At least one of the remaining ownership bidders is reportedly very interested in having Patrick Roy as his head coach in Ottawa.

With the Ottawa Senators missing the playoffs for six years in a row and new ownership about to arrive, there are no guarantees that head coach D.J. Smith will return this fall. GM Pierre Dorion hasn’t confirmed what he wants to do, and even if he did, the final call would come from the new owner.

TSN insider Darren Dreger reported this week that one of the remaining ownership bidders would be a huge fan of possibly hiring Patrick Roy as the club’s next head coach. 

If so, it’s a pretty good bet that bidder would be the Michael Andlauer group. Andlauer grew up in Montreal as a massive Habs fan and currently owns 20% of the club. It's safe to say he'd be quite fond of Roy, who backstopped two Cup wins in Montreal.

Roy is currently coaching the Quebec Remparts at the Memorial Cup, his 12th year as head coach of the club. The Remparts will play in the final on Sunday. 

Roy also had a three-year stint as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche. In his first year, he won the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL coach of the year. In the other two seasons, the Avalanche missed the playoffs.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Senators had an interest in Roy. In 2019, Roy was reportedly in the running for a job that eventually went to Smith. Here’s the full list of candidates who were being considered for the job in 2019: Rick Bowness, Marc Crawford, Nate Leaman, Troy Mann, Jacques Martin, Patrick Roy, and D.J. Smith.

Roy definitely has a history of volatility behind the bench and doing things his own way. His days as an NHL head coach ended, quite shockingly, with an August 2016 phone call to his boss and former teammate, Joe Sakic. The call came deep into the offseason when most hockey people have headed for the cottage.

"Patrick called me today and informed me the last three or four weeks he was wrestling with this and said he was going to resign today," Sakic said. "I asked him if he wanted to give it more thought and he said he was very comfortable. I totally respect that and I appreciate it that he let me know now..”

Roy, on the other hand, put out a statement that made things pretty clear. In a nutshell, he couldn’t work with Sakic anymore.

"I have thought long and hard over the course of the summer about how I might improve this team to give it the depth it needs to bring it to a higher level," Roy said. "To achieve this, the vision of the coach and VP-hockey operations (Sakic) needs to be perfectly aligned with that of the organization. He must also have a say in the decisions that impact the team's performance. These conditions are not currently met.”

Roy hasn’t coached a game in the NHL since.

The Hall of Famer is 57 years old and definitely leans toward old school. When Matt Duchene celebrated scoring his 30th goal late in a game that was long lost, Roy gave it to him in the post-game presser.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inuxOB0U0E0[/embed]

It would be interesting to see what Roy would make of the current Senators, a young, fun-loving group if there ever was one.

While Roy was mentioned for the Ottawa job in 2019, most observers assumed that, as a GM, Dorion wouldn’t want to take on a volatile head coach who probably has no intention of staying in his lane. 

The same would probably hold true in 2023. But this time, it’s possible the decision may soon belong to someone else.