With the offseason in full swing and many, but not all, free agents off the board, all hockey fans, us included, can’t wait for October. Here at Last Word on Hockey, we have been exploring some different “bests” during the long, hot days of summer. Best players by number for a few teams, top Canadians by position, and top first-round draft picks are some of the select rankings our writers have been exploring. As an ode to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, here for the Ottawa Senators, we have been looking at all-time starting lineups based on nationality. Other teams have this series as well, such as the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Best Canadian Starting Lineup for the Ottawa Senators
Even though we are at the end of our series, a review of the parameters to this list to get us started. This will be a starting lineup, so two wingers, one centre, two defencemen, and a goalie. The player must have played in the NHL with the Senators (so not considering prospects). Also, we only considered players since the 1992 reincarnation of the franchise. The assessment comes from the players best performance with, and impact on, the Senators. Hence, not a player’s career if he played with other teams. To check out all the other nationality teams for the Sens we have completed as part of our series here are the Swedish, Russian, American, and the combined Czech and Slovak teams.
Arriving at Canada and also the end of our selected series is an exciting premise. The best Canadian starting lineup for the Ottawa Senators is sure to have some talent. As has been a common theme throughout the series, the ’03, ’07, and ’17 teams impact heavy on our lists. We will mention some honourable mentions in our conclusion of our story. Furthermore, we have to include a couple from countries that we didn’t cover. There wasn’t enough to warrant a full-team article, but Tim Stutzle, and his career-high 90 points at age 21, deserve a place in our series. Plus to only go with one lineup for Canadian’s gives the players the respect they deserve. Besides there’s too many for just one honourable mention. Let’s get it started.
| W | C | W |
| Dany Heatley | Jason Spezza | Mike Fisher |
| D | D | |
| Chris Phillips | Wade Redden | |
| G | ||
| Patrick Lalime |
Dany Heatley
The Heater and his 50 in ’07 easily top Canadian wingers in Ottawa Senators franchise history. Being an integral part of both the 2006 and 2007 playoff runs firmly puts Heatley on the list. Moreover, his offence was a direct result of being apart of the best line in Sens history, teaming up with Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson. The infamous Pizza Line combined for a total 585 points in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
Heatley spent four seasons in all for the Sens. They were the most productive four-year span of any player in Sens history. They were the most productive consecutive four seasons in Sens history. If we averaged them out as one season, he had 45 goals and 46 assists for 91 points (79 games). Furthermore, Heatley scored 35 points in 34 career playoff contests for the Sens. He truly was one of the most dominant goal-scorers of his generation. In the seven seasons from ’02 and ’10, Heater had 39 or more tucks six times.
The Best Centre of Greatest Canadians for the Ottawa Senators Jason Spezza
Spezza is one of the best Canadian forwards, on a Canadian franchise over the years. Yes, he’s not among the best, but maybe that next tier though? Connor McDavid, Maurice Richard, and Wayne Gretzky are standalones. But among the next wave, Spezza was a high draft pick, by a Canadian team, he is from Toronto. Maybe he more falls into the echelon of Doug Gilmour. In any sense, Spezza had a remarkable career in Ottawa.
Spezza scored 251 goals and 436 assists in 687 points in 686 games as a member of the Senators. As mentioned above, he centred the Sens best ever line with Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson. Moreover, Four times he had 84 or more points in a season as a member of the Sens. Furthermore, he didn’t slow down much in the playoffs. But as a two-way centre in the playoffs, you need to focus on the defensive side of the puck at times. Spezza led the 2007 playoffs in assists (15) and points (22). In total, Spezza had 52 career playoff points in 58 games, over the course of eight post-seasons with the club. Spezza had an unfortunate end to his playing career, but seemed to enjoy playing on very successful teams. One last point, to prove our theme of playoff success correlating with our lists, is that Spezza appeared in three games in the ’03 playoffs.
Mike Fisher
We needed a long-time Sens veteran on the list. Welcome, Mike Fisher. Fish was a hard working, speedy skater, who could finish. His career-high was only 53 points, but he played 11 seasons in Ottawa. The Peterborough native did find great success in Nashville, but we are here to talk about the Sens.
Mike Fisher was a member of the Senators for a number of years. He finished with 348 points in 675 games in his time there in Ottawa. Four times he scored 20 goals with the Sens. If we study his playoff statistics we see he was always a crucial part to the Sens lineup. He was there for both of the ’03 and ’07 runs. He averaged 17:34 of ice time in the playoffs with a FO% of 51.0. Fish really did it all for Ottawa. Plus, he was there for so long, and such a likeable guy in the community. Mike Fisher makes our list as a centre playing on the wing.
Wade Redden
Wade Redden is just another name on our long list of names that are one of the best ever Senators franchise hockey players. The Saskatchewan product played 838 games over 11 seasons with the club. He scored 101 goals and added 309 assists for 410 points, averaging a reliable 23:38 a game. His presence in the Sens playoff history is very historically significant. He played with the Sens in every playoff run between ’97 and ’08. In addition, he played on a Team Canada, the 2004 World Cup team. Redden more than deserves his spot as top defenceman on the Ottawa Senators Team Canada starting lineup. Redden is one of three members of the Ottawa Senators Ring of Honour.
Chris Phillips
Chris Phillips is one of only four Sens with a retired number. He played his entire 17-year, 1179-game NHL career manning the blueline of the Ottawa Senators. These days Phillips is the Vice President of Community and Business Development. His a Senator, true-and-true.
He was a first overall pick once upon a time back in ’96. Furthermore, he was always one of the best defensive-defencemen whenever he was in the Sens lineup. Phillips is an easy selection for our Ottawa Senators greatest Canadians starting six.
Patrick Lalime
We previously reviewed the best ever Senators goaltender, and Patrick Lalime won that poll. He was the Sens goalie when they first rose to prominence. To that point, Lalime was their goalie until the 2004 lockout.
You know if he statistics allowed him to pass Craig Anderson as the organization’s best goalie, he is prime. In 283 games, he went 146-100-30. He had a very impressive 2.32 GAA and .908 SV%. Moreover, he had a remarkable .926 SV% in the playoffs, but his 21-20 post-season standing ultimately cost him the starters role in the Canadian capital city. That does nothing to diminish the fact that Patrick Lalime is, by far, the best Canadian goaltender to ever play for the Ottawa Senators franchise.
Honourable Mentions Ottawa Senators Greatest Canadian Players and The Best of the Rest
The honourable mention is extensive but we will squeeze into a couple concluding paragraphs. Thomas Chabot is very close to inclusion on this list. Once he makes it on a deep playoff run as the leader of the blueline, he will gain much consideration for such a list. Also, Marc Methot might just be the next best defenceman, either way, it would be a battle for that top second pairing. Forwards to consider are extremely controversial Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Claude Giroux, or Mark Stone is somewhat interchangeable with our selections. Ray Emery and Anthony Duclair are actually both honourable mentions as well, so you can see how it can get complicated.
Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t discuss other countries. Finland had Sami Salo and Jani Hurme, who each had a significant impact on the Sens in their own way. Well hopefully you enjoyed our series, this has been the Ottawa Senators best starting lineups by nationality, and we concluded with the home team, the Canadians.
Main photo: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports
