We also talked to former Senators defenceman Brendan Bell to break down Ottawa's blue line.

Three days out from the Ottawa Senators‘ season opener in Toronto, star defenceman Jake Sanderson was nowhere to be seen at practice on Wednesday.

“He skated today on his own,” head coach Travis Green said of Sanderson, who left in the second period a 4-3 preseason win against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. “We were hoping he’d be in practice today, but it didn’t feel right. So he stayed off and we’ll see where it goes, if he’s ready for the weekend.”

Sanderson’s unspecified injury undoubtedly has the Sens’ faithful anxious heading into Saturday against the Maple Leafs. Green admitted Monday that what was ailing the 24-year-old defenceman wasn’t related to what had previously kept him out of the majority of training camp.

Sanderson is this National Hockey League team’s most important skater. No one plays more minutes; no one can impact the game at all strengths like he can. Thomas Chabot may have been named captain on Tuesday —rightfully so — but no one on the roster leads by example quite like Sanderson.

Across the league, Sanderson is easily regarded as a top-15 defenceman. In the Ottawa locker room, his teammates proudly declare they play with a top-five defender. This writer believes that only Colorado’s Cale Makar and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes are more effective at their position.

Former Sens defenceman Brendan Bell tells the Ottawa Citizen that Sanderson’s skating alone has him comfortably in the top 10.

“There’s a bunch of guys in that room that I do know and that I talk to,” Bell said. “and everybody raves about how dedicated he is and determined to be the best. He doesn’t have many weaknesses, and, if he does have a weakness, he’s going to fix it really quickly. I haven’t been able to see those in his few years here because his development path has just been straight upwards as far as I’m concerned.”

Here was how the Senators’ defence pairings looked in practice on Wednesday:

Thomas Chabot — Jordan Spence
Tyler Kleven — Carter Yakemchuk
Nikolas Matinpalo — Cameron Crotty
Hoyt Stanley

Injured: Jake Sanderson, Artem Zub

It’s intriguing to see Stanley take reps largely as the seventh defenceman (at least, that’s how it looks). On Saturday against the Habs, he played the first half of the game alongside Sanderson, and they looked great together. Knowing Zub was a long shot to start the regular season, Stanley wasn’t exactly a placeholder. The coaching staff gave the pair a real trial run, and the rookie passed the test during what would be the only game reps Sanderson has had before the regular-season opener.

So, if Sanderson is ready to go, does Stanley actually make his debut? Or will Matinpalo slide over to the right side to play on the top pairing?

Ottawa won’t skate Thursday. We’ll have to wait until Friday before they fly out to the Big Smoke to see if No. 85 has progressed any further.

After starting Yakemchuk on the top duo with Sanderson to start camp, Green quickly moved the youngster down to the third pairing with Kleven. It makes a ton of sense in theory: Kleven, with two full NHL seasons under his belt, has become a steady, reliable defender, while Yakemchuk has some learning to do regarding defensive-zone structure and 1-on-1 defending.

The pair has played two pre-season games together. The first, a 6-1 loss to the Leafs, was ugly. On Saturday, in a much more controlled environment against Montreal, they were better.

The Citizen asked Green on Wednesday if he could see any chemistry forming between the two.

“It’s hard to see. I thought they played a strong game last game,” Green said. “I thought Klev’s game has really come along; I think Yak’s game has, as well. As far as chemistry, it just seems like it should be a good pairing.

“(Kleven) has grown leaps and bounds over the years. Yak has grown, though, as camp’s gone on. I’ve seen it in different ways. His play away from the puck is getting stronger, his ability to close and shut down plays. And we’ll see how it goes.”

It’s far too early to say how long Yakemchuk will remain with the big club. He has all the tools to succeed at the NHL level — we even endorsed Yakemchuk for the quarterback roll on the second power-play unit over the off-season — but the Senators will do what’s best for his development.

As Bell puts it, young NHL defenceman face nearly the same amount of pressure as young goalies. There’s nowhere to hide.

“Getting turned around in your own zone once or twice a game is probably going to result in a goal against,” Bell said. “In today’s NHL, that’s often the difference in winning and losing. Teams are so close, and, like, there’s so much parity in the league now that you can’t afford to throw games away in the early stages of the season just because you’re trying to see whether your first-round pick is ready. I think they’ll realize that pretty quickly.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a situation where the Senators force-feed this to Carter Yakemchuk and say, ‘Hey, you’re here now, and you’re an NHL player.’ They’re going to give him opportunities to prove that he can be, but if it’s not working out, he’s going to be back in Belleville (of the American Hockey League).”

There are serious question marks up front and in the crease: Are William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky going to create enough offence in the absence of Brady Tkachuk? Is Linus Ullmark fully capable of taking on a starter’s load and playing consistently throughout?

However, what’s certain is that, when this Ottawa blue-line is healthy, it is the foundation of a playoff team and one that could do some real damage.

Few teams have a better back end. The Carolina Hurricanes are the deepest — that much was thoroughly proven over two months in the spring. Perhaps the out-of-this-world top pairing of Makar and Devon Toews is enough on its own to concede to the Colorado Avalanche in this regard. But, really, are there many others?

“The only thing that I kind of think they don’t have in their top four is size,” Bell said of the Senators. “And a lot of teams that have won in the past five, 10 years are big on the back end. But mobility is more important than size, I think, at this stage. And I don’t know many teams in the league that have a more mobile top four than Sanderson, Chabot, Spence and Zub.”