Heading into his third full season with Ottawa, the veteran goalie likes the team's overall direction.

After a season that tested him both personally and professionally, Linus Ullmark is refreshed and ready for the challenge ahead.

The Ottawa Senators’ top goaltender raised eyebrows on Day 1 of training camp last September, when he noted he wasn’t happy with either his game or his off-season preparation.

His tone was a lot different on Friday, when the 33-year-old Ullmark met with the media for the first time since 2026 camp opened. He was smiling, laughing and even joked about how he felt.

“It was even more awful … No, it wasn’t,” he added with a laugh.

Ullmark wore a new setup, which included red pads and gloves, presumably to go with the National Hockey League club’s red jersey, and behind the mask you got the sense that he was in a lot better place than he was 365 days ago, now heading into his third full season with the Senators.

His struggles last season have been well-documented. He wasn’t good to start the schedule, took a 35-day leave of absence for mental health reasons, and returned to not only help lead the Senators into the playoffs but also to perform as their best player against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Yes, the Senators were swept in Round 1 by the Hurricanes, but Ullmark gave them a chance to win every night. He finished those four contests with a .932 save percentage and a 2.03 goals-against average. It allowed him to go into the off-season feeling good about himself.

After last season’s struggles with goaltending throughout the organization, Steve Staios, Ottawa’s president of hockey operations and general manager, decided to take a new approach.

That included bringing in Maciej Szwoch as co-ordinator of goaltending scouting and development.

Szwoch, 41, was brought in to work with Ullmark during his leave of absence for mental health reasons. The two are close friends, and Szwoch is considered to be a mentor to Ullmark.

Szwoch didn’t replace goaltending coach Justin Peters, but will work with him at the National Hockey League and American Hockey League levels. Both played a key role in bringing in Samuel Ersson from the Philadelphia Flyers as the backup to Ullmark.

“He was there when I started my career, over 15 years ago. We shared a lot of good, happy memories. Also some less happy memories,” Ullmark said.

“And so it’s fun. He has certainly earned his role here with the team, I’m really glad for his sake, and it’s going to be interesting to see what he can bring to the organization going forward.”

Szwoch spent time with Ullmark at his home in Sweden just before he returned to Ottawa in September. They spent four days together working on the areas that Ullmark wanted to focus on to prepare for what will be a pivotal campaign with the Senators.

Last year, Peters made the trip from North America to spend time with Ullmark, but this year they decided to switch it up.

“It was a good kind of middle ground for Maciej to come up and work on some things that me, him and (Peters) have talked about,” Ullmark said.

Everybody knows the Senators will go as far as Ullmark and Ersson can take them.

Ullmark has never played more than 50 games in a season, and the schedule has now been expanded to 84 games. That means Ersson will play 30-35 games.

They don’t live near each other in Sweden, but did suit up together at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025.

The 26-year-old Ersson is trying to get his own career back on track after signing a two-year deal with the Senators that will pay him an average annual value of $2.2 million per season.

“He made a good impression on me,” Ullmark said. “Once everything was said and done, and he was going to be a part of this organization, I was very happy.

“It’s always fun to have a fellow Swede join the ranks, but also for me, as a Swedish goaltender, it’s nice to have that conversation with him on a daily basis.”

Ullmark is heading into the second year of a deal paying him $8.25 million a season. He is confident that the Senators can continue to progress.

He knows that success starts with him making the saves, and he’s confident in the people around him. Ullmark had a front-row seat last season to watching the Senators learn to play better defensively.

“This team has grown in multiple ways and multiple levels ever since I came here,” Ullmark said.

“It’s been very fun, and, if we had a conversation regarding where this team was five years ago and comparing it to today, it’s a completely different team. We always say that we have the best in the business when it comes to our physios and those sorts of things, so we are very well taken care of, all the way up to management, and owners and everything like that.

“It’s fun being on this train and seeing the steps that we’ve taken, not just for us as players, but for the organization as a whole.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com