Senators Prospect Luke Ellinas Ready for OHL Final: 'I'll Do Whatever It Takes'
After surgeries on both shoulders six months apart forced him to miss nearly an entire season, the 20-year-old returned to make more playoff magic for the Kitchener Rangers in what will likely be his final shot at a Memorial Cup.
There is an edge to Luke Ellinas’ game that might look familiar to Ottawa Senators fans. The Senators prospect, in his third season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers, is a self-proclaimed gritty agitator. An identity that a potential future teammate unknowingly helped shape.
“I always tried to model my game after guys like Brady and Matthew Tkachuk,” Ellinas told The Citizen in a phone interview. “The kind of guys who get under other guys’ skin, play hard, finish checks and kind of try and make a difference every shift. If you’re not scoring a goal, you’re doing something else out there to make an impact and get your team going.”
That attitude helps him elevate to a completely different level when everything is on the line. “Whatever helps our team win, I’ll do whatever it takes,” he added.
The 20-year-old is dynamite in the playoffs, amassing 25 points (14 goals, 11 assists) in 25 career games, nearly half a point per game better than his regular-season average. Last year in the 2025 OHL Western Conference semifinals, Ellinas led the Rangers to one of the greatest comebacks in league history, storming all the way back from a 3-0 series deficit against the Windsor Spitfires.
Ellinas, who was suspended for the first two games of the series, had nine points in the final five games. His hat trick in Game 4, a 3-0 win, injected real belief into the locker room. In Game 7, he scored both goals in a 2-1 overtime win. It was the most improbable comeback of his career — at the time. Little did he know what the next year had in store for him.
What happened to Ellinas?
Off-season surgery on his right shoulder, the second such procedure of his young career, meant six months of rehab. By early November, he was healed up and producing on the first line, scoring three goals in his first five games of the season. In his sixth, he felt a pop in his shoulder. This time, the left one.
“Right as it happened, I knew,” Ellinas recalled. “It was just awful, really the only way I can explain it. When you know what happened, you know you’re going to have to go through that whole process again. It really sucked.”
The Rangers were realistic in their hopes for Ellinas, likely in his final season of junior hockey. With another six months of rehab, the winger’s only chance to see the ice again was near the end of a deep playoff run. And even then, he’d be returning with just five and a half games under his belt in the calendar year.
Ellinas was all too familiar with the path forward. “It’s a lot of work,” Ellinas said. “It’s a lot of rehab, a lot of just strengthening and everything, just getting back to a comfort (level) where you have two arms again. Our strength and conditioning coach (Brandon Merli), helped me so much through this process. He stayed out with me every day after practice, working on things to try and have as little rust as possible when coming back.”
In the meantime, Kitchener added pieces to bolster the forwards corps in Ellinas’ absence. Dylan Edwards was acquired from the Erie Otters; Sam O’Reilly came in from the London Knights. The two veterans helped the Rangers secure top spot in the conference, and when the postseason arrived the team couldn’t be stopped.
