Stoic Sanderson becoming force for Senators ahead of 4 Nations

The pendant hangs around Jake Sanderson’s neck, a black circle edged in silver. Arced near the top and bottom are the words, in all capital letters, “AMOR FATI,” with flames filling the space in between. The Latin phrase is something of a motto for the Ottawa Senators defenseman, words that help center him, after a good game, after a bad game, words of acceptance and understanding.

“It means, love your fate, love what happens to you, good or bad,” Sanderson said of the pendant. “That’s kind of like a mantra that I live after.”

It is the morning after the Ottawa Senators have withstood a 5-0 drubbing at Madison Square Garden in mid-January, their first regulation loss in seven games. It is a morning in which Sanderson, the 22-year-old star-in-waiting for the Senators, is being held out of practice and will later be scratched from a game against the Boston Bruins.

It is not a good day.

And yet Sanderson is a model of equanimity, explaining the perspective he has gained from the teachings of stoic philosophy, a way of thinking he initially found on social media, but which has become a key part of his life. The tenets of stoic philosophy date back to ancient Greece and Rome, to the teachings of Zeno of Citium and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism has seen a resurgence of late on social channels and in the tech sector, with devotees finding it an effective tool for processing an increasingly complex world.

“I just think it makes you not lose your temper,” he said. “Especially in a game, there’s so much stuff that can happen. Obviously, you can snap for a little bit, but you’ve got to recenter and get focused on the next shift. It really has helped me a lot.”

The Montana native, who has cemented his place in the core of the up-and-coming Senators, came to stoic philosophy four or five years ago and has, in the practice, found a way of moving through his life that allows him to appreciate it while it is happening.

It is a perspective that might come with time and experience. That Sanderson has arrived here at 22 says something about the seriousness with which he approaches life -- has always approached life -- and about his willingness to explore ideas that he feels allow him to be his best self.

Not that he shares much about this inner life with his teammates, not about the podcasts he listens to on his commute to the rink each day, not about the journaling he does every morning and night to “try to set up my day the best I can,” as he put it. Not about the self-help books he’s devoted to, except with teammate Jacob Bernard-Docker, a fellow “big reader” with whom he trades books, a practice that dates back to their time at the University of North Dakota.

“I don’t really talk too much about it,” Sanderson said. “I haven’t really talked about it ever. But yeah, that stoic philosophy stuff, it’s really important in my life.”

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While many of his teammates are playing cards or watching Netflix on flights, Sanderson is more often seen with a book in his hands. His current one is “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think,” by Brianna Wiest, a recommendation by Bernard-Docker. He’s been trying to read more, especially since the start of 2025.

“Still watching shows here and there, but honestly I feel like reading just helps my mindset and attitude a lot,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson is quiet, a thinker who seeks out new experiences and new understanding, which was what led him to dabble in eating frozen liver shots covered with maple syrup -- a habit he has since abandoned -- but what has also pushed him to embrace stoic philosophy, a belief system he came to through Ryan Holiday, a prolific author and personality, who also espouses the concept of “Memento Mori.”

“It means you’re not going to live forever, like you could die right now,” Sanderson said. “And it just means, let that determine what you do, say and think. So the perspective like you could leave this life right now, this special life of playing hockey, coming to the rink every single day and living a very blessed life, so let that determine your attitude and how you look on things.”

On the back of the pendant, surrounded by a laurel wreath, are more words, a portion of a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche, “Not merely to bear what is necessary but love it.” Along with the flame, which originates in a quote from Marcus Aurelius, the concept is one of acceptance, one of embracing and celebrating all that happens, facing it with happiness and strength, with the belief that so much is out of one’s hands.

“It’s just controlling what you can control and your emotions and perspective and outlook on things,” Sanderson said. “I got into it around four or five years ago, I think it was my second year at North Dakota, and it’s helped me a lot, honestly. There’s been some tough times.”

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In his third year in the NHL, Sanderson has carved out a niche for himself, cementing his place as the top defenseman on the Senators, the one relied on to be solid defensively while contributing increasing amounts of offense. Selected by Ottawa with the No. 5 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, he has 35 points (five goals, 30 assists) in 55 games this season while averaging a career-high 24:25 of ice time.

The Senators so believed in him, they signed him to an eight-year, $64.4 million contract after he played just one season in the NHL.

He’s one of several reasons the Senators (29-23-4) are in the thick of the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which Ottawa hasn’t made since the 2016-17 season, and he was also selected as the injury replacement for Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will be held from Feb. 12-20.

But he doesn’t seem like a young, developing player. Not in the way he attacks the day, not in the way he attacks the gym, not in the way he relates to his teammates and his profession. There, he seems like a grizzled veteran.

“He’s very mature,” his father, former NHL player Geoff Sanderson, said. “Very curious, very mature. … You ask his teammates, he’s the first one in bed every night.”

While Sanderson traces that professionalism, his wise-beyond-his-years ethos to his family, his two brothers and Geoff, who played for seven teams over a 17-year NHL career in which he scored 700 points (355 goals, 345 assists) in 1,104 games, Geoff Sanderson thinks otherwise.

“He’s always been very serious about all sports, even going back to when he was 9, 10, 11, 12-years-old, it didn’t matter if it was soccer, volleyball, badminton, he just loved competing in all sports,” Geoff said. “He’s always had a serious side to him and that’s just part of his uber-competitiveness that is part of him. He’s always had it.”

He was the kid leading his 10-year-old team in warmups, doing skills camps in spring and fall, the focus and drive and motivation coming from within, his father never pushing.

It has stayed with him, something that is notable to his teammates, to the staff, to the general manager.

He is 22. He does not seem 22.

“‘Sandy’ is one of those players that, quite honestly, he can almost coach himself,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “He’s very driven, very smart. He’s already a really good pro. He brings a lot to the table for our team at a young age.”

For Sanderson, it comes back to the lessons learned at the US National Team Development Program, where he showed up in 2018-19 knowing almost no one, given that he lived in Calgary at the time. But the native of Whitefish, Montana, quickly rose, becoming close with coach Seth Appert, now an assistant with the Buffalo Sabres, becoming the captain for two years.

The team ahead of them had been rife with skill, with players like Jack Hughes and Trevor Zegras leading the way. Sanderson’s team wasn’t quite like that. They had to win differently, to understand what they had to do and who they had to be and use that.

It worked with who Sanderson had always been, since back when the family first moved to Calgary and Sanderson was invited to play on a team with some school friends, the only hitch being that defense was the sole open slot.

“Do you think I told him to play defense?” Geoff Sanderson laughed. “No, it wasn’t coming from me.”

It came naturally.

“He was always really strong defensively. He always was, at every level,” Geoff said. “But when he went to play for the US program I think is when everything really popped for him. Nick Fohr, the ‘D’ coach there, did an unbelievable job, not just with Jake but with a lot of young defensemen, that if you want to play you’ve got to be able to get the puck out of your zone, you’ve got to be able to get the puck off the boards, and you’ve got to work on your angles.

“His offensive game took off at the program, but his defensive commitment really was polished at the USNTDP program. He really takes pride in it.”

The mindset has always been to look at the best opposing player, Alex Ovechkin or David Pastrnak or Sidney Crosby, and vow that the player won’t score. Not on him. Not that night.

“He’s just got that defensive instinct to him,” Geoff said. “That can’t be taught, I don’t think, it’s either in you or it’s not.”

There were so many conversations with Appert, some of them harder than others. But, looking back, it’s something Sanderson appreciates, something that he believes led him in the right direction, because of Appert’s belief in him.

“He took me aside and he said, ‘You’ve got to learn how to defend first if you want to play in the NHL, especially as a young guy,’” Sanderson said. “And I honestly think that that kind of stuff is life changing. I think it’s part of the reason why I’m here, especially at a pretty young age.”

Because his fallback game is not offense, but defense.

“It’s almost like he’s done it inverted, compared to most, where he’s an incredibly solid defensive defenseman who has offensive upside and that continues to build,” Senators general manager Steve Staios said. “There’s going to be nights where things aren’t going probably to your standard, but he’s always so good on the defensive side of it, which is another unique quality for a young defenseman.

“So you always feel comfortable with Jake on the ice, and I think his game continues to build and his confidence continues to build on the offense.”

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The conversations with Appert are not the only time Sanderson has been pulled aside, encouraged.

It’s something that Staios has done, as well.

He has seen the quiet leadership that has come from Sanderson, something that fits in with the organization’s desire to add more veterans to its group this offseason. But the young defenseman has that, naturally, and in spades.

“I think the thing that impresses me the most is how committed and mature he is at such a young age,” Staios said. “He just does everything right. He’s the first one in the rink. When you see his off-ice routine, his diet, you name it, he’s very focused in on doing everything he can to be his best and at a young age sometimes that takes time for these athletes to understand but he certainly has that.”

It's why Staios believes that, at some point, Sanderson will realize just how powerful he is, how powerful his voice is, because of the respect he’s earned, through his habits at the rink, the person he is off it, the supportiveness and positivity he brings.

“Very much lead by example, very serious,” Geoff Sanderson said. “Did he get that from me? Definitely not. But I’m very proud of him, the way he carries himself and the way he plays and I’m very excited for his future.”

It’s something they all appreciate.

“I think it’s just how much of a pro he is already,” captain Brady Tkachuk said. “It’s really impressive how he not just handles himself on the ice but off the ice, and the way he cares and prepares for the game. He’s always in tip-top shape and it shows in the game and the plays he makes out there.”

Sanderson is, as he puts it, a person who is “loving the grind and loving what I do.”

It’s in his nature, sure, a kid who grew up the son of a former NHL player, who grew up focused and dedicated and serious about his craft from elementary school on. But it’s also there in the 2,500-year-old belief system that he has adopted, one that makes the good and the bad make sense, that keeps him focused on the straight ahead.

“It’s just perspective for me, honestly,” Sanderson said. “We’re so lucky and so blessed to come to the rink every single day and do what we do. The fact that playing hockey is our job is incredible. It’s what you always dreamed of.

“I know it’s sounds cliché, but there’s some days, like even last night, we had a big loss (to the Rangers) and it [stinks], but you’ve got to wake up in the morning and turn the page and have a positive attitude. It rubs off on people, I think.”