Umlaut Justice, Lajoie Shipped Out, Stone Captaincy: Links, News, and Notes

We wait 10 months for the Ottawa Senators to come back. 10 long months where we somehow had to find things to talk about. And the NHL makes us wait two extra days for the Senators to play their first game—the agony! Thankfully, we’re just one day away, and I can’t wait.

Before we begin the season, here is our final off-season links, news, and notes:

• Justice! Tim “Stuetzle” will now officially go by the proper spelling of his last name: “Stützle.” The Senators never officially clarified whether the umlaut will be there above the ‘u’, but I’ve been told that the umlaut will be there. I’m unreasonably excited about this change, and I think “Stützle” looks so much better. In fact, we need to normalize using diacritics more often and not just for French names.
• On the same day that Ontario announced stricter lockdown measures, Eugene Melnyk tweeted out that the Senators submitted a “robust public safety plan that would allow 6000 fans” during games at some point this season. Then almost right after, he retracted that statement and said that “now is not the time.” I feel like he must’ve been a victim of the dreaded ill-timed scheduled tweet...
• Max Lajoie was quietly traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for AHL centre Clark Bishop on Tuesday. It’s a disappointing end to his Senators tenure after starting his career with a blistering four goals and three assists in his first six games. He had clearly fallen way down the depth chart though, and it was difficult to see him ever getting a chance again in Ottawa.
• Our own Brandon Maki made an appearance on Ottawa radio station Rebel 101.7 to talk some Sens! We’re super excited about what’s going to be a weekly feature, and you can catch him every Wednesday morning at 8amEST!
• The final roster for the Senators has been announced, along with the taxi squad. Notable omissions include Logan Brown, Erik Brannstrom, and Alex Formenton. Meanwhile, Josh Norris has made the opening night roster, plus the taxi squad includes Artem Zub, Jonathan Aspirot, Filip Chlapik, Micheal Haley, Matthew Peca, and Joey Daccord.
• With Logan Brown not making the final roster, rumours are swirling about his availability via trade. Elliotte Friedman notes that he could be available despite the Senators believing in his talent.
• Our favourite former Senator, Mark Stone, has been named the first-ever captain of the Vegas Golden Knights. For all the talk about veterans “sheltering the young players” and “creating a winning atmosphere,” Stone would’ve checked all of those boxes while also being elite in every category. Congrats to Mark!
• Ian Mendes of The Athletic has 10 bold predictions for the Senators this season, with most of them being pretty optimistic.
• Bruce Garrioch details all of the new faces that will be lining up for the Senators to begin the season.
• In one of the strangest stories I’ve seen recently from the NHL, Evander Kane is filing for bankruptcy and is almost $27M in debt. He faces six active lawsuits, court actions, and administrative proceedings with lending agencies. It’s a sad story because I know he has a young family and he clearly has some sort of problem. It’s unclear what this means for him moving forward in the NHL./

Get excited for the season tomorrow!