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Senators Notes: Coaching, Buyouts, Norris

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The Ottawa Senators wrapped up their season with locker cleanout on Friday, giving general manager Steve Staios a chance to share updates with the media. He spent much of his time addressing the team’s coaching situation, saying they have a long list of candidates that they’ll whittle down over the summer, per Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

The Senators have been without a long-term head coach since D.J. Smith’s firing on December 18th. Jaques Martin stepped in as interim head coach, leading the Senators to a measly 26-26-4 record and a spot well outside of the playoffs. Staios mentioned that Martin would continue with the team in a consulting role, but isn’t in the race for the vacant head coaching role. Neither is Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson, who Staios says wanted more time before pursuing the coaching path. That likely leaves the Senators looking externally, where they’ll find plenty of strong candidates.

Other notes from Staios’ press conference:

  • Staios added that the team isn’t planning on utilizing any buyouts this off-season, per Sportsnet’s Wayne Scanlan (Twitter link). That’s despite weaker performances from costlier names, like Joonas Korpisalo and Travis Hamonic. Ottawa is projected to have $12.8MM in cap space this off-season, per CapFriendly and an $87.5MM salary cap. With no support from buyouts, that will be all they have to re-sign their six pending free-agents, including Erik Brannstrom, Dominik Kubalik, and Shane Pinto.
  • Staios also shared that forward Joshua Norris is expecting to be ready for the start of next season, shares Garrioch. Norris was limited to just 50 games this season, and hasn’t played since late February, once again dealing with nagging shoulder injuries. Norris was limited to just eight games last season because of shoulder issues, and underwent the third shoulder surgery of his four-year NHL career in March. He’ll look to recover once again, and hope for healthier fortune next season.

Kings Hire D.J. Smith As Assistant Coach

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2/6: The Kings have officially announced the hiring of Smith as an assistant coach for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.

2/5: The Kings are adding former Senators head coach D.J. Smith as an assistant, The Athletic’s Eric Stephens reports Monday.

Smith fills the hole created on the Kings’ bench when they promoted assistant Jim Hiller to an interim head coach role on Friday after firing Todd McLellan. The Senators let go of Smith as their head coach on Dec. 18 after an 11-15-0 start to the season.

Before accepting the head coaching job with Ottawa for the 2019-20 season, Smith spent four years on the Maple Leafs bench as an assistant under Mike Babcock, primarily working with the team’s penalty kill unit. Over that time, Toronto’s penalty kill had an 81.4% success rate, good enough for 12th in the league.

If there’s one area where the struggling Kings don’t need help, however, it’s their penalty kill. At 87.3%, they own the league’s best shorthanded unit by a 1.4% margin.

As a player, Smith spent parts of three seasons in the league between 1996 and 2003, notching a goal and an assist in 45 career outings with the Maple Leafs and Avalanche. Primarily a defenseman at the AHL level, Smith slotted into the Avs’ lineup as an enforcer for 34 games in the 2002-03 campaign.

The Kings have a slower return to play than most other teams coming out of the All-Star break. They don’t suit up again until Saturday against the Oilers, by which time Smith is expected to join the team. Per Stephens, Los Angeles returns to full practice on Thursday.

Senators Fire D.J. Smith, Name Jacques Martin Interim Head Coach

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The Ottawa Senators relieved head coach D.J. Smith of his duties Monday, per a team announcement. Jacques Martin will take over as the team’s interim head coach, while longtime Senators winger Daniel Alfredsson will step into an assistant coaching role on Martin’s staff. Assistant coach Davis Payne was also relieved of his duties.

The news is far from unexpected after an 11-15-0 start to the season put Ottawa on track to miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season. After beating the division rival Red Wings 5-1 on December 9, the Senators dropped four consecutive games, all in regulation, and allowed at least four goals in all those losses.

While the team has received below-average goaltending from their tandem of Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg, their possession numbers don’t suggest they should be in the playoff picture, either. The team has controlled under 50% of Corsi events, scoring chances, and high-danger chances at five-on-five – disappointing metrics for a team with a supposedly reformed top-six forward group and top-six defense core set to take them to the postseason.

However, those at the top of the lineup aren’t to blame for the Senators’ struggles. Perhaps no team in the league has had a more prominent dichotomy between the performance of their stars and the performance of their depth players this season than the Senators, who have received spectacular two-way play from players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Thomas Chabot (when healthy), Joshua Norris, Jake Sanderson, and Artem Zub. However, nearly all their depth skaters have been significant liabilities, and their overall defensive structure has been prone to visible, unforgivable lapses in their own zone.

So ends a disappointing tenure for Smith, who ends his first NHL head-coaching role after parts of five seasons and 317 games behind the Ottawa bench. That made him one of the longest-tenured bench bosses in the league before today’s news.

Ottawa brought on Smith in 2019 after parting ways with Guy Boucher just two seasons after the latter led them to double overtime in Game 7 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Final against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. While some of his tenure was during a designed rebuild, Smith’s record isn’t pretty – 131-154-32, or a .464 points percentage, never guiding the Senators to a division finish higher than sixth place. Despite investing in acquiring talent over the past few summers, the team hasn’t shown any signs of life of becoming a playoff contender under Smith.

The 46-year-old had spent four seasons as an assistant coach for the Maple Leafs before taking the job in Ottawa. It seems likely an assistant role is what’s next for Smith if he wants to stay behind an NHL bench. He becomes the fourth head coach to be fired in-season, joining the Blues’ Craig Berube, the Wild’s Dean Evason, and the Oilers’ Jay Woodcroft.

Payne, 53, joined the Senators’ bench as an assistant along with Smith in 2019. Briefly the head coach of the Blues in the early 2010s, Payne lifted the Stanley Cup in 2014 while serving as an assistant with the Kings.

It’s both nostalgic and peculiar to see the Senators pivot back to Martin behind the bench, who previously served as their head coach from 1996 to 2004 and remains the franchise’s all-time leader in games coached. The 71-year-old last served behind an NHL bench in 2020-21 as an assistant with the Rangers and was last a head coach over a decade ago with the Canadiens in 2011-12. He rejoined the Senators organization earlier this month in a senior advisor role after holding the same position with the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs since 2022.

When Martin was behind the bench last in Ottawa, its leading scorer was a 25-year-old Marián Hossa. Just behind him was Alfredsson, the franchise’s all-time leader in points, who will now work closely with his longtime bench boss to help quickly turn their season around.

The Senators are getting significant experience in Martin, who’s coached nearly 1,300 NHL games for the Senators, Canadiens, Blues, and Panthers. Throughout his nine seasons in Ottawa, Martin only missed the playoffs once in his first year behind the bench, guiding them to their first sustained period of success after they were brought into the league in the 1992-93 season.

This is the 51-year-old Alfredsson’s first chance to show what he can do behind an NHL bench. The team hired Alfredsson earlier this season as a development coach after Michael Andlauer assumed ownership of the team, marking his first time being employed by the Senators since serving as an advisor between 2015 and 2017. Ottawa’s captain from 1999 to 2013 remains their all-time leader in goals (426), assists (682) and points (1,108).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Injury Notes: Zub, Miller, Vasilevskiy

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TSN 1200 out of Ottawa is reporting that Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith told reporters this morning in Sweden that defenseman Artem Zub is day-to-day and didn’t practice with the team. The 28-year-old only just returned from an injury on November 9th in a loss against the Vancouver Canucks. He then dressed in the Senators victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

Smith said that Zub was more sore today and that was why he didn’t practice. He also added that the team would wait and see how he is for practice on Wednesday as tomorrow is a day off for the group.

Zub has dressed in just six games so far this season for Ottawa and has been very productive in that time with two goals and two assists. The expectations for Zub this season were quite high after he signed a four-year $18.4MM extension last December to remain with the club. Normally a defensive specialist, Zub is almost halfway to last season’s point total of ten in just six games.

In other injury notes:

  • New Jersey Devils reporter Amanda Stein is reporting that defenseman Colin Miller was a full participant in team practice this morning after being on the IR since October 19th with an undisclosed injury. Miller has yet to make his debut with the Devils after being acquired on July 1st from the Dallas Stars for a 2025 fifth-round draft pick. Miller practiced on the fourth defensive pairing alongside extra forward Maxwell Willman. No timetable for Miller’s return has been released yet.
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning tweeted this morning that star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has returned to practice with the team. The news sparked curiosity as to when the former Vezina Trophy winner might return to the lineup. The Lightning have been without Vasilevskiy for the entire first six weeks of the season but have kept their heads above water going 6-5-4 in their first 15 games. The Lightning currently sit tied for fifth in the Atlantic Division but are just two points out of a playoff spot with a lot of season left.

Injury Notes: Liljegren, Chytil, Senators

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have tweeted that defenseman Timothy Liljegren has left tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins and won’t be returning. It is the second time in less than a week that the 24-year-old has had to leave a game with an injury as he was forced to exit a game last week against the Nashville Predators with what was described as an upper body injury.

Liljegren’s injury tonight is being called a lower body injury, but it appears likely it is something in his foot or ankle. The injury happened in the dying moments of the first period as Liljegren and forward Brad Marchand of the Bruins were skating towards the corner and engaging in a puck battle. Marchand appears to give Liljegren the can opener before the Maple Leafs defenseman goes awkwardly into the boards. The move from Marchand was essentially a trip as he appeared to put his stick between Liljegren’s legs and force him to the ice. Liljegren’s skates then smashed into the end boards, likely causing his injury.

In other injury notes:

  • Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet is reporting that New York Rangers forward Filip Chytil is done for tonight’s game after colliding with Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast in the first period of the matchup this evening. Chytil left with what is being described as an upper-body injury and was last seen on the Rangers bench in obvious pain before leaving the game. The 24-year-old center has six assists in nine games this season and has been working primarily as the team’s second-line center. Should he be out for any period it is likely that Vincent Trocheck was moved up to the second line in his absence.
  • The Ottawa Senators have tweeted that young forward Ridly Greig left tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury and did not return. The news was similar for Greig’s teammate Mark Kastelic who also suffered a lower-body injury and was unable to get back onto the ice. Senators coach D.J. Smith offered an update on both players that was covered by Murray Pam of Full Press Hockey. Smith said that he figures both Greig and Kastelic will miss a few games due to their ailments. Greig has been filling in admirably for the suspended Shane Pinto and has registered two goals and five assists in eight games while Kastelic has no points and 21 PIM in eight games this year. Given the Senators’ predicament, it does seem likely that the team will have to recall some players from the Belleville Senators of the AHL.

Senators Notes: DeBrincat, Holden, Smith, Watson, Hamonic

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With the Ottawa Senators’ post-season press conference occurring this morning, many players gave insights into their futures with the team. The most followed offseason storyline will undoubtedly be Alex DeBrincat, as the 25-year-old gifted sniper is a restricted free agent come July 1. The Michigan-born winger told reporters this morning he’d be “open” to a long-term extension but also noted he wants to take a few months to discuss his future with his agent and his family.

DeBrincat is due a $9MM qualifying offer this summer thanks to the backloaded structure of his previous contract, a three-year deal signed with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019. If Ottawa and DeBrincat reach a long-term extension, the number wouldn’t seem likely to be much higher (if any higher at all) than that. DeBrincat took a step back offensively during his first season with the Senators, recording 66 points in 82 games after hovering at a point-per-game pace during the previous two seasons.

More from the Senators news cycle this morning:

  • The team has informed defenseman Nick Holden he won’t be back next season, says Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Holden told reporters this morning he plans to test free agency after completing the 10th full season of his NHL career. The 35-year-old played 141 games with the Senators after Ottawa acquired him via trade in 2021, recording seven goals and 28 assists for 35 points while averaging 18:24 per game. With the emergence of rookie Jake Sanderson and the late-season addition of Jakob Chychrun, there was little opportunity remaining for Holden in Ottawa after his role decreased significantly this season.
  • Garrioch also says to expect Senators head coach D.J. Smith to join Team Canada’s coaching staff for the upcoming IIHF Men’s World Championship. This will be two years in a row for Smith on the national team’s coaching staff, also serving as an assistant at last year’s tournament. Before that, Smith’s only international coaching experience with Canada came as an assistant at the 2013 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
  • Forward Austin Watson says he played games in March on a broken foot before the team shut him down for the season last week. The 31-year-old grinder amassed nine goals but just two assists in 75 games this season. Watson, an unrestricted free agent this summer, also told reporters “the door isn’t closed” on a reunion with the Senators, although the multi-year contract he desires may not be palatable to the team given his career trajectory.
  • Defender Travis Hamonic clarified that his season-ending injury sustained at the end of March was a knee issue, and he would have attempted a return if Ottawa made it to the playoffs. Hamonic, who is also a pending UFA, finished fourth in scoring among Senators defenders with 21 points in 75 games and recorded a -5 rating.

Cam Talbot To Miss Several Weeks

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5:00 PM: TSN’s Darren Dreger has added some more detail to Talbot’s injury situation, reporting that the veteran netminder has suffered an oblique strain.

1:51 PM: Cam Talbot will leave the Ottawa Senators’ road trip early and return for treatment after being a late scratch on Monday. Head coach D.J. Smith told reporters, and explained (link via TSN radio) that the veteran goaltender will be out for three weeks with what he called a “mid-body injury.”

That means it’s up to the kids in Ottawa, as Kevin Mandolese and Mads Sogaard are the active tandem for the Senators. The pair, both 22, are up under emergency conditions while Talbot and Anton Forsberg are out of the lineup.

Mandolese has just two appearances in his NHL career, though both have gone well. The young netminder won his debut by stopping 46 of 48 shots against the New York Islanders a few weeks ago, and then allowed just three goals against the Boston Bruins in his follow-up appearance.

Sogaard has played seven times this season, taking his career total to nine NHL appearances. He has won four times for the Senators this year, but was blown out by the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday after being the last-second replacement for Talbot. That 5-0 loss to Chicago was a brutal blow to the team’s playoff chances, though they aren’t eliminated just yet.

Ottawa heads to Seattle next for a game tomorrow, before going through the Western Canada trip starting on Saturday night in Vancouver. There aren’t many easy nights coming for the upstart club, as once they return home they run off a series of games against Colorado, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Boston, Tampa Bay, and New Jersey that could decide their postseason fate.

Three weeks would mean Talbot isn’t available for any of those opponents.

Snapshots: Gavrikov, Maurice, Joseph

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One of the names you will hear a lot as the trade deadline approaches is Vladislav Gavrikov, the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman that is coming to the end of his three-year, $8.4MM deal. A pending free agent with a relatively low $2.8MM cap hit, he is one of the top rental defensemen on the market, given his size, mobility, and experience. Gavrikov had 33 points last season, and is still logging more than 22 minutes a night this year.

In an article by Arthur Staple of The Athletic, it is revealed that the New York Rangers are one of the teams to have called on Gavrikov. The ask from the Blue Jackets, reportedly, is a first-round pick plus a mid-round pick. Recent years have seen players like Ben Chiarot, and David Savard land first-rounders at the deadline, while Josh Manson was dealt for Drew Helleson and a second last deadline. The key to Gavrikov’s market is how inexpensive he will be. If the Blue Jackets retain half of his contract, the $1.4MM cap hit is easy to absorb for many of the league’s contenders.

  • Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has been fined $25,000 for his comments after Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those comments were critical of the officials, with the veteran coach saying the referees “weren’t Florida Panther-friendly,” and pointing out a specific situation when Radko Gudas received a charging penalty. He also referenced an issue he has with one of the referees in particular. Today, when speaking to reporters including David Dwork of WPLG Local 10, Maurice said it would be “fiscally irresponsible” for him to answer any more questions about the officiating.
  • Mathieu Joseph missed a chance to play against his brother for the first time in their NHL careers because of a disciplinary scratch from Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith. Today, Joseph explained that he takes full responsibility for it and is excited to get back into the lineup on Friday. As Ian Mendes of The Athletic tweets, it appears as though whatever it was is behind both Joseph and Smith.

Ottawa Senators Not Considering Coaching Change

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There were a lot of expectations for the Ottawa Senators coming into this year. They had a young core of exciting forwards, and added star power like Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux to the mix. Top pick Jake Sanderson was supposed to give the defense corps a huge boost, while Cam Talbot was brought in to solidify the goaltending. Things got off to an okay start, with four wins in the first six games, but have since gone downhill.

The Senators now sit at 4-7 on the year after losing their last five and speculation has started to percolate about the safety of head coach D.J. Smith. Today, when speaking with reporters, general manager Pierre Dorion wanted to make it clear that Smith wasn’t going anywhere. “D.J. is our coach and he’s going to be our coach,” he told the gathered media including Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia.

This is Smith’s fourth season behind the bench in Ottawa and despite having an overall record of 85-111-24, things have generally been considered a success. The team was not expected to be competitive, was open about their rebuilding process, and yet still played hard every night under the rookie head coach. Young players like Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Tim Stutzle, and Drake Batherson all took huge leaps in production, and the team was in the top half of the league on the penalty kill, something that is often attributed to the coaching staff.

Still, it’s time to start winning.

One thing that Smith has in his favor is Talbot, who looks sharp since coming back from an injury that kept him out the first month of the season. In two appearances he has stopped 39 of 41 shots and should soon become that stabilizing presence he was brought in as. Whether they can actually turn that strong goaltending into wins is another story, especially with the state of their defense.

While Sanderson has been strong in his rookie season, it’s hard to place much responsibility on a 20-year-old that has just barely started his professional journey. With Artem Zub out, the defense has looked like a jumbled mess, made up of players seeing more ice time than they probably should. Zub is expected back soon but it remains to be seen whether this group will do enough for the team to turn things around. Even with today’s front office support, Smith’s job may depend on it.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Ovechkin, Senators

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The NHL has released its Three Stars for last week, with Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos leading the way. After racking up 13 points in four games Stamkos is now just three points away from cracking the 100-point mark for the first time in his career. Already with a career-high of 60 assists, Stamkos has changed his game dramatically over the last few seasons and reinvigorated a Hall of Fame-level career that had been held back by injuries.

Second and third went to Kevin Fiala and Jonathan Quick, two players that have been questioned at times over the last few years. Fiala, 25, has finally found a level of consistency that matches his talent, and with 11 points in four games last week now has 84 on the season. In fact, Fiala is on a ten-game point streak and is really establishing himself as one of the most dynamic offensive players in the entire league, something that certainly will complicate matters in the offseason when he hits restricted free agency for the final time. Quick meanwhile was left for dead a few years ago when injuries struck and his numbers fell off a cliff, but the 36-year-old has battled admirably for the Kings this season. With a .909 save percentage, he still lags behind some of the league’s elite netminders but just ask some of his previous Western Conference opponents about how dominant he can be in the postseason.

  • Alex Ovechkin has been listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury after leaving last night’s game for the Washington Capitals but was present on the ice and in full uniform at the team photo today. With the Capitals still trying to chase down the Pittsburgh Penguins for a better playoff position, losing Ovechkin over the last few games of the season will obviously be a big blow. But with their inclusion in the postseason secure, resting him through the next week may be the more prudent option. Ovechkin, who will turn 37 before the start of next season, has 50 goals and 90 points in 77 games this year.
  • The Ottawa Senators had an exciting reinforcement at practice today as Shane Pinto joined the group, but he won’t actually play before the end of the season. Pinto hasn’t played since November, and totaled just five games on the season. It was more bad news when head coach D.J. Smith took the podium after practice, announcing that Colin White and Connor Brown are both not expected to play again this season. Brown is dealing with nagging injuries and his inclusion in the upcoming World Championship will be up to him and how he feels in the coming weeks. Brown finishes the disappointing year with ten goals and 39 points in 64 games.
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