Highlights of the Welcoming News Conference for New Ottawa Senators Head Coach Travis Green

Here are some of the highlights from Travis Green's Wednesday meeting with the local media, his first since taking over as Ottawa Senators head coach. GM Steve Staios was also on hand to answer questions about the hiring.

Staios addresses the media:

Today is a proud day for our Ottawa Senators. We engaged in a real deep dive and detailed process to identify our next head coach. (They were) all impressive people that we had met with. And as we continued to dig in, I think what became very clear about midway through is Travis Green's fit with our group. His ability to lead our team became very clear. 

I think what we value from Travis is his leadership, his passion, his experience, his ability to develop players, get the most out of players, and also have a firm and fair approach that'll help our team on the next step. I think when you engage in a process like this with the available candidates that are out there, I'm extremely proud and feel lucky that Travis was available to us. And so I want to welcome Travis Green to the Ottawa Senators. And congratulations.

Staios on choosing Green over candidates with better resumes:

There's the resume and coaching record compared to the attributes of the head coach. I think when you look at coaching records, you've got to look at what (his) team was at the time, all the circumstances behind it, the age of the group, the talent of the group. 

So I know coaches get judged on their coaching records. But there's also a lot more to it. And I think as we watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now, you could look at a handful of coaches that are contending for Stanley Cups now that were in the exact same position as Travis is right now after their first coaching stint. So it's a lot deeper than just looking at win-loss records.

Travis Green on accountability and defining roles for his players:

I wholeheartedly believe in, whatever you're doing, knowing what your role is and having accountability within your job. And I think they go hand in hand. Players want to know where they stand. They want to know what's expected of them. And that starts by communicating, having open honest discussions with players, and building relationships. If you want to have accountability, you've got to be able to express to your players what's expected. And that process takes a little time, but any winning team has accountability within their group and that doesn't happen overnight. 

I'm a firm coach, a detailed coach. I can be demanding. But I'm also very approachable and the players will always know that I care and want the best out of them. And when you have that, with building relationships and communicating with players, then you can have accountability within your group. And the players will accept it, appreciate it, and eventually want it amongst themselves as well. 

Green on setting the bar the same for the star players as he does for the role players:

Yeah, in certain areas. There are things within the game that winning teams have that are non-negotiable. You have to have buy-in from everyone and your top players need to lead the way in the non-negotiables for me to win. How I coach players is not the same from player to player. I'm going to try to get the best out of each player individually, and push them in the way that I see fit. 

But there are going to be certain attributes in our game, certain details in our game, that aren't going to be negotiable. They're going to know what they are and we're going to have open discussion about it. Again, I'm a coach that has an open door policy, and if you don't like something or you don't agree with something, come in and let's talk about

Staios on how many other coaching candidates he spoke with:

We talked a little bit more in depth to probably about a half a dozen people and then continued to work down the process. But it became clear to us, the more we went through this, that Travis was definitely our guy. 

Green on what made the Ottawa Senators head coaching job appealing:

When you talk to coaches, there are certain things that you're looking for, and for me, it starts with the team. What type of team do you have? Can you have success with that team? I've watched this team from afar for a while now. I see a very young talented team, but there's a lot of room for growth here. And I checked that box as far as teaching, developing, and working with young players. So, for me, that was exciting, looking at where this team was at. 

Another box that coaches will talk about is ownership. Where's the ownership at within the organization? And I talked about Michael earlier, and man, when I talked to him, I was excited. 

Then you look at management. Where's the management at in relation to the coach and to ownership? Is there a collaboration there again? 

I was blown away throughout this process.