The Ottawa Senators are Overplaying Claude Giroux

It’s clear that signing Claude Giroux as a free agent was a rousing success for the Ottawa Senators. Partway into his third season with the team, he’s scored 63 goals and 161 points in 191 games. Only Stützle and Tkachuk have more goals and points during that time. While playoff hockey hasn’t made an appearance back in Ottawa during that time, Giroux is near the bottom of the list of people to blame for that. Given his offensive ability, competitiveness, and leadership qualities, Giroux has been everything the Senators could’ve hoped for.

So what gives? I write glowingly about Giroux for a paragraph (I also made his Hall of Fame Case earlier), yet the title of this article says something entirely different? Well, let’s dive into the details on why I think it’s time to play Claude Giroux less going forward.

READ MORE: Senators Owner Michael Andlauer is Fed Up

Giroux’s Current Level of Play

Here’s what stands out as positives from Giroux’s game this season: Highly intelligent, extremely competitive, great playmaking, fantastic at faceoffs. As for the negatives, there’s one big one: Quite slow. Here are two other concerns: He’s about to turn 37 in January, and he’s racked up plenty of mileage over the years, playing over 1,200 games in his career. Given all the positives, Giroux should obviously remain as a key part of the Senators offensive group. The problem is that Travis Green is asking him to play over 19 minutes a night, second amongst Senators forwards to only Tim Stützle. Given his age, his lack of speed, and the grueling length of an NHL season, his minutes shouldn’t be that high.

Giroux’s Regression in the Second Half Last Season

Partway through last season, Giroux’s game took a turn for the worst. It wasn’t as if his play fell off a cliff, but he seemed to be a step slower, and less involved offensively compared to his first year and a half with the Senators. Here were the splits:

• First 39 games: 13 goals, 38 points (team leader in points) 
• Last 43 games: 8 goals, 26 points (fifth in points) 

Giroux went from essentially a point per game, down to just 0.6 points per game in the second half. Thus far this season, he’s scored 18 points in 27 games. Even this season there are concerns that he might be fading. He scored 11 points in his first nine games, but just seven points in his last 18.

Giroux’s Minutes Compared to Past Seasons

Here are Giroux’s averages in terms of time on ice per game, over the last few seasons:

• 2019-20: 18:59
• 2020-21: 18:06
• 2021-22: 19:04 (19:14 with Philadelphia, 18:34 with Florida)
• 2022-23: 18:48 (first season with Ottawa)
• 2023-24: 20:06
• 2024-25: 19:15

Over the last two seasons, Giroux’s ice-time went back up to averages that he hadn’t been at in several seasons. What happened? The easiest way to explain the increase within his time as a Senator, is his penalty killing minutes. Here’s the breakdown over his three seasons:

Shorthanded Time on Ice Per Game:

• 2022-23: 0:59
• 2023-24: 1:54
• 2024-25: 2:23

The last time Claude Giroux was playing two minutes on the penalty kill per game was all the way back in 2011-12. All of a sudden, at the age of 35/36, the Senators had him on the ice for almost 160 minutes on the penalty kill last season. He’s on pace for even more than that this year. To be fair to the coaches from a season ago, the penalty kill was a disaster, finishing fourth worst in the NHL. At least with Giroux’s faceoff ability, the team had a fighting chance to win the initial draw and kill off the first 30 seconds.

Suggestion for Managing Giroux’s Minutes

Given all the information above, I’m sure you could guess my suggestion- in order to lessen Giroux’s minutes, Travis Green should limit his short-handed ice-time. He’s an offensive threat above all else, so he needs to be on one of Ottawa’s two power play units. He’s still one of Ottawa’s top six forwards, so his even strength minutes shouldn’t be altered too much. If Giroux was asked to kill a minute of penalties per game (like he was during his first season with the Sens), that would put him at around 18 minutes per game of ice time. That is much more reasonable, with the goal being to try to have the soon to be 37 year old thrive for the duration of a long season.

As far as who could take those minutes, the Senators have some young forwards who should be hungry for ice-time, and who have penalty killing abilities. If Ostapchuk sticks around, he could eat into those minutes. Same with Ridly Greig, who’s currently playing around one minute while short-handed, per game. The likes of Norris and Pinto give Senators solid centres on the penalty kill. Veterans like Amadio and Gregor are capable on the penalty kill, too.

Using the Dallas Stars as Inspiration

Back in 2020-21, Joe Pavelski had a resurgent season, leading the Stars in scoring with 51 points in 56 games. This was at the age of 36. He played 19 minutes per game. Pavelski was able to play for an additional three seasons, scoring 81, 77 and 67 points, all the while seeing his ice-time decrease each season.

When you’re living in the moment, it’s easy to overplay your top guys. The Stars were able to realize that they’d get more longevity out of Pavelski by decreasing his minutes. Seeing Pavelski play all the way to the age of 39 as a capable point producer is a great example that Travis Green and the Senators should look to with Claude Giroux. That could help Giroux continue to succeed this season, and beyond.