With all the excitement of the 2026 men’s Olympic hockey tournament, it’s easy to forget that the NHL trade deadline is quietly creeping up on us. And sometime between now and the March 6 deadline, the Ottawa Senators will have to make some difficult decisions.
If they decide to hit the trade market, upgrading the right side of their blue line is near the top of their wish list, but it has to be a deal that makes sense for a team that’s six points (and three teams) out of a playoff spot with 25 games to play.
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If the Senators fail to do something, or just choose not to, they do have an intriguing right shot option down in the minors; a former first-rounder, who’s really good with the puck.
Actually, they have two of them.
2024 first-rounder Carter Yakemchuk would generally be the first name that springs to mind, but Lassi Thomson has suddenly become a name of interest again.
Thomson, drafted by Ottawa five years before Yakemchuk, has 11 points in his last 15 games in Belleville and leads all AHL defensemen in scoring with 12. And if skating mobility in one specific case is an issue the Sens are trying to fix (spoiler: it is), that’s probably Thomson’s biggest strength.
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“Well, he’s such a gifted skater, right?” Belleville interim head coach Andrew Campbell told TSN 1200 radio on Tuesday. “So the more we can get Lassi involved in the rush and involved in the offense, it not only benefits Lassi’s style of play, but benefits us as a team.”
Since taking over as head coach from David Bell in December, Campbell says he and his staff have made some adjustments to get the D more involved in different areas of the game. While Campbell didn’t say as much, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that’s a directive from Ottawa to specifically assist in Yakemchuk’s development.
But Thomson, who’s a better skater, and much further along in his pro development, seems to have benefitted as well.
“It’s really done wonders for Lassi because of his pace and skating,” Campbell said. “Like I said, he’s he’s probably one of the better skaters in in the whole league, so, yeah, he’s driven our offense from the back end and he does lead the league in goals for defensemen. So, some really good stuff from Lassi.”
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In 2024, about a month before Yakemchuk was drafted, Thomson left Ottawa to play in Sweden, where he led Malmo in points in 2024-25. Interestingly, while he was gone, the Sens ended up needed a right shot callup last season. With Travis Hamonic nearing the end, Belleville’s Nikolas Matinpalo came up and played half the season and all of Ottawa’s playoff games.
So, when Thomson opted to re-sign with the Sens last summer, he was probably thinking he had a real NHL opportunity. It was pretty clear Hamonic wasn’t going to be extended, Nick Jensen was coming off major hip surgery, Yakemchuk is still a kid, and Thomson probably felt like he could compete with Matinpalo, his ex-Belleville teammate.
But a couple of weeks after Thomson signed, the Senators acquired defenseman Jordan Spence in a draft day deal with the LA Kings. Spence and Matinpalo both made the NHL roster, and the veteran Jensen was activated for opening night.
So the Sens placed Thomson on waivers again, which has meant another year in Belleville. But he seems to be in a great headspace, with more goals and points already this season than he did in his last full season in Belleville two years ago, and there’s no question that his big role in Sweden last season helped him get to this point.
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“Yeah, obviously, I would say I got a lot of confidence last year and I’m trying to build from that,” Thomson told the BSens Entertainment Network last month. “So I think it was a big thing for me just to get that confidence back and (remind myself) why I got drafted here.”
Thomson wasn’t drafted on Steve Staios’ watch, but Staios still thought enough of the player to bring him back. It was Pierre Dorion and his staff who chose the former Kelowna Rockets star 19th overall in 2019. Six months later, he captained Team Finland at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
But Thomson opted that season to leave Kelowna and return to his hometown team in Tampere, Finland. It was either homesickness, or a desire to accelerate development by playing in a men’s league – maybe a bit of both. While it’s nothing more than speculation, playing against men as an 18-year-old may not have had the desired developmental effect.
When Thomson left the Sens organization as an RFA in 2024, five years after his draft day, he had appeared in just 18 career games for Ottawa. What’s more, he had just come off a discouraging season where he was waived by the Senators, claimed by Anaheim, waived by the Ducks a few days later, then reclaimed by the Sens, who sent him to Belleville for the entire 2023-24 campaign without a single call up.
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Max Guenette got a call up to Ottawa for 7 games that season.
None of this was great for Thomson’s confidence, or his sense of worth to the organization. But now, at age 25, he finally seems to be coming into his own.
As a Group 6 UFA this summer, with all he’s been through, Thomson may already by eyeballing a fresh start with another NHL organization. But before he does, if the circumstances are right, it might be worth taking one last NHL look, depending on what happens at the deadline and down the stretch.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was first published at The Hockey News-Ottawa. Read more Senators features and articles from THN Ottawa here:
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