Ownership change, skilled players have Senators fans vibing like it's 2003

OTTAWA – One of the advantages of being around a young-ish franchise like the Ottawa Senators for their entire 31-year existence is that comparables come easily. 

So, while it is tempting to suggest that this rising young Senators team, about to meet its new owner, is in a place we haven’t seen before, that’s not actually true. 

Twenty years ago, on Aug. 26, 2003, the Senators welcomed a new owner amid similar upbeat vibes to those we have today, as fans excitedly count down the days until training camp opens on Sept. 20.

The belief then was that the years of financial insecurity were finally over and that hockey prosperity was “nigh.” In the off-season of 2003, billionaire owner Eugene Melnyk vowed that a Stanley Cup victory could come to Ottawa as soon as 2004. He said this fresh off the Senators' tough loss in the 2003 Eastern Conference Final to the New Jersey Devils, the one that made Jeff Friesen an evergreen enemy. 

Those Senators were just as endearing as today’s fun group. And talk about a bang for the buck. 

You think these recent Senators teams of yours had a low payroll? Consider that the 2002-03 Ottawa club, "young and hungry," you might say, reached the conference final with a payroll of $28.5 million. These were the wild-west, pre-salary cap days, when NHL teams spent whatever the hell they wanted or could afford. 

The New York Rangers plunked down $69.2 million on talent that season and finished four games under .500, missing the playoffs. You don’t always get what you pay for. 

As he assumed control of his new NHL team, Melnyk smiled when he told reporters that Ottawa’s payroll would jump to $40 million in 2003-04 in an organic way, without signing any new players. The average NHL payroll was then $44 million, up from $42.2 million the year before. 

Melnyk spent. Until he didn’t. In his final years of ownership, before he died in March 2022, the rebuilding Senators cut corners left and right, putting a different look on his billionaire saviour image from 2003. To their credit, though, the Senators and their board of directors kept all of their young core players. 

Today, fans are daring to raise expectations of a return to the playoffs because captain Brady Tkachuk, centre Tim Stützle and defenceman Jake Sanderson front a potent offence, a much improved team defence and, on paper, a solid goaltending tandem of Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg. The faithful expect this should be the season to end a seven-year drought with a first playoff series appearance since 2017, when the Senators surprised the league by reaching the Eastern Conference Final. As also happened in 2003, the 2017 conference final brought late heartbreak. Ottawa missed out on a Cup Final appearance only after a double overtime goal by Chris Kunitz of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Another villain in Sens lore. 

In the six years since 2017, the Senators roster has been completely rebuilt and looks a lot more like the 2003 squad than the veteran-laden 2017 group. It says here that that first really good Sens team should have won a Cup – either in ‘03, ‘06 or ‘07. Opportunities missed. 

Get ready for another serious run at glory.

If that 20-years-ago club, led by stars named Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Wade Redden, was starting to push payroll, today the Sens are at the brink of the salary cap with an expected payroll of $82.6 million, just shy of the NHL limit of $83.5 million. And that is before getting promising young centre Shane Pinto signed. (Still on the pre-camp to-do list.) 

The beauty of Ottawa’s payroll is that it is cap friendly, with most of the core group locked in for the long term (Sanderson being the lone exception) and no one earning more than Stützle’s $8.3 million. That bodes well for keeping this core intact for several years of serious contention. 

All things considered, we can’t pretend that this is just going to be another season of “we’re happy to be here and watch our young stars grow.” Not after another year of experience and missing a playoff berth by just six points last spring. 

The time to compete is at hand. 

What will Michael Andlaeur say when he officially takes over majority ownership of the club in the coming days? Chances are he won’t be talking about a Cup win within the next year. And we seriously doubt The Eagles (just starting a farewell tour) are going to perform for season ticket holders the night before the season opener, as they did back in '03. 

And that is all just fine. If Andlauer provides steady guidance, financial stability and presides over a more inclusive environment – Senators alumni included – he will win over fans in a hurry. 

All the team has to do is win important games. Sounds simple enough. 

One more comparison from 20 years ago. Melnyk told us that after talking with then-GM John Muckler and president Roy Mlakar, he didn’t feel the team needed to make any outside roster additions. No jobs up for grabs, in other words. 

This fall, for the first time in years, the same is true. There are more job openings in the Byward Market than there will be at Senators camp. 

After trading winger Alex DeBrincat and getting an OK return in Dominik Kubalik and then adding veteran scorer Vladimir Tarasenko via free agency, the Senators are close to being a finished product, with perhaps some bolstering of the third or fourth line variety down the road. 

The current roster will get every chance to prove it has the right stuff. 

And we’ll all wish we had a dollar for every time head coach D.J. Smith and his players get asked about the importance of a strong start to the season.