Senators should study trade market with Ullmark’s status uncertain

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The Ottawa Senators will have to save their season without their hoped-for saviour for the foreseeable future.

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Top goaltender Linus Ullmark hasn’t skated since leaving the club’s 3-1 road loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 22, and there’s no timetable for his return to the Senators’ lineup.

Ullmark has posted a 12-7-2 record with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage in 20 appearances this season.

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“Linus is, I guess we’ll call him week-to-week, and he hasn’t been on the ice yet,” coach Travis Green told reporters following the club’s skate Sunday at the Bell Sensplex.

The Senators will also be without veteran defenceman Travis Hamonic for two to four weeks with what appears to be a knee injury he suffered in the club’s 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday night at the Enterprise Center.

That means the Senators will have to do without Ullmark and Hamonic as they prepare to wrap up this stretch of nine straight road games against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena.

Though the Senators were sitting in the second wild-card spot in the East heading into Sunday night’s action, they found themselves on the outside at the end of the night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins moved a point ahead of the Senators into the wildcard position with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s the first time since Dec. 14, that the Senators won’t wake up in a playoff position.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are tied with Ottawa with 40 points. The Montreal Canadiens just wrapped up a five-game road trip with a 4-1-0 record to move to 39 points while Philadelphia and Detroit were two back of the Senators with 38 head into Sunday night.

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That means this matchup against the Wings is pivotal and the expectation is that rookie Leevi Merilainen will get the start in net.

Losing Ullmark has been a blow after the club recorded a 9-3-1 record in December. The Senators have lost four of their past five games and backup Anton Forsberg wasn’t up to par against the Blues.

Ullmark was 8-0-1 in nine games before his injury with a 1.48 goals-against average and a .952 save percentage.

If he hasn’t already, Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, should be scouring the National Hockey League’s goaltending market to see if there is anyone available because Ullmark’s uncertainty is a cause for concern.

Since Nov. 25, Forsberg is 1-3-0 with a 3.56 GAA and an .843 save percentage. His play has been below average since the start of last season and that trend hasn’t shown any signs of changing this year.

Merilanen has shown potential with a 2-2-0 record since being called up after Ullmark’s injury, but the Senators can’t rush him into the NHL either. Merilainen has a 3.10 GAA and a .884 save percentage which isn’t good enough at this level.

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A check with a league executive and a league insider indicated that the market isn’t great for netminders. The names floated to Postmedia included Anaheim’s John Gibson, Montreal’s Cayden Primeau and Buffalo’s James Reimer.

An executive said that the Wings would be willing to move Ville Husso but he carries a $4.75-million cap hit and Detroit isn’t in any mood to help the Senators with both teams battling for the same playoff spot.

“There’s not a lot out there,” a league executive said on Sunday. “If you’re a team heading into the second half of the season, and you’re battling for a playoff spot, you’re going to want to have three goalies.”

We’re certain the Senators never expected the situation with Ullmark to unfold this way when he was first removed from the game in Edmonton with tightness in his back in the final game before the NHL’s holiday break.

The expectation was that Ullmark would be back in time to accompany the Senators to Winnipeg on Dec. 27 and be ready to face the Jets the next night or the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 29.

We assume that’s the case because Mads Sogaard played for the club’s American Hockey League affiliate on Boxing Day in Belleville and was recalled to Ottawa the next day. That wouldn’t have happened if the organization knew Ullmark wouldn’t be ready.

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The uncertainty with Ullmark won’t help the club’s confidence.

We were told by a league executive this week that Ullmark has had issues with his back in the past. We’re not 100% certain if that’s the case because of the league’s lack of a policy on injury disclosure, but we know that back injuries are unpredictable.

There was some good news on the injury front for the Senators. Green said that winger David Perron, who has also been out with a back issue, and winger Michael Amadio, who suffered a concussion before Christmas, have both been skating and were on the ice Sunday.

“Any time guys are skating, they’re closer to returning to the team,” Green said.

Veteran defenceman Nick Jensen wasn’t on the ice Sunday because of the flu.

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