SENSNEWS

The Ottawa Senators need Jake Sanderson to reach another level this season.

The star defenseman has already established himself as the number one defender on the team, but if Ottawa has true aspirations to be a competitive team, they will need him to take another step forward.

When it comes to young up-and-coming defensemen, Jake Sanderson is one of the best in the entire league.

At 22 years old, he now has two full NHL seasons under his belt, and it is safe to say he has steadily improved over these 156 games.

Jake Sanderson Statistics

As a rookie, Jake Sanderson finished with four goals and 28 assists for 32 points in 77 games. He exceeded expectations and proved that he was already a rock-solid top 4 two-way defender at the NHL level.

He finished with a -6 on the year and only 12 penalty minutes as he was also one of the most disciplined players in the league.

This year, Jake Sanderson was given a bigger workload as the team’s number one defender straight from camp. He finished the year with 10 goals and 28 assists for 38 points in 79 games.

He had a few more penalties this year, finishing with 23 minutes on the season, although that included a five-minute fighting major.

His plus-minus surprisingly took a step forward, even though the team as a whole took a big step back. He finished the year with a +8 and was also looking extremely solid in the advanced analytics.

Jake Sanderson Advanced Statistics

Sanderson finished with a CF% of 53.45% and an xGF% of 53.2%. He finished ranked 4th on the team in xGF% (1st among defenders) and 5th on the team in CF% (1st among defenders).

Even though Sanderson faced the toughest matchups, he still controlled the play in Ottawa’s favor better than anyone else on the Senators.

Jake Sanderson’s Partner

A big question this off-season will be whether or not the team splits up Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub or if they decide to leave that pair and place Nick Jensen on the right side of Thomas Chabot.

The duo of Sanderson and Zub was one of the best pairs in the league, and by far the best on Ottawa.

If it were me, I would certainly start the season with Sanderson and Zub together. However, considering how good of a player Sanderson is, I have no doubts that he would fit very well with Nick Jensen on his right side as well.

One thing that Jake Sanderson has discussed working on over the past few off-seasons is his offensive game.

We have already seen how polished his defensive game is and how good he is with his stick in his own zone, so adding another level offensively would make sense as the next step in his development.

In terms of goal scoring, we certainly saw him take a step this year.

Jumping from 4 to 10 goals was a good thing to see for Senators fans, especially considering that the team’s overall offense took a big step backward compared to the 2022-2023 season.

Helping Out The Special Teams

It’s also worth noting that Jake Sanderson looks like he will be the first power-play quarterback for Ottawa.

If the Senators can get their man advantage clicking at a higher rate this season, that should lead to more points and better output from Jake Sanderson.

Not to mention, it looked last season like he was much more comfortable shooting the puck compared to years prior.

We saw Sanderson’s point shots become more effective this past year, and that will be a big help on the power play.

Both special team units were lackluster this past season. The new coaching acquisitions should help improve them, and Jake Sanderson will be a huge part in achieving success on both the power play and the penalty kill.

Just like we saw last season, Jake Sanderson will be relied upon as the puck mover of whatever pair he is a part of.

Having a reliable shutdown defender on his line every night should give him more confidence to be more creative with the puck on his stick.

He will certainly have a bigger leash to jump up in the play more often.

With how good of a skater he is, the sky is truly the limit for what he can achieve as a two-way defender. I would be expecting a big points jump from Sanderson this season.

Here’s to hoping for a massive 2024-2025 season out of Jake Sanderson. It’s time for the young defender to put the entire NHL on notice and prove that he is one of the best defenders across the league.