The Ottawa Senators got one nasty blow with the loss of William Eklund.
The winger sustained a tough ankle injury in last week’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The hope was that Eklund wouldn’t miss nearly as much time, however, reality struck hard.
The estimated timeline for Eklund’s torn tendon is roughly 10 to 12 weeks, and, well, the Senators will be looking to find a potential replacement.
William Eklund had surgery for a torn tendon. 10-to-12 weeks is the recovery time. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 15, 2026
During the pre-game telecast for Thursday night’s Senators game against the New York Islanders, notable insider Bruce Garrioch discussed the possibility of Ottawa looking into signing former Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine.
As Garrioch discussed during the pre-game, Laine’s camp had reached out to the Senators. The two sides could not agree on a deal, but there were talks.
So, you have to think: Could there be a realistic avenue for the Sens to land Laine at this juncture?
Garrioch thinks so. In particular, he feels that Laine would benefit the Sens’ power play the most. On Thursday night, the Senators were once again futile in scoring with the man advantage. They went 0-for-4, and so, it does make sense to add a guy who is pretty much a power play specialist at this point, if nothing else.
What would it cost Senators to sign Laine?
One of the things I’ve posited about Laine is that he wants a multi-year deal. Even after the disastrous season he had last year in Montreal, he feels that he still deserves a shot at something more than a one-year, incentive-laden deal.
At 28, he’s still relatively young and could provide plenty for a team looking for scoring depth at this point.
And that’s just the thing. Laine has always been a one-dimensional player. He’s a good skater and has a cannon of a shot, but he does not play defense and offers little to no value in a team’s bottom six.
But if Laine were willing to take a one-year deal around $1 million, he would be a very good addition. He’s the kind of forward who could play between 12 and 14 minutes a game, potentially hanging around under 10 minutes at 5-on-5.
But it would be his potential on the power play that could make the most sense for the Senators.
Let’s see what happens. Garrioch did not indicate that anything was imminent on the Laine front. But if he’s willing to talk about this on the air, it means that there’s a real avenue here.
As Garrioch concluded, it’s either Laine or Vladimir Tarasenko at this point. When looking at it that way, Laine doesn’t look all that bad.
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