Michael Andlauer's First 90 Days as Ottawa Senators Owner

Whether it's your business or personal life, normally, in any new relationship, the first 90 days are the best. It’s known as the Honeymoon phase. It’s a time of transition, assessment, identifying roles and responsibilities, and laying out a plan to move forward.

Now that the ink has dried on the purchase and sale agreement for the Ottawa Senators, let's review Michael Andlauer’s first 90 days as Commander-in-Chief of the Ottawa Senators.

While changes sometimes occur within the first 90 days, normally they're positive changes. The word addition counts much more than subtraction.

This held true when the name that was most closely associated with Michael Andlauer and the NHL, Steve Staios, was named President of Hockey Operations eight days later.

This move was both predictable and well-received.

Andlauer and Staois had worked together from 2015 to 2022 with Andlauer’s OHL team in Hamilton. Staios was instrumental in creating a winning culture and helped deliver two Robertson Cups.

With Staios working with the Edmonton Oilers in an advisory role, it was clear he was going to be someone’s executive in the NHL and Andlauer quickly made Staois his.

Clearly, Andlauer understands the difference between owning an NHL hockey team and running one. Like any good owner, his first move was to bring in someone who had a plethora of knowledge about the game and how to build a winner.

The key word that was bandied about in this transition was stability. This was the promise that was made to Senators fans and Staios was brought in to help deliver it.

Of course, everyone wondered what this meant for the current hockey ops department. It became clear that the plan was to assess every aspect of the team before making any decisions.

The jobs of GM Pierre Dorion and head coach DJ Smith were both secure for the time being and the plan was for Staios and Dorion to work together. The on-ice product was inconsistent. However, in keeping with the stability theme, there was no reason to overreact.

The first 30 days of Andlauer’s tenure were bliss…or so Senators fans thought.

While fans and media alike were imagining cap-clearing scenarios that would allow the club to re-sign Shane Pinto, a mess of epic proportions was unfolding behind the scenes.

Andlauer and the Senators learned in late-October that Pinto had been under investigation since the summer for suspected violation of the NHL’s gambling guidelines. 

It took just over 30 days for Andlauer to get his first body-blow as an NHL owner.

Pinto was suspended on October 26th for 41 games, with time served for games already missed. The first opportunity to assess the new owner in a time of crisis happened much sooner than anticipated.

While Andlauer’s name is not on this anonymous team statement, it clearly came with his blessing, and it showed that the Ottawa Senators were not the kind of organization that turned its back on someone if they ended up face down in the dirt.

Statement from the Ottawa Senators

“We were made aware of the National Hockey League investigation into this matter and additional information was made available to the club upon the completion of the league’s investigation yesterday.

"Shane is a valued member of our hockey club; an engaging, intelligent young man who made poor decisions that have resulted in a suspension by the National Hockey League. We know he is remorseful for his mistakes.

"The Ottawa Senators fully support the NHL’s rules on gambling. While saddened to learn of this issue, the entire organization remains committed to Shane and will work together to do what is necessary to help provide the support to allow him to address his issues and become a strong contributor to our community.

"When the time is right and with the league’s blessing, we will welcome him back to the organization and embrace him as one of our own.”

Not to be outdone, but running in parallel to the Pinto fiasco, were the rumours that the Senators could face sanctions for bad faith dealings in the Evgenii Dadonov trade to the Vegas Golden Knights in late July 2021.

These rumours were confirmed to be true, and a mere six days later, the league levied sanctions against the Senators to the tune of a forfeited first round draft pick to be determined over the next three seasons.

This led to the mutual parting of ways with Dorion. As Andlauer said in his November 1st presser, the team “Had a Duty of Care” that was ignored in the transaction.

As the owner, Andlauer took the brunt of the sanctions and offered no excuses for the conduct. But he showed something to his new constituents as well. He showed that he wouldn’t mince words or swallow hypocrisy whole. If full disclosure was his organization’s crime, then where was the league’s during the sale process?

“The Commissioner (Gary Bettman) had a lot of time to deliberate on it and think about it," Andlauer told the media. "But why I inherited (the Dadonov situation) is beyond me. There’s no reason for it to last that long. I knew about it through the due diligence process, and it was basically from the seller’s perspective. It was really a non-issue. So, I don’t know if first-round (pick) is a non-issue to you guys, but it isn’t to me.”

Andlauer also implied that perhaps the severity of the Dadonov situation wasn’t spelled out properly to him to ensure the sale price was higher. While that may not have scored many points with Bettman, it did, however, score points with his new boss: Senators fans. They know that Andlauer won’t panic or overreact. They also know he won’t let sand get kicked in his face without letting the world know how he feels about it.

Stability is not what the Senators currently have. But there is every reason to believe it will come.