It’s time to move the Ottawa Senators to Quebec City

The Ottawa Senators may have had as tumultuous a 15-month span as anyone has ever had in NHL history. Is there enough to salvage to keep the team viable in Canada’s capital?

Let’s hop in the good old time machine and go back to 1927, when the Ottawa Senators were coming off a Stanley Cup title earned by defeating the Boston Bruins. The Senators were in the smallest market in the NHL at the time (by a wide margin), in a fledgling league that was still putting down roots in cities now with iconic teams.

With an estimated population of 110,000 according to a 1931 census, finding people to come to games was starting to get more challenging. The next few seasons continued with losing money and less success on the ice, including rumors of suspension of operations or mergers with different teams.

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The Senators (along with the little known Philadelphia Quakers) finally suspended operations in 1931. They returned the following season with no better results. The team’s finances were in an irreparable state and the team moved in 1935 to St. Louis, played one season as the Eagles, and then folded.

The fall from grace for the original Senators was very gradual and had a lot to do with finances being in a sorry state. The team had dominated hockey in the early 1900’s and 1920’s, yet fell to the almighty economy and lack of fan support.

Fast forward 82 years and the second generation Senators are yet again having issues with the almighty economy and dwindling fan support. This comes under entirely different circumstances, however.

The Senators of today were a good team as recently as June of 2017, where they took the eventual Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to within an overtime goal of elimination. Not quite at the level of success as the first iteration of Ottawa Senators, but reasonably good with a decent team to build on.

What happened next was a series of events that are currently culminating with what could be considered what we call in the ‘biz as a train wreck. Here’s a timeline of what happened.

• Owner Eugene Melnyk announced the team would be covering up seats in the upper bowl of the arena he wants to leave, in order to fluff up attendance numbers and boost the number of sellouts. This was in response to a healthy drop in attendance, despite the team’s on-ice success.
• Franchise legend Daniel Alfredsson publicly stated hope for new owners in Ottawa.
• The Senators traded for Matt Duchene in a three-way deal with the Nashville Predators and Colorado, sending Kyle Turris to the Predators, and a first-round pick (plus more) to the Avalanche in either 2018 or 2019 (more on this later).
• They almost immediately started losing games, winning just six games between Nov. 11 and the All-Star Break in late January.
• Rumors started floating around about trading star defenseman Erik Karlsson, who was a year and change away from becoming an unrestricted free agent. Ownership and Karlsson both commented on this in an effort to cool things down, which was an abject failure.
• During the first outdoor game the Senators had ever hosted, Melnyk blasted the city for a lack of support, and used the word “relocation” as a threat if things didn’t improve (as you will see, they haven’t). Fans reacted in turn by buying billboards and coining the hashtag #MelnykOut.
• Team president Tom Anselmi announced that he was leaving the team. Anselmi was a driving force behind securing a downtown arena for the Senators (their current arena is in Kanata, which is a lengthy drive away from anything in Ottawa).
• After an unceremonious end to a dismal season, Melnyk arranged town hall meetings with the fans to try and smooth things out with season ticket holders. This went poorly.
• Assistant general manager Randy Lee got arrested during the Scouting Combine for harassing a 19-year-old working at the hotel he was staying at. He has since resigned.
• A baby’s onesie with a Senators logo on it was recalled due to potential choking hazards. This isn’t hockey related, but it’s just another “what could possibly happen next” kinda thing.
• Mike Hoffman‘s fiancee was reportedly bullying Karlsson and his wife about personal matters, and this story finally saw the light of day in June. This had apparently been going on for a while and was causing a strife in the locker room.
• The Senators selected Brady Tkachuk with the fourth overall pick in the 2018 draft, cementing their 2019 first round pick belonging to the Colorado Avalanche.
• Hoffman was traded to San Jose for Mikkel Boedker and what can be considered a couple of dart throws. He was traded to Florida hours later for three draft picks, a better return than the one they got from the Sharks. The Senators got worse and are without their first-round draft pick this coming season.
• Avoiding arbitration with their best remaining forward, Mark Stone, the Senators signed Stone for a one year deal, making him an unrestricted free agent by season’s end. Not locking him up long term smells of February trades, which further deepens the hole the team is heading toward next season. The Senators will eventually get worse and are without their first-round draft pick this coming season.
• Word gets out that the Senators’ season ticket base is dwindling, with just 4000 tickets sold. Their arena holds north of 18000 seats.
• Karlsson is finally dealt to San Jose for Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo, Josh Norris, Rudolfs Balcers, and three conditional draft picks (that can all become first rounders, or not, depending on certain outcomes). This trade was pretty much forced after everything that transpired. They could have gotten so much more, but sat on this trade too long, and had their hands tied. The Senators got worse and are without their first-round draft pick this coming season.
• This video. I feel bad for Mark Borowiecki.
• The team announced that Jean-Gabriel Pageau (one of the best players left on the team) tore his Achilles tendon in his right leg during a fitness test, and will miss no less than six months. The Senators got worse and are without their first-round draft pick this coming season.
• Bobby Ryan‘s contract is still in Ottawa. At this point, it might be a good thing as they need to reach the salary floor.
• Matt Duchene said he’d be patient in determining his future with the team. This typically ends with players leaving the team if they don’t like what’s going on. Wanna bet on how this ends?

This happened over the span of 15 months. Let’s sum it all up. The Senators upper management and ownership sucked the life out of the fanbase by penny-pinching and gutting the roster for underwhelming returns, due to everything they touch catching fire. Ownership then tried making nice to the fans by reaching out to them, which also ended badly. Attendance is dwindling, finances won’t get better if no one cares, the roster is flaming out, and anyone worth anything wants to leave.

By the looks of things, the team has yet to even hit rock bottom. There are still players left who are solid pieces, such as Stone, Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Pageau (once he gets back on the ice in, oh, about March).

Tkachuk is a great piece to start building around. Thomas Chabot and Logan Brown also look like solid contributors. The Senators may actually win a few games with this group until they gut it even more by the trade deadline and land more young talent and assets (we can hope).

The problem with this, however, is the amount of time it will take to get back up and contending for something other than a lottery pick (which they will be doing this year on behalf of the Avalanche). This will involve at least a few of years of bad hockey before draft picks become prospects, and prospects become players (if they pan out).

If you think attendance will be bad this year, wait until they trade off everything that isn’t bolted down for draft picks. You’ll hear crickets in the upper bowl, and possibly coach Guy Boucher muttering things under his breath too.

This isn’t how you get taxpayers to help cover a nice downtown arena that a billionaire like Eugene Melnyk can totally finance privately with some helpful investors (see Seattle for a good example). Is this enough “lack of support” that he feared when he threatened relocation back in December?

Meanwhile, a short four and a half hour drive away from the Senators’ home arena (according to Google Maps), a brand new arena sits without an NHL tenant after construction completed in 2015. Centre Videotron is a state of the art arena in Quebec City, QC, and home to the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL.

The city is home to many hockey fans desperate for an NHL team to call their own for the first time since 1995 when their beloved Nordiques left town for Colorado. Quebec has been part of rumors for years, even coming close to landing an expansion team during the very same process that granted a team to Las Vegas. They have an ownership group with deep pockets waiting to buy a team, a fan base that is still active and shows up to a couple of games here and there.

I have seen Nordiques Nation live at a game in New Jersey, and they are extremely passionate fans. At the first intermission, I went over to one of the fans and asked him what their deal was. The fan responded how they were barnstorming different arenas across the NHL, in an effort to show the league that the city is yearning for their Nordiques back.

They were screaming and cheering the entire game, and it was truly a sight to see. Walking back to the train station, I passed by scores of buses parked in a lot, that carried those faithful fans the seven-plus hour trek down from Quebec. I can personally attest to their passion for hockey.

So here we have a team with major issues on and off the ice, an arena in the middle of nowhere with covered over seats, a fan base that’s clearly unhappy with the way things are going, and are increasingly less willing to spend their hard earned loonies to support a team that’s run by an owner who has the similar level of ineptitude as the Wilpons of the New York Mets.

We also have a new ownership group who is willing to support a team financially, a fan base that’s ready and willing to go to games and cheer their hearts out, and a brand new downtown arena to fill. I think you can now see where we’re going with this.

Melnyk himself has previously and repeatedly stated his desire for the Senators to continue successfully in Ottawa and is committed to making that happen. The fans deserve as much from the team, but to what extent should Sens fans curb their enthusiasm for a man who is tearing down the walls without a concrete plan of how to rebuild things, without being unreasonable? At a certain point, you have to think that the light at the end of the tunnel is realistically too far out of reach.

From a fan’s perspective, this sucks. Ottawa fans deserve better than this. They paid their hard earned money for tickets, jerseys, food, gas, parking, you name it. They pour their hearts into the team year after year in hopes that it makes it to the promised land for the first time since 1927. Despite all this, the franchise is in the tank, and it’ll still get worse before it gets better. On top of all this, ownership wants the city, both those people who love the team and those who don’t, to pay for a downtown arena, so that the pockets of the owners can get greased with corporate dollars, as is the case with many such stadiums and arenas around North America, all while protecting their own nest eggs.

I hate to say it, because I know how hockey fans are, but the signs are all there for this team to have seen it’s course. Unless new owners step up and try and rebuild the Ottawa Senators, and bring them to glory days the city hasn’t seen since a different Ottawa Senators dominated the early days of the NHL, then it may be time to throw in the towel. Knowing how Melnyk operates, either he’s going to be running an NHL team in Ottawa, or no one is.

It’s sad to see a city lose their team. The most recent case of this is Atlanta, losing their team to Winnipeg. Though there wasn’t nearly enough fan support or owners who actually cared, there still were fans there who loved the team and were heartbroken when the trucks came around. It’ll be just as sad if/when the Senators do end up packing their bags and moving to Quebec.

Quebec is certainly ready for hockey and will embrace any team that will come and play as the Nordiques. Without a shadow of a doubt, they will pack the barn night after night, buy all the merch they can get their hands on, and rekindle a rivalry with the Canadiens that had tons of drama and even a legendary brawl. It’s just a shame that it would come at the expense of a team with good fans and history.

Ultimately, though, I think this would be a good move for the NHL and for the struggling franchise. If anyone in hockey needs a fresh start, it’s the Ottawa Senators. Clearly, things aren’t working there, and it’s still not yet at the point where it can only get better. The financial state of the Senators is going to be miserable for the next few years, and Quebec will pour money into their own team.

I may be a little quick on this trigger, considering how quickly things crumbled, but it may be time to pull the plug in Ottawa.