Senators’ Jake Sanderson to miss at least two games with injury
The Ottawa Senators will have to go without their number one defenseman for at least the next two games, as head coach Travis Green told reporters on Monday that Jake Sanderson has been sent home from the team’s road trip.
Sanderson logged just 4:29 of ice time against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday before exiting with a lower-body injury. While sharing the update Monday, Green stated that the injury is not as serious as it was initially feared in the immediate aftermath.
The 24-year-old is entering his fifth season in the NHL, which marks the third year of an eight-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $8.05 million. Sanderson was excellent during the 2025-26 season, as he led the charge for Ottawa to stand out as one of the most elite defensive teams in the NHL while delivering offensively, too.
The Montana native racked up 54 points on a career-high 14 goals and 40 assists in just 67 regular season games played while skating to a plus-16 rating on an average of 24:50 of time on ice per game.
Sanderson helped lead the Senators to a wild card berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he was limited with an injury as Ottawa was swept out of the first round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.
With Thomas Chabot named as the Sens’ new captain last week following the offseason departure of previous captain Brady Tkachuk, Sanderson was named as an alternate captain alongside veteran Claude Giroux and fellow foundational core piece Tim Stutzle.
Sanderson missing the next two games means that Ottawa will be without its star on the back end for road contests against the Boston Bruins on Monday night and Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.
After getting the year started off on the right foot with a 3-2 win over the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, the Sens will look to keep things going in those next two games before returning home for two straight games on Canadian Tire Centre ice against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and Nashville Predators on Saturday.
