Insider Reveals 4 Names on Ottawa Senators' List For Next Coach

The Ottawa Senators have a critical decision to make going into the off-season, as they'll select a new head coach to take them into the future. TSN insider Pierre LeBrun has offered up some intel on the timeline of said decision, and some top names up for consideration.

They are in no rush and so far (team president) Steve Staios has a list that he's working on, a list of candidates that he keeps building on. John Gruden, the Toronto Marlies coach who coached for Staios at OHL Hamilton, is obviously on that list, but other bigger names such as Todd McLellan, Dean Evason, and Craig Berube I believe among others are on this working list.

He adds, however, that there are two junctures at which the Senators may be adding to this list of candidates—the beginning of the off-season, when other coaches may become available after pink slips are handed out, or even after the first round of the playoffs, when a couple of coaches here or there are sometimes let go. Those two eventualities, LeBrun says, are why Ottawa does not want to rush this decision.

McLellan was fired by the Los Angeles Kings almost two months ago, Evason was let go by the Minnesota Wild just 19 games into the season, while the St. Louis Blues fired Berube in mid-December. Gruden worked with both Senators owner Michael Andlauer and president Steve Staios while coaching the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs from 2016 to 2018. He's led the Marlies to a 30-21-9 mark this year. 

The Senators spent most of the season with interim coach Jacques Martin behind the bench after they deposed of D.J. Smith two months into the 2023-24 campaign.

Ottawa sits in seventh place in the Atlantic Division at 31-36-4 after a disastrous season on and off the ice that has seen them lose their top rookie scorer from last season for the first 41 games over a gambling suspension, as well as losing a future first-round draft pick for punishment of an incident over a trade two years ago.

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