Ottawa Senators: Four Major Organizational Changes That Go Way Beyond Their Player Transactions

The recent hiring of longtime Sens reporters Ian Mendes and Sylvain St-Laurent to prominent communications roles for the Ottawa Senators organization is a reminder of all the subtle ways the organization has changed behind the scenes in the past year.

After a year of confirmation and 10 official months under Michael Andlauer’s ownership, things are changing for the positive in numerous ways. We may or may not see more immediate results on the ice, but it’s clear the Senators have taken major steps towards being a professional, tightly run franchise that respects the fanbase, history, and community that it’s representing. Dare we say that we’ve reached an era of stability?

So how have things changed?

Bridges have been rebuilt: Nearly as frustrating as the exodus of talented players in the twilight years of Eugene Melnyk’s ownership has been the exodus of good people in terms of alumni and longtime professionals in the executive suite.

Senators fans saw legends like Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Phillips, franchise co-founder Cyril Leeder all go out the door to be replaced with either no one at all, or a rotating cast of executives on a nearly annual basis.

All of these beloved figures are back in one role or another.

Other former players also popped up at various points last season, like Craig Anderson and Alexandre Daigle, in addition to Wade Redden in a player development role and a spot in the ring of honour. Alumni like Mark Borowiecki and Kyle Turris have gone on podcasts to rave about Ottawa as a market and reminisce about good times here. It seems the door is open and players are happily walking back through them at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Speaking of rebuilding bridges, Mendes said last December he was blacklisted by the organization for the better part of four years during the Melnyk years. Now he’s running their communications department. If that doesn’t speak to rebuilt bridges, what else does?

Accessibility and outreach to the community and embracing new media: Going back to the recent communications department hires of Mendes and St-Laurent, the Sens organization has emphasized a connection to the community, only this time the call is coming from inside of the house. While these two hires do leave a gaping hole in fan-facing Senators coverage, it will likely create stronger internal connections and understanding of the fanbase temperature and community concerns since both these men wrote countless articles from those perspectives. These men understand the current media landscape better than anyone in the Ottawa region, and in both official languages.

I have never seen a Senators team that is this open and accessible for communication. Current players like Captain Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux, Drake Batherson, along with new additions like head coach Travis Green and players David Perron, Nick Jensen, Michael Amadio and goalie Linus Ullmark have all made the rounds on various Senators podcasts of all sizes and listener bases in the past month. GM Steve Staios has done the same. Owner Michael Andlauer is seemingly always available for a quick interview and to share his unfiltered yet properly curated thoughts. What’s encouraging is how most of these players and managers seem to be seeing the same things and communicating a shared vision for this team in the short and long term.

If you need more proof of this new approach, check out the draft floor video on the Senators’ YouTube channel. It included footage of 2024 first-round pick Carter Yakemchuk’s pre-draft interviews and other behind-the-scenes goodies. It’s actually a riveting short documentary. This team now understands how to put together a strong public face and perception.

The Senators have an actual poker face now: Senators fans will probably run out of fingers when they recall how many times in the past this team put their foot firmly in their mouths on things that should not have been public:

These moments have left this team with egg on its face and fractured relationships. These quotes and open negotiations did massive damage to the perception of the Senators across the league. It always seemed like their dirty laundry was hanging out for everyone to see.

Andlauer’s dominant sound bite during his ownership has been “We want to be best in class.” Not bad, certainly better than “We’re a team,” isn’t it? Especially when it’s followed through with measurable action.

Work is underway to get a new arena deal in place, and it’s being done quietly and professionally behind closed doors. Every major player contract has been taken care of before the season, with no unsigned RFAs or nasty arbitration hearings. The team stayed quiet about roster plans throughout last season and didn’t tip their hand for moves like the Ullmark trade.

Previous regimes showed their cards to everyone and then proceeded to fall face-first into the poker table.

Dorion was once quoted that “teams saw (him) coming a mile away” when we was trying to fill needs on the roster. Of course they did. That’s what happens when you tell everyone your plans and roster needs. Good communication also means knowing when to keep your mouth shut, and this new management team knows how to do that too.

Quality hires in important support roles throughout the organization: It’s no secret that the Senators used to run the smallest front office in the NHL. Rumours persisted that part of the reason Ottawa lost a first-round pick in the Evgenii Dadonov trade was due to Dorion not having proper support to ensure that information got to the other team.

Those days are gone.

The Senators hired Rob DiMaio, who spent 13 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, serving as their director of player personnel from 2015 to 2022 and helping the franchise win a Stanley Cup in 2019.

They brought in decades of hockey experience in Dave Poulin to be Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations to support Staios.

They brought back Jacques Martin to be a senior advisor to the coaching staff when he wasn’t required to actually coach last season.

The new coaching staff, led by Travis Green and Mike Yeo, has previous head coaching experience and has said all the right things about identity and accountability.

They hired a highly regarded analytics expert in Sean Tierney. Matt Nichol is the Player Health and Performance Guru this team never had before.

If you head to the team’s website and scroll down the team’s hockey operations page, it’ll actually take a few swipes to get to the bottom, which was not always the case.

These quality hires also extend to proper attention being paid to the minor league squad in Belleville, which just recently won its first-ever playoff series. Proper AHL veterans with some good NHL depth upside have been retained or signed, such as Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore, Jan Jenik, Jeremy Davies, Garrett Pilon, and Max Guenette, in addition to coach David Bell, which means that the young prospects going through Belleville on their hockey journey will have proper support and a chance at being competitive.

It’s a new dawn in Sens Nation. This team has shown that you can’t win in a league with only talented young players and operating with a skeleton crew everywhere else. It truly takes a village to execute visions of “unparalleled success” from a multitude of different angles.

The Sens may or may not take a step forward on the ice this season, but you can’t build a house without installing a good foundation. As an organization, they’ve advanced by leaps and bounds in the past year, and that bodes well for better days to come in the standings.

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