Andlauer turned heads this week, arriving to watch the action at Sens development camp.
It’s a piping hot, humid Thursday afternoon in the capital, 33°C to be exact. The Ottawa Senators are on the final day of their annual summer development camp, putting 36 young players through their paces. 18 of them are draft picks, while the other 18 are excellent, undrafted players the Sens have invited.
The truth is, only a few of these campers will ever get to the NHL. That’s always the case, of course. There have always been more elite hockey players than there are NHL jobs. But after trading away most of their best draft picks the last two seasons, the prospect pool seems extra shallow this year.
But that doesn’t stop the Senator faithful from rolling into the rink in the first week of July to check on the kids. This group is perpetually excited about its team and already stoked about an NHL season that’s still over three months away. The no-charge, camp-closing, 3-on-3 tournament is always a highlight and, on a hot day, the welcome chill of a hockey arena doesn’t hurt either.
That excited group includes incoming owner Michael Andlauer, a man with several big businesses to run and a complicated NHL franchise sale to finalize. The billionaire has a billion other places he could be in the middle of a workday, either conducting business or relaxing at a lavish cottage somewhere.
But Andlauer chose a cold, hard, balcony, probably wet with summer humidity, perched above one of the four ice pads at Bell Sensplex in Kanata, Ontario.
Andlauer isn't giving interviews until after the sale is official, but his love of hockey and the NHL is now a well told story: He was a massive Habs fan growing up, a minor hockey Dad, a beer league goalie, an OHL and AHL team owner, part owner of the Habs, and now about to become the majority owner of his own NHL franchise.
Andlauer’s consortium, or “Project Sens,” is still actively seeking minority owner partnerships and is expected to finalize the sale of the franchise by September.
But Andlauer is a kid on Christmas eve right now, shaking the unopened gift box. It’s not time yet, but the 57-year-old clearly can't wait to get his hands on his expensive new toy.
When a fan takes over an pro franchise, it can go one of two ways. Some are excited and interested, but hands-off on the hockey-side, fully accepting of their layman status. Others, like Ottawa’s previous owner, become highly involved in crucial hockey discussions and decisions. If the owner truly knows his hockey, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
As the afternoon progresses and the player evaluations and discussions continue, the men standing on that Kanata balcony (left to right, Belleville Senators head coach David Bell, player development coach Wade Redden, GM Pierre Dorion, and assistant GM Ryan Bowness) are probably starting to get a much better feel for the kind of owner they'll be working for this fall.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall on that balcony...