It's been over twenty years since an Ottawa Senators head coach left the organization and found an NHL head coaching job elsewhere.
There are two great truths in NHL head coaching. The obvious one is that you're hired to be fired. The other is how environmentally friendly the league is with its coaches, committed to reducing, reusing and recycling.
Even the Senators opted to go Green in 2024, hiring Travis Green away from the New Jersey Devils, who were in the process of recycling and reusing Toronto's old coach, Sheldon Keefe.
But very few Senators' head coaches have ever been recycled after being kicked to the curb.
Remarkably, it's been over 20 years since a Sens head coach left the organization and later found an NHL head coaching job elsewhere. The last one to do so on a non-interim basis was Jacques Martin. He was fired in 2004 and found plenty of other opportunities, including a final one here in Ottawa a couple of years ago.
Fans talk a lot about Ottawa being a goalie graveyard, but it's also been kind of a coaches' cemetery.
Since Martin parted company with the Sens the first time, the Sens' list of head coaches who've come and gone includes Bryan Murray, John Paddock, Craig Hartsburg, Cory Clouston, Paul MacLean, Dave Cameron, Guy Boucher, Marc Crawford, and D.J. Smith.
Murray stayed with the Senators, moving away from coaching to take the club's GM job. However, everyone else on the list left the organization, continued to pursue their coaching careers, and never again became a full-time NHL head coach.
After leaving Ottawa:
- Paddock coached nine more years in junior, the AHL, and as an NHL assistant. His final year was with Regina, coaching Connor Bedard.
- Hartsburg coached for seven more seasons in junior as a head coach and an NHL assistant. His swan song was 2015-16 with Columbus, where he was let go when John Tortorella took over, as he inevitably does everywhere.
- Clouston coached three more years in junior, the last in 2015 with Prince Albert. After he was fired, little did the Senators know he'd coach Mark Stone, a prized future asset, the following season in Brandon.
- MacLean got work as an NHL assistant for a bit and now makes the odd appearance as a TSN Sens analyst.
- Dave Cameron has coached for the last seven seasons, been an NHL assistant, a head coach in Austria, and, for the last five years, the head coach of the Ottawa 67s. He just signed a two-year extension.
- Since his firing, Guy Boucher has only coached for one year at a top level as an assistant with Toronto, then one year as a KHL head coach.
- Crawford coached for four more seasons as an assistant in Chicago then worked for a while as a head coach in Switzerland.
- Smith almost immediately got a job as an assistant in Los Angeles under Jim Hiller and when Hiller was fired this season, Smith guided them into the playoffs but only on an an interim basis. The Kings have not yet removed that label and Smith was asked about his status at seasons's end.
"That's a question for Ken," Smith said shortly after losing in round one. "All I know is, as a coach and as a coaching staff, is your team prepared? Are they detailed? And do they show up every night in the answer to that question? Yes, they did, under me.
"Ken's been around a long time. He's won Stanley Cups; he's one of the best in the business. He's a Hall of Fame general manager. He's gonna make that decision. So that's not up to me to decide. I know I did my absolute best."
Speaking well of the boss is always a strong play.
So Smith has a chance to end the drought, and good on him. He's a likable guy, he certainly wasn't set up for success in Ottawa, and the best is probably yet to come.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News