Ottawa Senators Make Major Changes in Communications Department, Adding Local Hockey Journalists Ian Mendes and Sylvain St-Laurent

Mendes leaves behind his job as a sportswriter at The Athletic, while St-Laurent arrives after 20 years of covering hockey at Le Droit.

In an unanticipated development on Wednesday, the Ottawa Senators officially announced the hiring of Ian Mendes as their vice president of communications and Sylvain St-Laurent as their director of communications.

Mendes has been a fixture in the Ottawa sports media landscape for the last two decades. His career began with the International League's AAA affiliate, the Ottawa Lynx, before he landed a role with the Senators in their public relations department. From there, Mendes has worked with every affiliate and medium covering the Senators.

Prior to working as a senior writer for The Athletic, covering national pieces of interest and the Senators, Mendes was a radio host and contributing writer for TSN. He worked for Sportsnet when they had the Senators' regional broadcast coverage rights.

"I’m beyond excited to start a new chapter of my career," Mendes posted on his X account today. "I believe in the direction of this hockey club and the role we can play in our community."

St-Laurent was the media relations manager for Ottawa's Professional Women's Hockey League team during its inaugural season. He had previously covered hockey for Le Droit for the previous 20 seasons.

Dean Brown, the voice of the Senators' play-by-play on TSN 1200, confirmed that Brian Morris, the senior director of communications, and Chris Moore, the director of communications, were let go.

Today's moves represent one of the last brooms of the Melnyk era.

Under Michael Andlauer's leadership, the Senators have been striving to embrace the diversity of Ottawa's bilingual market. GM Steve Staios has consistently emphasized the importance of the Quebec market, and the addition of St-Laurent is expected to significantly enhance the organization's communications strategies, paving the way for a more inclusive and effective approach.

Expanding its Francophone base has been a natural progression for this franchise, and under St-Laurent, you could not handpick a better candidate to advance that initiative.

Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of these additions is that the quality of reporting will suffer. Losing the most preeminent English and French reporters represents a massive blow to the local sports journalism community. The vacancies will create opportunities, but it will take some time for successors to step into their roles.