Andrew Campbell’s record as the interim head coach of the Belleville Senators was underwhelming. He took over a team that was 11-14-3 and finished the season 17-21-5-1. In short, he improved the Ottawa Senators American Hockey League team but not by much. 

The Senators' last-place finish hinted at a coaching change. While Campbell impressed at times, this offseason was a prime opportunity to make a big-time hire. Yet, the Senators signed Campbell to an extension and officially named him the head coach. 

This decision comes after reports that the Senators wanted to hire Jay McKee, who ended up with the Hamilton Hammers, and Jay Leach, who is now the Hartford Wolf Pack head coach. So, Campbell, in some ways, feels like the head coach by default. That doesn’t mean the Senators are getting the short end of the stick. It means that they must see more out of their young and promising bench boss. 

There’s a hockey cliche that when an assistant becomes the head coach, they must go from being the good cop to the bad cop. Campbell is the embodiment of a player-friendly coach, someone everyone wants to play for. It’s part of his identity, and that didn’t change when he became the coach of the Senators. 

“I can't change and be someone I'm not. I'm still the same guy I was when I was an assistant coach,” Campbell noted after a January game against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. When he was asked about the good cop/bad cop comparison, he couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that at his core, he’s still that good cop who wants the players to like him and still play for him. 

Campbell understands the players, especially the young ones, and it’s why the Senators made him their head coach. It’s also the opposite of the previous head coach, David Bell, who had a reputation for being tough on the players. Bell’s style ultimately led to him losing the room, and a change was needed. 

Campbell got the room back but was the opposite extreme. It’s why the Senators had a slight bump and fell flat after that, remaining at the bottom of the North Division. 

The Senators struggled across the board and have a lot of issues to address. One of them is tightening things up, something Campbell was hopeful would happen as the season progressed. Instead, they remained an undisciplined team. Steve Ott brought stability to the Springfield Thunderbirds and turned them into a surprise Calder Cup contender. Spiros Anastas turned the Chicago Wolves into a structured team and took them to the Final. Campbell brought chaos, leading to fun games but few wins. 

The defense allowed 3.63 goals per game last season, the second-worst mark in the AHL. It’s more surprising considering Campbell was a defenseman back in his playing days, who knows the position well. Yet, they were a mess on the defensive end, and it’s a reflection of the coaching (the offense, meanwhile, was around league average, scoring 3.09 goals per game). 

So, Campbell must find that middle ground. What made him a coach in the first place was his demeanor, and the calming presence behind the bench will keep him there in some capacity for a while. That said, Campbell must adjust, and with a new team making changes in the summer, he’ll have the opportunity to do so. 

In fairness to Campbell, the Senators didn’t help him out. The team lacked talent last season, and it’s hard for any coach to do much with the roster. Campbell won a few games but the reality was that they were the worst team in the division, and nothing was changing that. 

Maybe they’ll have more prospects to work with starting next season. The Brady Tkachuk trade means the Senators have three first round picks in this draft, and there’s a slight chance one of those picks ends up in the AHL next season (the new rules allow first rounder to go straight to the AHL). 

However, the Senators need veterans. They had a few last season who were key contributors, notably Arthur Kaliyev, who scored a league-leading 40 goals but they need a veteran group that can lead and, more importantly, help out Campbell. It’s difficult for the Senators to attract those veterans when they aren’t a destination, even by AHL standards. 

Wyatt Bongiovani was traded from the Senators to the Hershey Bears at the trade deadline. For the veteran, it was a relief as he joined a team with a great reputation in the middle of a playoff push. “It’s good, it’s refreshing, I think they prepare us well for each game, so it’s exciting,” Bongiovani mentioned when asked what he liked about joining the Bears and having Derek King as his head coach. King is the type of head coach Campbell hopes to become someday, and the Senators ideally want to have the reputation that Hershey has, a team that wants to win and takes care of its veterans. 

Campbell will have a lot of work to do and has an uphill battle ahead of him. The good news is that the Senators will give him time to figure it all out. At 38, he’s still one of the youngest coaches in the AHL, and with time, he’ll develop into a great coach who can get the most out of any roster. That’s the bet this team is making.