Can 22-Year-Old Goalie Leevi Merilainen Keep The Ottawa Senators In Playoff Contention?

When the 2024-25 season began, the Ottawa Senators figured/prayed they'd solved their goaltending issues. They had just signed Linus Ullmark to a four-year extension. And if something happened to him, they assumed they could roll with Anton Forsberg and recall Mads Sogaard.

Sogaard had already played 29 NHL games, and with his one-way NHL deal next season, he was already tracking to be the Ottawa backup soon anyway.

No one, and I mean no one, expected that 22-year-old Finnish goalie Leevi Merilainen would become the Ottawa Senators' best option in goal as they begin the second half of the 2024-25 season.

The injury bug, as it so often does, has been gnawing on the Senators again this season. Sprains, tears, and breaks are never good news, but they sometimes force opportunities for players that teams might not be looking at all that seriously. Merilainen is one such player, and without the slew of injuries in the past few months, he might still be an AHL backup.

The dominoes began to fall on October 20, when Sogaard suffered a lower-body injury with the Belleville Senators that forced him to miss two months of action. Merilainen then got hurt too, missing three weeks in November. But beyond that, the Belleville net was his until Sogaard finally returned on December 13.

The day after Sogaard got back, December 14, Forsberg got hurt in the warmup before a scheduled start. That forced the Senators to famously call on EBUG Zach Dietz from the uOttawa Gee-Gees.

Because Sogaard was still shaking off the cobwebs from his injury, the Sens replaced Forsberg with Merilainen, whose NHL resume was two games long and who hadn’t played in the league since 2022-23.

Then, a week after that, it was Ullmark's turn to get hurt, opening the door for a still-rusty Sogaard to come up.

Ullmark's early storyline in Ottawa reads much like Matt Murray's. Both were acquired by trade to solve the club's long-running goalie issues. Both were signed to four-year extensions, and both immediately struggled with injury and performance problems.

Ullmark was in the process of straightening himself out, though. His three-week stretch from November 27 to December 19 had made fans forget all about his sketchy 4-8-1 start.

Ullmark's hot streak ended not with a loss, but with a December 22 back injury that still hasn’t healed. Merilainen finished that game, a loss in Edmonton, then led the Senators to a win in Minnesota. Sogaard got a start too, but wasn’t very convincing in a loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

So, when Forsberg returned to reclaim the net, Sogaard was sent back down. But even though Forsberg stole a point against the Detroit Red Wings, he's been no match for Merilainen.

Forsberg's Last Five Games

Merilainen's Last Five Games

Over the weekend, when head coach Travis Green started Merilainen in both ends of a back-to-back scenario (with travel in between), that spoke volumes about the new pecking order in Ottawa. Green not only likes Merilainen better than Forsberg right now, he likes an unrested Merilainen better than Forsberg at the moment.

And the eyeball test is just as clear as the stats. Not only does the kid look calmer in goal than both Forsberg and Sogaard, but his poise noticeably bleeds into his teammates' performances.

Can this last? The Senators certainly hope so. Pinning their playoff hopes on a 22-year-old with just eight games of NHL experience is a lot to ask. But as Merilainen showed in his TSN post-game interview the other night, he's literally treating his NHL success so far like it's just another day at the office.

Considering the way he's played (and the alternatives), handing the net over to Merilainen right now is the easiest decision in the world. It also presents a unique opportunity for the kid to establish himself as a key part of the team’s future – one that extends well beyond this season.

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