Senators GM looking for more fire power — The Fourth Period

The Ottawa Senators sit comfortably at 13th in the NHL in goals-for per game, but that hasn’t stopped GM Steve Staios from looking around and trying to further improve his hockey club.

Staios has been exploring the trade market earlier in the season, as he tried to see which top-six forwards may be available later in the campaign. According to TFP’s David Pagnotta, Staios is out on the prowl, once again.

During his weekly appearance on “The Sheet” with Jeff Marek, Pagnotta reported that the Senators are combing the market in an attempt to land another forward to their lineup.

“(Staios) was very aggressive first bit of the season and then things dialled down a little bit,” Pagnotta said. “He’s back to being aggressive now; he wants to add to this lineup, and I believe he’s looking for a mid-six type guy, second/third line type player, more in the second line that can provide some additional offence for this group. It was something he was kind of poking around in the first month or two of the season. The last few weeks died down, as I mentioned, but the word is that he’s been poking around again trying to see if you can bring somebody into that mid-six roll. If it’s a second line calibre player, that’s obviously the preference.”

The Senators currently possess around $3.7 million in salary cap space, giving Staios some flexibility to add immediately to his lineup.

Pagnotta noted, however, that a trade does no sound imminent, and despite having interest in such players as Calgary forward Blake Coleman, St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn, and Nashville veteran Ryan O’Reilly, among others, a move may be more likely later in the season.

“I haven’t gotten the sense that they’re close on anything, unless something changed in the last couple hours here, but this may be just laying some aggressive foundational work for something to happen once the calendar flips to January,” he said.

The Senators are currently three points out of a playoff spot heading into Friday’s action with a 16-13-4 record.