On day two at the 2025 NHL Draft, the Ottawa Senators made another move to show they're committed to winning. General manager Steve Staios made a trade to acquire 24-year-old defenseman Jordan Spence for the Los Angeles Kings.
In Los Angeles, Spence was an underappreciated player. Spence recorded 28 points with a +23 rating for the Kings in the 2024-25 season. Spence has one year remaining on his contract at $1.5 million and will be a restricted free agent.
Potential is there for Spence with having a career year in Los Angeles and being young. As excited as the Senators can be about having Spence on the team, the writing on the wall might be written on the wall for two other defensemen after the Spence trade.
Hamonic and Gilbert might have low chance to return in Ottawa after Spence trade
Two unrestricted free agents the Senators have this free agency are Travis Hamonic and Dennis Gilbert. With the Senators making the trade for Spence, the writing could be on the wall that both Hamonic and Gilbert might not be returning to the Senators.
At 34 years old, Hamonic had struggles throughout the 2024-25 season with recording seven points and a -16 rating in 59 games. Hamonic's -16 rating was the lowest on the Senators roster in 2024-25. At times, Hamonic became unplayable. As a result, Hamonic didn't play in the 2025 playoffs.
For Gilbert at 28 years old, he didn't do much with playing in just four games for the Senators after being traded over by the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline. Gilbert recorded just one assist in just over 13 minutes of ice time per game. Just like Hamonic, Gilbert didn't play in the 2025 playoffs.
Hamonic and Gilbert didn't help much after the trade deadline. As a result, the Senators were better without them in the lineup.
With the trade for Spence, the Senators now have seven defensemen under contract for the 2025-26 season with Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, Artem Zub, Nick Jensen, Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo. Re-signing Hamonic and/or Gilbert would put too much defensemen on the Senators roster to deal with.
The Senators re-signing Giroux on Sunday afternoon also put less money for the team to potentially re-sign Hamonic or Gilbert. The Senators have over $8.1 million in cap space after signing Giroux, but even a cheap contract wouldn't make sense for the Senators to re-sign either defenseman.
If the Senators didn't trade for Spence, re-signing Hamonic and/or Gilbert to have depth on the roster may have been understandable. However, with seven defensemen under contract for 2025-26, the chances of needing to re-sign Hamonic and or Gilbert could be low for the Senators.
Matinpalo could thrive as the seventh defenseman in case of injuries or players struggling. If Matinpalo struggles or if the Senators don't want to play him, Carter Yakemchuk could still be an option as well.