Of all the players on the ice for the first on-ice session of the Senators’ training camp, few players have more to prove than Fabian Zetterlund.
The Swedish winger arrived at the 2025 NHL trade deadline for Zack Ostapchuk and a 2025 second-round pick, carrying expectations to provide quality depth and secondary scoring for one of the lowest-scoring five-on-five teams in the league.
Unfortunately, that production failed to materialize.
Zetterlund’s two goals and five points in 20 games are well-documented. His numbers were a constant source of messageboard and talk radio fodder over the offseason.
General manager Steve Staios and the organization were certainly unfazed by Zetterlund’s surface stats, rewarding the 26-year-old with a three-year contract carrying an average annual value of $4.25 million.
If Zetterlund was concerned about the pressures placed on him, he refused to let it show. When he arrived for a one-on-one interview following his group’s gruelling on-ice skating session on the second day of training camp, Zetterlund was all smiles.
It is the most engaging and comfortable that I have seen him be since arriving last March.
“The body is fresh. (My mind) is fresh,” said Zetterlund enthusiastically. “I want to start the season well, and that’s been one of my main focuses the whole summer. Now I’m here, and I feel ready.”
During his exit interviews with the coach and general manager, Zetterlund listened to their feedback and constructive criticism before acknowledging that their respective sentiments aligned with his own.
“I know what I want to do better, and they pointed out the same things,” Zetterlund remarked. “So, that’s what I’ve been working on. I feel fresh, ready, and quick out there. Strong and hungry.
“Overall, (I need to) be a prick out there,” the winger said while outlining what the organization asked him to work on. “I need to be hard to play against every day, and be strong on the puck. I need to hold on to it, use my shot, and hit the net more.”
Zetterlund’s preparations for the 2025-26 campaign began back home in Sweden, where he trained and spent most of his free time enjoying the company of friends and family.
The winger returned to Ottawa on September 1st to participate in Brady Tkachuk’s organized ‘Captain’s Skates’, providing himself with an extra three weeks to skate and build chemistry and camaraderie with his teammates ahead of the opening of camp.
The hope is that the experience will benefit Zetterlund this season, but what should really help him is his familiarity with the coaching staff and the team’s systems and structure.
“I know exactly what to do out there,” Zetterlund stated. ” Structurally, our system is easy, and I’ve been playing for (26 games, including the postseason) now.
“I know exactly where to go and how to handle things out there. Now it’s just up to me to do it.”
What may also help Zetterlund is that he experienced a similar stretch of poor production after being dealt from New Jersey to San Jose at the 2023 trade deadline. Zetterlund was a younger player trying to establish himself as an NHL regular at the time. Nonetheless, in the 22 games after the deadline, he was held goalless while adding only three assists.
The winger followed that stretch up by having the most productive campaign of his NHL career in 2023-24. Zetterlund played in each of San Jose’s 82 games and led the team with 24 goals and 204 shots. His 44 points trailed only Mikael Granlund (60) and William Eklund (45).
When asked whether he could draw any parallels between his two post-trade deadline stretches, or whether the experience and success of his first full season in San Jose could serve him well now, Zetterlund expressed a preference to focus on the future.
“That’s the past,” the winger affirmed. “I forgot about that, but I’m just looking forward to a new season and being with the Ottawa Senators from the start. It’s gonna be fun.”
When Zetterlund joined the Senators, it was obviously exciting to join a team that was on the verge of clinching its first postseason berth in eight years. Under the surface, however, the Swede arrived at a challenging time.
At the time of the trade, the collection of forwards playing in the Senators’ top nine was playing really well, relegating Zetterlund to a fourth line role that afforded him time to acclimatize to his new surroundings.
He would eventually get opportunities on the power play and to play with the team’s more skilled players, but the goals and points did not come.
The encouraging part is that Zetterlund’s underlying numbers were incredibly strong.
Of the forwards on the team who logged more than 200 five-on-five minutes, only Brady Tkachuk, a noted volume-producing machine, generated a higher rate of shots (iCF/60), shots on goal (shots/60), and individual expected goals (ixG/60) than Zetterlund per NaturalStatTrick. The problem was that his five-on-five shooting percentage (3.13%) was the fifth-lowest on the team, ahead of defencemen like Nik Matinpalo, Nick Jensen, Artem Zub and Travis Hamonic.
When I told Zetterlund about how strong some of his analytics were and whether he felt like he was creating a high volume of chances, he deflected and expressed a desire for the team’s success.
“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted. “I try to work hard every shift out there. It doesn’t matter if the puck goes in or not.
“I still want to help the team win. That’s the most important thing. We had a good stretch last year, and we want more (success) this year for sure. I want to produce. I want to be a goal scorer, of course. But when the puck doesn’t go in, you’re going to do other stuff out there to help the team, and that’s what I’m trying to bring every day. It’s just a bonus if the puck goes in.”
As a career 9.6 percent shooter, it is reasonable to believe that Zetterlund’s shooting percentage will normalize. When it does, it will provide some of the incremental gains this organization is looking for to help this team rise in the Atlantic Division.
By Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News Ottawa
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