Senators Expected To Interview Patrick Roy For Vacant Coaching Position

It had been suggested in recent days that there was one more candidate that had yet to be interviewed for Ottawa’s vacant head coaching position.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Patrick Roy will be the final person to receive an interview for the role which is expected to occur sometime next week.

Roy has been out of the NHL since abruptly resigning his post as head coach of Colorado in August of 2016 after three seasons with the team.  He had stayed out of coaching until this past season when he returned to the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL where he first began his coaching career back in 2005 and spent eight years with the team before joining the Avalanche where he won the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year in his first season.

Having considerable experience working with younger players could certainly work in Roy’s favor.  The Senators are fully in the midst of a rebuild and will have a young and inexperienced roster for the next couple of years, headlined by winger Brady Tkachuk plus defensemen Thomas Chabot and Erik Brannstrom.  Player development will be criticial and Roy should be comfortable working in that type of environment.

Part of the reason that Roy left Colorado was a lack of input in player personnel decisions but Garrioch reports that this time around, the 53-year-old will be content with strictly being a coach and not being involved in managerial decisions as he was in his time at the junior level.

GM Pierre Dorion has conducted a thorough search and is known to have interviewed Marc Crawford (who finished the season in the interim role), AHL Belleville’s Troy Mann, Providence College’s Nate Leaman, plus NHL assistants Rick Bowness (Dallas), Jacques Martin (Pittsburgh), and D.J. Smith (Toronto).  A final decision is expected by next month’s NHL Entry Draft.