One Year Under Michael Andlauer: How Have Things Changed?

March 28th, 2022 is when a lot changed for the Ottawa Senators: their owner Eugene Melnyk passed away from an undisclosed illness at the age of 62. It was a strange day for Senators fans because most would have told you that they wanted new ownership and to get rid of Melnyk, but in the form of selling the team—nobody wished harm on him. So to see him pass away was a confusing time because on the one hand, it meant that the team was going to get new ownership which had been talked about for years, but on the other hand, it felt disrespectful to celebrate a man's death.

I'm certainly not here to go through Melnyk's past again, as it's a long and complicated one in Ottawa. His death changed a lot for the franchise though, and it is fascinating to look at where the organization is now, two and a half years later. In the spring of 2022, we knew that the Senators would have to be sold to a new ownership group, but it was of course going to take some time. I don't think people thought it was going to take a year and a half for things to be official though. After all the rumours and drama surrounding Ryan Reynolds, Snoop Dogg, the Weeknd, etc. potentially being part owners of the Senators, on September 21st, 2023, they made it official with probably the most sensible choice: Michael Andlauer, who was already a minority owner of the Montréal Canadiens. Considering his relationship with the NHL, it made too much sense for him to be the principal owner.

That was almost a year ago now, and there have been a lot of changes in the organization. Have they been good or bad? Let's go through what has happened since then.

To start, what I like about this new group is that besides Andlauer, the team has minority owners Anna and Olivia Melnyk, Jeff York, the Malhotra family, Rocco Tullio, and Paul and Michael Paletta. Andlauer can still call the shots but he has plenty of people around him that can give input about how to run the Senators. That is vastly different from how Melnyk ran the Senators, as he could have desperately used other voices in the room.

In terms of staffing, we can begin looking at the top.

Steve Staios was brought in on September 29th as the President of Hockey Operations and later as General Manager after Pierre Dorion was fired on November 1st due to the controversy surrounding losing a first round pick from the NHL. That change was welcomed by many fans, as Dorion's mistakes had been too costly. During the search for a new GM, Ryan Bowness was promoted to "Associate GM," and he seems primed to get the GM role down the line. Dave Poulin was also brought in as a Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations, a fancy way of saying that he's one of the big decision-makers alongside Staios and Bowness.

One important hire that signals a big shift in organizational philosophy is the hiring of Sean Tierney as the Director of Hockey Analytics. Tierney's work has been well-documented online, and it was a slam dunk hire. Andlauer hasn't added to the analytics "department" since then though, and I'd love to see that area be strengthened.

The coaching staff obviously saw a massive overhaul as well, as DJ Smith, Davis Payne, Jack Capuano, Zac Bierk, and the late Bob Jones are no longer on staff. In their place, Travis Green, Daniel Alfredsson, Nolan Baumgartner, Mike Yeo, Ben Sexton, and Justin Peters have taken over. Time will tell how much of an impact Green will have on the Senators, but it was very clear that Smith was not the answer, and any change was a welcomed one.

Other big names that came into the organization were already well-known in Ottawa such as Jacques Martin as the interim head coach and now the Senior Advisor to the coaching staff, Cyril Leeder as President and CEO, Ian Mendes as Vice President of Communications, and Sylvain St-Laurent as Director of Communications. All four of those people are loved in Ottawa, and it's great to see moves that have such high approval ratings.

Beyond those familiar faces, Andlauer also brought in Matt Nichol as a well-respected Director of Player Health and Performance, Rob DiMaio as a Director of Player Personnel and Pro Scouting, and Dale McTavish (Mason's father) as a pro scout. I'm sure I am missing some behind-the-scenes people who have been brought in under Andlauer, but that is still sixteen important people added to the organization in less than a year. I doubt he is done adding to the off-ice staff too, and I hope I am right with that feeling. They still don't have a large scouting staff, and it'd be nice to add one more name to the front office and analytics department. That takes time to build though, and you don't want to just hire somebody for the sake of hiring them—they need to be quality people.

They've also moved on from plenty of people as well such as Dorion, the whole coaching staff, pro scouts Rob Murphy and Jim Clark, the communications team with Brian Morris and Chris Moore, and probably some others behind the scenes too. There has been so much turnover since Andlauer came in, but that's a good thing. The Senators had been so poorly run for years, and Andlauer should get a chance to have the people in place that he wants. Some people are worth keeping of course, but there was so much wrong with the Senators before.

There's more to ownership than just hirings and firings though, and the overall aura of the organization seems to have completely shifted. The on-ice product still needs to improve, but that's not really his fault. Andlauer knows the importance of doing everything he can to help the team, whether it's something big or small. He continues to be committed to getting an arena at LeBreton Flats, and I feel much more confident that'll happen with him compared to Melnyk. The team has made a much more concerted effort to incorporate the Gatineau/Francophone community (with St-Laurent's hiring being an excellent example), which could be a goldmine for expanding the fanbase, they are more supportive allies of the LGBTQ+ community than they ever were under Melnyk, the team is striving to make arena upgrades even if they do eventually move, and Andlauer consistently shows how much he cares by being there and being a fan just like all of us. Simply put, he's putting respectability back into the Senators.

Would I call year one a massive success for Andlauer? No, but I love how invested he seems with the organization and I can tell that he has an intense passion to make this a winning team again. He is trying to bring in as many smart people as he can, and there is good reason to be optimistic about this franchise even if they hit a bump in the road on the ice. He's not accepting defeat and will continue to make changes. Good owners can be the difference between being champions and being basement teams, and so far, I think Andlauer is helping rather than hindering the team.