The Senators are on the cusp of hiring Travis Green. Would he be a good fit in Ottawa?

When the Senators’ regular season concluded three weeks ago, Travis Green’s name certainly wasn’t on the list of potential head coaching candidates that was being tossed around by media and fans in Ottawa.

At the time, the list included the likes of Craig Berube, Todd McLellan, Dean Evason and John Gruden. The assumption was that Green — who finished the season as New Jersey’s interim head coach — would get a serious look to stay in New Jersey. After all, he was hired as the associate coach under Lindy Ruff last summer, with many wondering if the ultimate succession plan in New Jersey included Green inheriting the main coaching role.

But things have evolved quickly over the past seven days to the point where the Senators are on the verge of officially introducing Green as their next head coach.

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Last week, Green’s name first surfaced as a serious candidate for the Ottawa vacancy, when Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli noted that he was interviewed by Senators management. Around midday Monday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said that “all eyes were on Travis Green” when talking about the Senators’ head coaching position.

A few hours later, TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report the deal was nearing completion.

Given that Ottawa is a participant in Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery, there is an excellent chance the official announcement — and subsequent Green press conference — will take place on Wednesday or Thursday in Ottawa.

But until we hear from Green and Senators general manager Steve Staios, there will be plenty of questions from Ottawa fans. Green was certainly not the most high-profile or successful coach available on the market, so this news is being met with a degree of skepticism by Ottawa fans.

What is Green’s track record as a coach?

The 53-year-old Green has spent parts of six seasons as an NHL head coach in Vancouver and New Jersey, compiling a 141-159-35 record in 335 games. That is good for a .473 points percentage, which puts him directly alongside the following coaches:

The fact that D.J. Smith’s name is on this list will certainly attract the attention of Ottawa fans, who are hoping their next head coach can elevate this program to a different level.

Green did guide Vancouver to a pair of playoff wins in the COVID bubble in the summer of 2020. The Canucks dispatched the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round, before eliminating the St. Louis Blues in six games. Green’s Vancouver team then bowed out in a hard-fought, seven-game loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Outside of that, however, his Vancouver teams did not manage to play better than .500 in any season under Green’s guidance.

If there is a sliver of good news, it’s that Green’s Vancouver teams were known for getting off to fast starts — a problem that has plagued the Senators in recent years. In each of his four full seasons with the Canucks, Green had them off to good starts in the first month of the season:

And Green has often been lauded for being open-minded and flexible when it comes to using advanced stats and analytics. This 2020 story from Harman Dayal in The Athletic chronicled Green’s decision to embrace analytics early in his coaching career.

“Man, it feels like I’ve been using analytics in some way shape or form forever,” Green told The Athletic.

And when The Athletic’s Thomas Drance connected with Green in 2023 about his coaching career in Vancouver, he was reflective and optimistic about improving when his next NHL opportunity arose.

“You go through a little adversity and you work on things to get better, and I think I’ll be better in all areas of coaching right now, just because of natural progression, but also having the time to evaluate and look back,” Green said. “It’s taking stock of the things you’re good at and working on the things you’re not as good at — because everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.”

“I’m a guy that loves challenges, I love coaching, that’s the competitive part of us. I’m looking forward to hopefully getting another opportunity.”

Green did take over as interim head coach for the Devils in their final 21 games this season, but New Jersey posted an 8-12-1 record in those games and missed the playoffs by 10 points in the Eastern Conference.

Prior to coaching in the NHL, Green spent time with the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL, where he helped guide the team to a league championship and Memorial Cup berth in 2012-13. After that he served as the Canucks AHL head coach for four seasons in Utica, taking them to the finals in 2014-15.

How would Green’s tenure be characterized in Vancouver?

Green’s time as Canucks head coach came to an abrupt end in the middle of the 2021-22 season, when he was fired alongside general manager Jim Benning on Dec. 6, 2021.

It was a rare double takeout with a general manager and head coach simultaneously being relieved of their duties, with Green being replaced by Bruce Boudreau. As Drance wrote that day, “Moreover, Boudreau is known as a player’s coach. That makes him, in some ways, the opposite of Green, who is more in the Pete DeBoer mold and carries a reputation for being obsessively detailed in his approach.”

That’s an interesting description of Green, considering many Senators fans are clamouring for that type of coaching style in Ottawa. Smith, who guided the Senators in each of the previous five seasons until he was fired in mid-December, had the reputation of being a relaxed, ‘players-first’ coach.

Given Drance’s connection to covering Green for five seasons, I figured it would be worthwhile for him to weigh in on the hiring. And Drance seems to think that Green’s tactical strengths, coupled with his appetite for analytics and his ability to develop young players will make him an excellent fit for the Senators. Drance believes Green may have been the victim of a chaotic environment in Vancouver and could greatly benefit from stability in Ottawa.

Here is Drance’s view of the Senators choosing Green as their next head coach:

“I covered Travis Green closely during arguably the most dysfunctional stretch in recent Vancouver Canucks history — and that’s saying something.

After a successful stint as the club’s AHL coach in Utica, a stretch that included a Calder Cup Final appearance in the early stages of Green’s tenure, the club iced rosters that were undermanned in the extreme. And those Green-era teams played recognizably organized hockey, often punching above their weight, especially early in the year, before the extreme lack of talent caught up to them.

In 2019-20, the club hit something of a wave and over-performed — both in the regular season and in the playoff bubble. Green’s tactics against the Golden Knights in forcing a seventh game as a massive underdog in the second round became a template that Golden Knights opponents widely copied in frustrating the DeBoer-era Golden Knights in the playoffs over the next few years.

Then things got weird in Vancouver.

COVID-related budget cuts gutted the roster. A massive COVID outbreak during the 2021 season impacted Green severely, and the team massively as well, as the club sagged to seventh in the All-Canadian division.

The next year, Green made some tactical tweaks to try and shore up the club’s brutal defensive game. It worked at five-on-five, but the team was undone by struggling severely on the penalty kill and by the pervasive struggles of some star players. Twenty-five games into the season, Green was fired and replaced by Bruce Boudreau.

Throughout his Canucks tenure, Green’s Canucks leaned heavily on and did well to develop young players. He was disciplined and even innovative about how he handled matchups in-game.

He tended not to get fooled by hot streaks, and when he was criticized for player deployment, his decisions tended to bear themselves out over time (the players who didn’t get enough opportunity under Green tended not to become more meaningful contributors after his departure). His X’s and O’s and structural work are excellent, and he’s open minded about incorporating analytics into his player evaluation, working closely with Vancouver’s since-promoted director of analytics, Aiden Fox, throughout his Canucks tenure.

This is a sharp coach who deserves a stable opportunity after the way things unfolded for him in Vancouver. Taking over a young team like the Senators strikes me as a uniquely good fit.”

What about Green’s history as a player?

Ottawa fans who are old enough are going to have to reconcile Green’s time with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the height of the Battle of Ontario.

Green spent two seasons with the Maple Leafs in 2001-02 and 2002-03 and was a central figure in some high-profile moments in the provincial rivalry. Along with Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Shayne Corson, Green was one of the most hated Maple Leafs players in Ottawa, playing an abrasive style that often upset Senators players and fans.

In March of 2003, Green was handed a charging penalty in a game against the Senators at the Corel Centre. As he was skating to the penalty box, Green angrily pointed at Senators forward Chris Neil on the Ottawa bench. Seconds later, Toronto forward Darcy Tucker leaped into the Ottawa bench to start a fight with Neil.

In Game 5 of their 2002 playoff series, Green was one of the most irate Toronto players after Daniel Alfredsson’s controversial hit on Tucker in the dying moments of that contest. Alfredsson hit Tucker along the boards and then scored the eventual game-winning goal at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Afterward, Green told reporters that Alfredsson’s hit on Tucker was “a bloody joke.”

All told, Green suited up for 970 NHL games in a career that spanned 14 seasons. He scored 20 goals on three occasions, with his best offensive season coming as part of a 25-goal, 70-point campaign in 1995-96 with the New York Islanders.

When he was hired by the Canucks as their head coach in the spring of 2017, Green told reporters that he always dreamed of coaching after his playing career concluded.

“I was fortunate enough to play a long time in the league. I wouldn’t call myself one of the top-end skill guys in the league. I had to think my way around the ice. I knew toward the end of my career I wanted to stay in hockey. I wanted to coach,” Green said in April of 2017. “I played under a lot of good coaches, some amazing coaches — a few that people know around here — Pat Quinn, Al Arbour. That definitely helped me.”

(Photo: Rich Graessle / NHLI via Getty Images)