May 7: Green and the Senators have come to an agreement and he’ll be announced as the Sens’ next bench boss on Tuesday, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The Senators did indeed announce the move, confirming a four-year contract that will keep him behind the Ottawa bench through 2027-28.
May 6: The Senators are expected to finalize Travis Green as their next head coach, TSN’s Darren Dreger confirms Monday.
Green finished 2023-24 as the interim head coach for the Devils, who fired Lindy Ruff four days before the trade deadline in a last-ditch effort to make the playoffs. While he remained in consideration for their still-open vacancy, New Jersey granted him permission to speak to Ottawa as late as last week, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reported. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman also said on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast that things were trending toward Green landing with the Sens.
It wasn’t a strong finish to the season under Green for the Devils. They managed to drop below the .500 mark despite having a record of 30-27-4 when they fired Ruff, finishing 13th in the Eastern Conference and 10 points behind the Capitals for the second wild-card spot.
Green shouldn’t be faulted for New Jersey missing the playoffs. That was nearly settled well before he took over, with number-one defenseman Dougie Hamilton missing nearly the whole season and the Devils’ five goaltenders cumulatively allowing 19 goals above average. But it is concerning he wasn’t able to at least keep up the pace set under Ruff, especially considering New Jersey received its best goaltending of the season to end the year thanks to deadline pickup Jake Allen’s .900 SV% in 12 starts.
The 53-year-old has been a part of the NHL back to 1992, when he embarked on a 14-year, 970-game career as a player that involved stops with the Islanders, Mighty Ducks, Coyotes, Maple Leafs and Bruins. He retired in 2008 following one season of play with EV Zug in the Swiss NLA, taking two seasons off before landing his first coaching gig as an assistant with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League.
Green spent three years in Portland, taking over as interim head coach in 2012-13 when Winterhawks fixture and former Penguins head coach Mike Johnston was suspended for offering improper player benefits and committing various recruitment violations in his dual GM/head coach capacity. He didn’t miss a beat, coaching a high-powered Winterhawks squad led by future NHLers Oliver Bjorkstrand, Seth Jones, Brendan Leipsic, Nic Petan and Ty Rattie to a WHL championship.
That put Green on NHL teams’ radar, and he landed a job in the Canucks organization the following summer as head coach of their AHL affiliate in Utica. He remained there for four seasons, including a Calder Cup Final appearance in 2015, before being promoted to head coach of the Canucks in 2017.
Green’s showing over four and a quarter seasons in British Columbia was underwhelming, compiling a 133-147-34 record and a .478 points percentage. Again, it’s hard to blame Green – the Canucks had questionable roster construction under then-general manager Jim Benning – but there was very little suggesting he was an above-average coach. Vancouver’s lone postseason appearance under Green came in 2020, where they won a qualifying round series against the Wild in the Edmonton bubble and beat the Blues in the first round before falling to the Golden Knights in seven games in the second round. It was a deeper run than expected, although most would rightfully attribute it to the expert goaltending of Jacob Markström (.916 SV%, 8-6 in 14 GS) and Thatcher Demko (.985 SV%, 2-1 in 3 GS).
While he has more NHL experience as a head coach heading into the role than his permanent predecessor, D.J. Smith, it’s not the most exciting hire for an Ottawa team that hasn’t made the playoffs for seven years. Some roster overhauling will be necessary on behalf of GM Steve Staios to aid Green as he assumes control of the room, namely in giving him more offensive weapons to deploy in their bottom six and solidified goaltending.
Ottawa fired Smith amid a December losing streak and managed to go .500 the rest of the way under former bench boss Jacques Martin, who returned to the club to serve as their interim head coach for the last four months of the campaign.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Ouch. All aboard the pain train.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
People wonder why teams like Ottawa struggle. Why try this retread who has never had success at the NHL level. At least shoot for someone who has had success and is now looking for another shot (i.e. what Rangers did with Laviolette or Flyers did with Torts).
The Senators have always been seen as Ontario’s little brother (to the Leafs big brother) so I wouldn’t be surprised if getting major names to show interest would be difficult. So they end up with guys like DJ Smith and Travis Green.
Why did Vancouver give that retread Tocchet another shot? He never had any prior success at the NHL level. Jack Adams finalist this year. It’s so easy to judge by wins and losses from your couch and not know what actually goes into it
The most important quality the next Sens head coach needs to possess is an ability to completely change the culture. Players even mentioned this specifically during end of year media.
Claude Julien is available and has expressed interest in getting back behind an NHL bench. He’s from the area and I believe currently lives in Ottawa. Maybe he wasn’t interested but he’d be much higher than Green on my list of preferred coaches. A lot of guys would be.
Don’t know anything about Green but I hope he is a drill Sargeant. No more country club leader running the bench hopefully
@JD — I think they really need to work on getting everybody on the same page. Game in, and game out, I kept reading quotes from players that were contradictory. It’s as though some players are hearing the coach say one thing, but the rest are hearing something different. Even their own interpretation of how a game went was often discombobulated.
The problem with the Sens is not lack of effort; it’s lack of particular skills, like goaltending, quick transitions and playing shutdown defense. There aren’t many guys in the league that play harder shift for shift than Tkachuk and Sanderson. so the base is there. As for Green, he hasn’t done much of anything as a coach, and he kind of looks like a Simpsons character with the way he dressed in NJ so I’m not sure why there was a rush to hire him before the GM slot is permanently filled.
This feels like a very uninspired hire.
So many better choices out there. Why would you saddle your new GM with a retread instead of letting him choose his own coach.?
@Djapana — Unless @Josh has intel that we don’t, this kind of hire is *usually& done by the GM/President of Hockey Ops, so that would be Steve Staios.
That *usually* got botched going through Checkpoint 7 on the interweb… I knew it would happen, after hearing this exchange —
“Your papers, please, Mr. Gates.”
“Gabe, what was that?”
“That’s how Russians speak, Josh.”
“No, Gabe, that’s how Count Chocula talks.”
Or not just stick with Jacque Martin?
The NHL never ceases to amaze. They just keep re-cycling the same coaches over and over.
What do you what? Some 20 year fresh out of analytics school?
15 NHL teams have first time head coaches. Assuming your definition of recycled coaches means a guy who has previously had an NHL head coaching job, 5 of the 8 teams remaining in the playoffs have a recycled guy. Watching you be amazed by a theory that does not make a lot of sense is amusing. Do you believe every NHL hire should be a guy who never has never been an NHL head coach?
I think it has to do with the coaches that have proven to not be successful. I will say that the Rangers hiring of PL was solid even though I was questioning it – all he did was adjust the stereo knobs. The talent was there, just needed to break apart a few things that needed to be broken and refocus on the things that mattered and that they were good with. Whether they win the cup or not, I think his first year was extremely successful. At this point now, it’s on the players to close out.
Meh.
Just don’t see what Green has done to deserve another head coaching job, but that’s pro sports for you.
@Gbear — Travis will work for poker chips. He’ll probably win more than not (chips), but the Sens could still end up in that same ditch. ;)
From the outside and what I remember from his time in Vancouver, what I remember most is that whenever his players screwed up in a game, Green would defend his players publicly, and that he was considered a ‘players coach’. Media said he yelled at players in private though.
He supposedly was good for young player dev going back to his time in Utica but once he got to Vancouver, he prioritized playing vets and many young players really never got much of a shot until they left the place. I just dunno about this one.
@Buff Barnacles — Jacques Martin is also one of the guys that was sending mixed messages. Not sure if he can effectively coach today’s game.
This team will never win anything!
DJ Smith 2.0
@yanks2323 — Let’s hope not, for the sanity of Sens’ fans.
Berube didn’t want to coach here? Can’t say as I am blame him