The Ottawa Senators’ name dates back to the early 20th century, and the team that was a member of the NHL from 1917 to 1934. While they have since disbanded, a new Senators team joined the league in the 1992-93 season under Head Coach Rick Bowness, who you might recognize as the most recent coach of the Dallas Stars (before Peter DeBoer joined the club).
The new Senators, who are affiliated with the original in name only, were a consistent playoff team at the turn of the century. They only made the Stanley Cup Finals once, losing to Anaheim in 2007. They were a goal away from returning in 2017 but lost to the Penguins in the Conference Finals. Sens history is a very modern one, so it should not be a shock to see many active players on their all-time team.
Make sure to check out all of our other NHL All-Time Teams.
Forwards
Daniel Alfredsson, 1995-2013
Let’s start with the undisputed greatest Senator of all time and someone who needs to be in the Hall of Fame by now. Alfredsson was selected in the sixth round of the 1994 draft but had a Calder Trophy under his belt by the end of 1996. He quickly became a star in the NHL, averaging at least a point-per-game in eight seasons, The best of which was 2005-06. Fresh off the lockout, he scored 43 goals with 60 assists for 103 points in 77 games.
Injuries did plague Alfredsson a bit during his career, as his rookie year was his only 82-game season. Alas, his 426 goals as a Senator is the most by 175, and his 1108 points beat out the next guy by over 400. Alfredsson played in 1178 games as a Senator, just one shy of the franchise record. He sadly did not play his entire career in Ottawa, finishing it off with a cup-chasing season in Detroit. That conquest went unsuccessfully.
Jason Spezza, 2002-2014
Spezza’s career recently ended after he went cup-chasing for three seasons in Toronto. His downfall was when he chose his hometown Maple Leafs to play for. It has been almost eight years since the Senators traded Spezza to Dallas, so many may not remember his days as an elite top-line center. Drafted 2nd overall in 2001, he reached the 30-goal mark four times as a Senator, while also hitting at least 80 points the same amount of times.
Part of 11 seasons was spent by Spezza in Canada’s capital, meaning that he is high up on most Sens leaderboards. His 251 goals and 687 points are both second to just Alfredsson. With just 686 games played, Spezza is one of two Senators players ever to average over a point-per-game during their stint with the team. Not even Alfredsson did that. Only Spezza and the next guy.
Dany Heatley, 2005-2009
Heatley’s tenure with Ottawa was brief but wildly successful. It started due to an unfortunate tragedy when Heatley, a member of the Atlanta Thrashers at the time, was seriously injured in a car crash that killed teammate Dan Snyder in 2003. Heatley was traded soon after to leave the tragedy behind. The Senators soon reaped the benefits of Heatley’s talents, which got him drafted 2nd overall in 2000. He scored exactly 50 goals with over 100 points in each of his first two seasons. He was a critical part of the 2007 team along with Alfredsson and Spezza.
Heatley scored a combined 80 goals over the next two seasons before requesting a trade out of Ottawa. This tanked his popularity with the fanbase and hurt his reputation even more. He was traded to San Jose in September of 2009, finishing his tenure at 317 regular-season games played. He scored 180 goals with 362 points in them, as well as 35 points in 34 playoff games.
Marian Hossa, 1997-2004
Hossa was a young superstar in Ottawa and is now a Hall of Famer. His time with the Senators ended when they used him as bait to acquire Heatley from Atlanta, a move that was not hard to argue against for Sens fans. Hossa reached the 30-goal mark four times in Ottawa, including a 45-goal year in 2002-03, one that would last as a career-high for him. Hossa played the bulk of his career in Chicago but still participated in parts of seven seasons for Ottawa. He scored 188 goals with 390 points in 467 games for the Sens.
Alexei Yashin, 1993-2001
As the team’s first-ever draft pick, Yashin was the franchise’s first superstar. The year before they selected Alfredsson, Yashin scored 30 goals with 49 assists as a rookie. The highlight of Yashin’s career was the 1999-2000 season, as he scored 94 points and finished second in Hart voting. The next year, he scored 40 goals with 88 points. He was then traded to the Islanders for the pick that was used on Spezza, and a defender who we will meet later. Not a bad haul.
Mark Stone, 2013-2019
Another winger drafted in the sixth round, Stone broke out in 2014-15, as he was the Calder runner-up with 26 goals and 64 points. He developed as a legitimate two-way player, a scoring winger who was also an elite defensive forward. Stone is yet to win a Selke, but was the runner-up in his last season as a Sen. As he entered his prime and the team entered a rebuild, Stone was traded to the Golden Knights at the 2019 Trade Deadline. Now their captain, Stone is still an elite NHL player. His 311 points in 366 games are 10th in franchise history.
Radek Bonk, 1994-2004
Bonk was another high draft pick, taken third overall in 1994. He did not fully develop until 1999-00 when he scored 23 goals with 60 points. From that season until he left Ottawa, Bonk scored 105 goals with 287 points in 372 games. Now, 18 years after he was traded to the Kings, Bonk is fifth in team history in games played with 689 and sixth in points with 399. While his playoff numbers were not the best (24 points in 61 games), Bonk was traded just before the best years.
Martin Havlat, 2000-2006
Havlat, like Hossa, was traded for Heatley at some point in his career, although that was well after Havlat’s Ottawa days. The 1999 first-round pick was a Calder finalist the next season, scoring 19 goals with 42 points. In his final full season with the team, Havlat scored 31 goals with 68 points in 68 games. In the season following the lockout, Havlat had 16 points in 18 games but was soon traded to Chicago. Havlat’s .789 points-per-game is seventh in franchise history among forwards with 200 or more games played with the club.
Mike Fisher, 1999-2011
The first second-round pick on this team, Fisher is most famous for marrying Carrie Underwood at the end of his Ottawa tenure. He had four 22+ goal seasons with the Senators, topping out with 25 goals and 53 points in 2009-10. Fisher had 10 points in 20 playoff games during the 2007 run. He finished top-five in Selke voting twice. Among Senator forwards, Fisher is third in penalty minutes (554) and fifth in games played (675).
Shawn McEachern, 1996-2002
McEachern is the second player on the team to not be drafted by the Senators. He was a member of the Penguins, Kings, and Bruins before Boston sent him to Ottawa for a third-round pick and forward Trent McCleary. McEachern quickly became an effective scorer, reaching the 24-goal mark in his second season, then potting 31 in the next. His peak was 2000-01 when he scored 32 goals with 72 points. In total, McEachern had 304 points in 454 games with the team. The former is top-ten in franchise history.
Kyle Turris, 2011-2017
A top pick who did not pan out in Phoenix, Turris was traded to Ottawa in 2011, where he established himself as a top-six forward. He scored at least 24 goals in three seasons, reaching the 50-point benchmark in all three. Turris scored 274 points before being included in the ill-fated Matt Duchene deal. Now in the twilight of his career, Turris was one of the league’s most underrated players for a while.
Chris Neil, 2001-2017
Rounding out the forward core is someone who might not have scored the most, but you cannot tell the story of the Senators without including Neil. A member of the team for 15 years, Neil maxed out at 16 goals and 33 points in 2005-06. However, he is one of three men with over 1000 games played for the Senators. While he wasn’t scoring goals, Neil was busy beating people up and doing his time for it. Neil had 2522 penalty minutes in his career, all for Ottawa. The next most by a Senator is 756.
Defensemen
Erik Karlsson, 2009-2018
As Karlsson exits his prime, we cannot forget how truly dominant he was with Tampa Bay. He won his first Norris Trophy at age 21 in 2011-12 as he scored 19 goals with 59 assists for 78 points in 81 games. He added another to his shelf in 2014-15 when he scored 21 goals with 66 points. Ironically, those 66 points were his fifth-most in a season. No defender is within 100 points of Karlsson’s 518 in an Ottawa jersey. His time with the team ended as they entered a rebuild in 2018. He was traded to San Jose for a package including Joshua Norris, the current top center of the team.
Wade Redden, 1996-2008
The Islanders picked Redden second overall in 1995. He was quickly traded to Ottawa for Bryan Berard, who the Sens selected first in the same draft. The big and physical Redden often received Norris votes in Ottawa, although never finished higher than fifth. Redden reached a double-digit goal total in five seasons, with four years of 40+ points. In just about any Senators’ defensemen leaderboard, Redden is in second place to either Karlsson or the next guy.
Chris Phillips, 1997-2015
Drafted first overall in 1996, Phillips was the defensive stalwart of the Ottawa blueline for over a decade and a half. Phillips was not a goal-scorer, never even reaching 10 in a single season. Phillips’ 1179 games played as a Senator is one up on Alfredsson for the franchise record. His 756 penalty minutes are second to just Neil. Phillips experienced almost all of Ottawa’s playoff success, with 114 career postseason games.
Zdeno Chara, 2001-2006
Chara was a piece of the trade that sent Yashin to Long Island and led to Spezza’s arrival. While he is known as a Bruin, Chara became an elite defender up north. As well as dominating opponents with his six-foot-nine frame, Chara scored 16 goals in both the 2003-04 season and the 2005-06 year. He averaged over 27 minutes of ice time in the second season. Ice time stats were only made available in the late 1990s, but Chara is second in Sens history to just Karlsson in ATOI.
Thomas Chabot, 2016-Present
Not only is Chabot the only current Senator to make this team, but he is also third in ATOI behind Karlsson and Chara. Chabot scored 14 goals with 55 points as a 22-year-old in 2018-19. He has 188 points in his career. That is already fourth among Ottawa defenders. He trails just Karlsson in points-per-game (minimum 200 games). Chabot is still just 25 and he is signed through 2027-28.
Anton Volchenkov, 2002-2010
Volchenkov is another defender who you did not expect to light up the scoresheet. He scored just 16 goals over seven seasons with the Senators. Volchenkov received Norris votes in two seasons with the team, something that is near-impossible to do as a defensive defenseman. With Redden, Phillips, and at some times Chara on the team, Volchenkov was an overshadowed piece of the 2000s teams.
Goalies
Craig Anderson, 2011-2020
Anderson was already in his age-29 season when he was traded from the Avalanche to Ottawa for fellow goalie Brian Elliott. He experienced a career renaissance after the deal, with a .939 save percentage for the remainder of the 2010-11 season. Anderson started 24 games in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season and led the league with a .941 save percentage and 1.69 GAA. He won the Masterton Trophy in 2016-17 when he had a .926 save percentage. Anderson’s 435 games played is the most for a Senators goalie, and he had a .914 save percentage in those games.
Patrick Lalime, 1999-2004
The great Dominik Hasek only had one season with the Senators, so longevity gives the edge to Lalime. Acquired from Anaheim for Ted Donato and Antti-Jussi Niemi in 1999, Lalime was the team’s starter in the early 2000s, the height of the dead puck era. His highest GAA with the team was 2.48, and his best was 2.16. The latter came in 2002-03 when Lalime finished fifth in Vezina voting. His 283 games played trail just Anderson.
Head Coach
Jacques Martin, 1996-2004
Martin was not the coach during the 2007 team; that was Bryan Murray. However, Martin saw the most success. Hired midway through the disastrous 1995-96 season, the Senators ended up making the postseason in all eight of Martin’s full seasons as bench boss. They never enjoyed much playoff success, factoring into his eventual departure. Martin won the 1998-99 Jack Adams Trophy when the team went 44-23-15. The Senators went 341-235-96 under Martin, for a .577 winning percentage.
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