and Karlsson sure, but the depth and goaltending is clearly in Canada’s favour. With Sweden taking an easy silver, I’ll give the Czechs the bronze while the United State and Europe can fight for fourth place.
The next generation of Senators may change these results, with Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, Erik Brannstrom, Vitali Abramov, Lassi Thomson, Filip Chlapik, and Rudolfs Balcers all hoping to change the fortune of their respective teams.