Fabian Zetterlund was surprised late last week when the San Jose Sharks abruptly sent him to the Ottawa Senators shortly before the NHL trade deadline.
Now that he’s with his new team, one in the mix for a playoff spot, Zetterlund is eager to get going.
“I’m ready,” Zetterlund told reporters on Sunday, a day before he makes his Senators debut at home against the Detroit Red Wings. “I feel great. I’m looking forward to stepping on the ice tomorrow and it’s going to be fun.”
Not expecting to be among the Sharks players moved, Zetterlund said he had just stepped out of a red-light sauna midday Friday when he found out he had been traded to the Senators.
“I came out and I saw that my phone had blown up so that’s how I found out,” Zetterlund said after skating at the Canadian Tire Centre just outside Ottawa.
Zetterlund wasn’t the only one caught off guard.
Several Sharks players on Saturday spoke about how tough it was to lose the 25-year-old forward, who figured to be an important part of the team’s rebuild.
A pending unrestricted free agent, Zetterlund, since the start of the 2023-24 season, Zetterlund had 41 goals and 80 points in 146 games in San Jose. He was acquired as part of the Feb. 2023 deal that sent Timo Meier to the New Jersey Devils.
In Friday’s deal, the Sharks received forwards Zack Ostapchuk and Noah Gregor and a 2025 second-round draft pick. San Jose also sent minor league forward Tristen Robins and its 2025 fourth-round draft selection to the Senators.
Ostapchuk is seen as the Sharks’ future third-line center, and Gregor is on an expiring contract. How the Sharks plan to fill the hole in their top six forward group left by Zetterlund’s absence is unclear and likely will not be solved in the coming weeks.
“I know our players just lost a really important teammate, a brother, and that’s tough. That’s really tough,” Sharks coach Warsofsky said Saturday. “We’ve got to push forward and finish this season off the right way and have an understanding that there is a business side of that really sucks.”
The Sharks and Zetterlund had some contract talks but did not appear close to a deal. Still, Sharks general manager Mike Grier said the lack of an agreement with Zetterlund was not reason he and Steve Staios, the Senators’ GM and president of hockey operations, began talking about a trade.
“Steve and I had some conversations throughout (Friday) and we had some back-and-forth,” Grier said. “It was a difficult trade on both sides. It was good to work with Stevie on it.”
The Zetterlund trade came after a Sharks’ road trip in which goalie Vitek Vanecek and center Nico Sturm were moved to the Florida Panthers, and Jake Walman was dealt to the Edmonton Oilers. Just before the Zetterlund deal was made on Friday, Luke Kunin was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“It was a long trip. A lot of guys brought big suitcases and stuff,” Zetterlund said of the atmosphere around the Sharks before the deadline. “But it’s a business and things happen quick.”
From San Jose’s perspective, the key to the deal was mainly the 21-year-old Ostapchuk, a 2021 second-round pick by the Senators who is listed at 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds.
“It probably took so long because of what we think about Fabian and what they felt about (Ostapchuk),” Grier said. “Sometimes when you have those things it’s not easy for either side to part with a player. It took a little bit of time, but we worked it out.”
The Senators, looking to end a seven-year playoff drought, entered Sunday with 69 points and in the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The final two or three playoff spots likely will not be finalized until right before the end of the regular season.
As he starts to settle in with his new team, Zetterlund is fired up to be part of a playoff chase. The indication is that he’ll start his Senators’ tenure in a fourth-line role.
“I want to bring my game,” Zetterlund said. “I have to be hard on pucks, get around the net and (score).”