The third team on the list of targets for a move is the Ottawa Senators. Their attendance numbers last season put them at the bottom of the league averaging 9,155 fans, which put them at 47.8% capacity. The Senators have been the center of scrutiny while being owned by Eugene Melynk. Upon his death in March, the team was left to his daughters. While in most cases this would stir up speculation, this seems to have had the opposite effect. Most of that can be contributed to the drama and antics swirling around Melnyk the last few years of his life, from rumors of employee abuse to threats to move the team to legal issues abound.

Let’s discuss the rocky history of the team. The modern-day version of the Senators was the idea of Bruce Firestone in 1988. After campaigning two years, he was awarded a franchise on December 6, 1990 to begin play for the 92-93 season. The team played in the Ottawa Civic Center, while they worked on the development of the new arena. During that process, that included getting rural land rezoned, Firestone had to bow out. Rod Bryden took over ownership in 1993.

After playing the first few seasons at the Civic Center, the Senators finally got to play in the new home on January 17, 1996. What was first known as The Palladium became the Corel Centre one month later. It’d later be named Scotiabank Place, then Canadian Tire Centre. The arena would plague the team with debt, as well as scrutiny for being so far from the city. The debt that Bryden incurred led to a bankruptcy filing on January 9, 2003.

In 2003, Canadian businessman and philanthropist Eugene Melnyk bought the team and arena. At the time, he was seen as the savior, vowing to keep the team in Ottawa. Things went good under his ownership, the team went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007. Then, things started to go bad. In 2017, he began threats to move the team if he didn’t see more support. In September 2018, he released a video with plans for a team rebuild, where he referred to the team as being “in the dumps”, which got him criticism. That saw the beginning of the push from fans for him to sell. He had no intention of selling. The 2018-19 season saw the franchise record for empty seats drop to a 22 year low, with the average attendance trending down since 2012-13. In 2019, the New York Post called the Senators the laughingstock of the NHL because of debt, lawsuits, and drama surrounding Melnyk. Part of the lawsuits and drama was tied to Melnyk’s desire to build a new arena Senators in a project known as LeBreton Flats. A project that fell apart for him when the relationship between him and John Ruddy turned sour.

Melnyk died March 28, 2022. Immediately questions arose about the future of the team. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters team was left to Melnyk’s daughters, Anna and Olivia, saying it was “completely stable and functioning in the ordinary course.” May 4, 2022 saw a report there were parties interested in purchasing the team. One of those was Quebecor, which would be looking to purchase it to move to Quebec. The other was John Ruddy, who was previously a partner of Melnyk’s in the exploration of the LeBreton Flats project.

June 23, 2022 saw the announcement the Senators had won a bid to build a new arena at LeBreton Flats. Populous Design (KC company) has been named as the design team. With that, it seems almost certain the team’s future in Ottawa is secure and John Ruddy probably has the inside track on purchasing the team if it were to be sold anytime soon. But a dark horse could always come in and throw a monkey wrench into plans, it’s been known to happen.