Senators Announce D.J. Smith as New Head Coach
It’s a 3 year deal for the former Leafs assistant
Well, so much about the talk that there might be a second round of interviews with the short-short list, and that we might have an announcement as early as next week. The Senators announced this morning that D.J. Smith will be the next head coach.
Smith has spent the last four years in Toronto as an assistant under Mike Babcock, responsible for the defence and penalty kill according to Behind the Benches. Prior to that he was head coach for the Oshawa Generals for three years, a stint that included OHL Coach of the Year honours in 2013-14, and a Memorial Cup win in 2014-15 and an overall 135-53-3-13 record. He also spent six years behind the bench of his hometown Windsor Spitfires as an assistant.
He comes from a playing background, though mostly in the AHL. He played in 387 AHL games across eight seasons, mostly for the St. John’s Maple Leafs, compared to a grand total of 45 NHL games between Toronto and Colorado.
You can read the official release from the Senators here.
