Links, News, and Notes: Welcome To Your Andlauer Years

At long last, the months-long nightmare is over and the sale process is complete. Michael Andlauer is the new owner of YOUR Ottawa Senators. Also, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are over and Mark Stone is a Stanley Cup champion. Here is your Thursday Links, News and Notes about the Sens and the rest of the hockey world.

Sens sale:

• Knowing that other writers will have plenty to say about this new development, I’ll keep my own thoughts to a minimum, except to say that I’m glad the process is over and I hope Andlauer works out well. It’s no secret that this wasn’t my preferred bid, but I’ve liked what I’ve heard from his group so far, and I feel confident that it will be a big step up from the Melnyk regime.
• Several news outlets have provided an overview of Andlauer and what he brings to the table. Notably, Ian Mendes had a nice writeup at The Athletic ($), and TSN gave an overview of the process.  The Hockey News also took a look at what this development might mean for Pierre Dorion and D.J. Smith.
• One weird and slightly disappointing thing about Andlauer winning is that the dream of celebrity ownership is officially dead, unless someone jumps in later to purchase a minority share of the team. TMZ wrote about Snoop Dogg losing the bidding war.
• A detail about Andlauer that I think is especially interesting is that he is fully bilingual. The team itself has historically done a very poor job of reaching out to francophone fans, so this could be a great opportunity to change that.

Stanley Cup Playoffs:

• As I’m sure you all know by now, Mark Stone is a Stanley Cup champion. Watching him lead his team to victory with a hat trick on Wednesday night was truly surreal, and brought up so many mixed emotions. I hope Sens fans can all agree that, regardless of our thoughts on the Golden Knights, our old fan favourite sure as hell deserves this.
• With the end of the playoffs comes the customary list of injuries. On the Florida side, Aaron Ekblad broke his foot in the first round and dislocated his shoulder several times. Matthew Tkachuk was so badly hurt in game 3 of the final that he needed help getting out of bed and putting on his gear for game 4. As always, this stuff brings up mixed feelings; players should have autonomy over their own bodies and it’s understandable that they’d want to play through anything, but on the other hand it’s truly horrific what they put themselves through, and brings up questions of whether they’re even helping their team when they’re so badly hurt. Most importantly, though, I worry that this culture of playing through every injury might put pressure on players to sacrifice their long-term health and quality of life for a single playoff run.
• Somewhat relevant to that topic is one of the best stories of this year’s Golden Knights team: Jack Eichel. The 2015 second overall pick left the Buffalo Sabres organization in 2021 in large part because of a dispute over his health. Eichel wanted a risky and very uncommon surgery that would require a long recovery but would ensure a better quality of life in the long term, while the Sabres insisted on a faster surgery with worse long-term effects. Eichel ended up going to Vegas to get the surgery he wanted, and less than two years later, he is a Stanley Cup champion.
• The coaching carousel continues, with the New York Rangers announcing that they have hired Peter Laviolette, who has spent the last 3 seasons with the Washington Capitals.
• Earlier this week, The Athletic laid off many people, as they move away from its previous business model of focusing on local coverage led by beat writers, and toward more global coverage and stories of general interest. Whatever your thoughts on The Athletic, it absolutely sucks to see yet more cuts in sports media. Fans and writers alike are being screwed over by the greed of big companies.
• In the same vein, Bell Media has announced major cuts to their radio stations. TSN 1260 is shutting down completely, and other stations are laying off lots of people. Ottawa’s TSN 1200 has also let go of a few radio hosts. Again, whatever you think of the stations themselves, it’s not a good sign that sports media jobs are being eliminated all over the place with no real alternatives. It sucks for the people who lost their jobs, and for the fans.
• As the Philadelphia Flyers continue their front office overhaul, they have named former NHL’er Patrick Sharp Special Advisor to Hockey Operations. It’s worth noting that Sharp was part of the leadership team of the 2010 Blackhawks, and thus likely knew about and ignored the alleged sexual assault by video coach Brad Aldrich against a teammate of Sharp’s. I certainly hope that culture of indifference toward sexual assault does not carry over to his new position.
• Former Senator Jason Spezza pissed off a lot of Sens fans when he took a job in the Leafs’ front office after insisting on playing out the last few years of his career in Toronto. However, it looks like maybe his loyalty to Toronto doesn’t run quite as deep as he made it seem. Spezza has officially taken a job in Pittsburgh as Assistant General Manager to Kyle Dubas. I relate to Kyle Dubas because in his place I, too, would insist on hanging out with Jason Spezza all the time.
• Erik Karlsson was not traded at this year’s deadline, and now that the offseason has officially begun for everyone, The Athletic is looking at potential destinations. As the trade deadline saga made clear, Karlsson’s case is a very complicated one, which is why it makes more sense for a trade to happen during the offseason, with teams having a bit more cap flexibility and more able to make long-term decisions - which is what a Karlsson trade would be, given the term left on his contract. The list is about what you’d expect - Oilers, Hurricanes, Red Wings - but the writers do note that Ottawa is likely out given their current abundance of puck-moving defensemen. That part isn’t a surprise, but seeing our beloved go to Detroit would be a disaster.