49 Fun Facts About Ottawa Senators

By which nickname is the Ottawa team that held the Stanley Cup from 1903 to 1906 remembered?

Silver Seven. In 1905 they saw off challengers who had travelled from Dawson City in the Yukon by dog sled, ship and train, with one-eyed Frank McGee scoring 14 goals in one game.

The original Ottawa Senators moved in 1934 to become which short-lived NHL team?

St. Louis Eagles. The move lasted one season: the long trips to play eastern rivals deepened the losses, and the NHL bought the franchise back and dispersed its players.

Which Ottawa real estate developer led the campaign that won the modern Senators franchise in 1990?

Bruce Firestone. His firm could not afford a team, so the plan was to buy farmland in Kanata, win the franchise and let the new arena multiply the value of the land around it.

Under which slogan did Ottawa's bidders campaign for an NHL expansion franchise in 1989 and 1990?

Bring Back the Senators. Some 11,000 fans mailed in $25 pledges toward season tickets, even as the head of the players' union scoffed that Ottawa would not get a team this century.

The Senators won their first game, on October 8, 1992, 5-3 over which team?

Montreal Canadiens. The expansion team beat the club that would lift the Stanley Cup that spring, then managed only nine more wins all season.

Which 1974–75 team's NHL-worst season did the 1992–93 Senators beat by three points?

Washington Capitals, who managed eight wins and 21 points. Ottawa's 24 only tied for last in 1992–93, but that was enough to earn the first pick in the 1993 draft.

Which Ottawa-born singer was a partner in the modern Senators' first ownership group?

Paul Anka. He joined local high-tech executives in the limited partnership that was set up to own the new team and build its arena.

The Senators' 1993 first overall pick, one of the NHL's great draft busts, was which centre?

Alexandre Daigle. On draft day he said he was glad to go first because no one remembers number two; number two was Chris Pronger, a future Hall of Famer.

Which defenceman played one more Senators game than Daniel Alfredsson?

Chris Phillips. He passed Alfredsson's total in February 2015 by playing his 1,179th game, and a back injury meant that the record-breaker was also the last game of his career.

Which defence-first coach got the Senators to the playoffs every season from 1997 to 2004?

Jacques Martin. Eight straight playoff trips were not enough: he was fired in 2004 after a fourth series loss to Toronto in five years.

The Senators' 2001 trade of their holdout centre to the Islanders brought Zdeno Chara and the pick used on whom?

Jason Spezza. Taken second overall, he became Ottawa's No. 2 all-time scorer and its captain, and the defenceman who arrived in the same trade grew into a Hall of Famer.

Which trophy did the Senators win in 2002–03, a season they played under bankruptcy protection?

Presidents' Trophy, for the NHL's best regular-season record. Kept going by emergency financing, the club then came within one win of the Stanley Cup Final.

Which pharmaceutical billionaire bought the Senators in 2003 and owned them until his death in 2022?

Eugene Melnyk. The Biovail founder kept the club in Ottawa for 19 years, though after he mused about moving it in 2017 fans ran a campaign called #MelnykOut.

Which winger skated with Daniel Alfredsson on the Senators' famed 'CASH' line?

Dany Heatley. He scored 50 goals in each of his first two Ottawa seasons, a club first, then demanded a trade one year into a six-year contract extension.

The Senators lost the 2007 Stanley Cup Final in five games to which team?

Anaheim Ducks. Ottawa had won all three of its earlier series in five games, then lost the city's first Stanley Cup Final in 80 years in five itself.

The section of downtown Ottawa closed to traffic for fans during the 2007 Stanley Cup Final was dubbed what?

Sens Mile. It began as a fan campaign on Facebook, and after one playoff win thousands poured onto Elgin Street for an impromptu party, before the city agreed to close it for each game.

Which goaltender carried Ottawa to the 2007 Stanley Cup Final and was bought out by the club a year later?

Ray Emery. He began 2006–07 as the backup and had won the job by November, but lateness to practices and off-ice incidents led the club to buy him out in June 2008.

Which fan favourite's 2011 trade led an Ottawa radio station to ban his wife's songs?

Mike Fisher. His wife is country star Carrie Underwood, and he later revealed that his general manager chose Nashville's offer so that the couple could live in the same city.

Which coach won the 2013 Jack Adams Award after guiding an injury-riddled Senators team to the playoffs?

Paul MacLean. In that spring's playoffs a Montreal forward dismissed him as a "bug-eyed, fat walrus"; MacLean's team answered by winning the series in five games.

Which Ottawa-born Senator scored four goals, including the double-overtime winner, in a 2017 playoff game against the Rangers?

Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Ottawa trailed 5–3 late in the third period before his hat-trick goal tied the game with 62 seconds left, and his fourth won it in double overtime.

The Senators traded their captain, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, to which team in 2018?

San Jose Sharks. One of the draft picks that came back became third overall choice Tim Stützle, while the defenceman won a third Norris in San Jose in 2023.

The Senators came within one win of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, losing Game 7 in double overtime to which team?

Pittsburgh Penguins. Chris Kunitz scored twice in Game 7, the second in double overtime, and Pittsburgh went on to win a second straight Stanley Cup.

What was the Senators' outdoor game against Montreal at Lansdowne Park in December 2017 called?

NHL 100 Classic. It marked 100 years since the two cities met on the league's first night, and Ottawa won 3–0, though its owner soured the party by musing about moving the team.

Rather than send Colorado their 2018 first-round pick, the Senators drafted whom?

Brady Tkachuk. Taken fourth overall, he captained Ottawa for five seasons before being traded in 2026 to Florida, where his brother Matthew was already playing.

Which Toronto businessman and Canadiens part-owner led the group that bought the Senators in 2023?

Michael Andlauer. He gave up his minority stake in Montreal to do it, and the late owner's two daughters kept a share of the club as his partners.

Which coach ended the Senators' eight-year playoff drought in 2025?

Travis Green. In his first season behind the bench Ottawa won 45 games and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2017, only to draw Toronto in the opening round.

The Senators' arena in Kanata opened in January 1996 under what name?

The Palladium. The name lasted about a month: Bryan Adams opened the building with a concert in mid-January, and by mid-February a software firm had bought the naming rights.

The Senators' logo depicts the head of what?

A Roman general. The reference is to the Senate of ancient Rome, not the one on Parliament Hill, and the designer of the 1991 original described the figure as a centurion.

What is the Senators' mascot called?

Spartacat. He has worked the crowd since the club's very first home game in 1992, and his official profile lists "Raking Leafs" among his hobbies.

The Senators' 1991 shoulder crest carried Roman numerals for 1894, believed at the time to mark what?

The founding of the original club. The date was a mistake: the original Ottawa club had played its first game in 1883, eleven years earlier.

The Senators' rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs is known as what?

Battle of Ontario. Toronto won all four playoff series from 2000 to 2004; in one, Alfredsson flattened Darcy Tucker from behind and scored the winning goal seconds later.

The Senators' first playoff series win, in 1998, came as an upset of which team?

New Jersey Devils. Ottawa had squeezed in as the eighth and last seed and New Jersey had finished first in the conference, yet the Senators won in six games.

The Senators' first-ever draft pick in 1992, who later refused to honour his contract, was whom?

Alexei Yashin. He sat out the whole 1999–2000 season demanding a new deal, was stripped of the captaincy, and still had to come back and play the year he owed.

In 2002 the Senators' head coach stepped aside so which assistant could coach his 1,000th NHL game?

Roger Neilson. Already ill with cancer, he ran the bench for the last two games of the regular season to become the ninth coach to reach 1,000, and entered the Hall of Fame that autumn.

Which Hall of Fame goaltender did the Senators sign in 2004, only for the lockout to delay his debut?

Dominik Hasek. The lockout wiped out his first season, and his only year in Ottawa ended early when he was injured playing for his country at the 2006 Olympics.

Which long-time winger did the Senators trade to Atlanta for the third CASH line member in 2005?

Marian Hossa. He had signed a new three-year contract with Ottawa that very day, only to find that the deal was the first step in sending him to Atlanta.

The Senators acquired which centre from Phoenix in December 2011 for prospect David Rundblad?

Kyle Turris. Four months after the trade he scored in overtime against the Rangers to give Ottawa its first home playoff win since the 2007 Final.

Which player did Bryan Murray trade up to draft 15th overall in 2008, with Daniel Alfredsson announcing the pick?

Erik Karlsson. The draft was held in Ottawa, so the home crowd watched its captain read out the name of a fellow Frölunda product who would one day wear the C himself.

Daniel Alfredsson left Ottawa in July 2013 to sign with which team after 17 seasons?

Detroit Red Wings. After one season there he came home: in December 2014 he signed a one-day contract so that he could retire as a Senator, and skated in the warm-up.

The Senators' 2016 nine-player trade brought which Maple Leafs captain to Ottawa?

Dion Phaneuf. He crossed straight to Toronto's provincial rival in mid-season, helped Ottawa reach the 2017 conference final and was traded on to Los Angeles two years after arriving.

Which minor-league call-up went 20-1-2 in goal to carry Ottawa into the 2015 playoffs?

Andrew Hammond. Nicknamed the Hamburglar, with the character painted on his mask, he helped Ottawa become the first team of the modern era to erase a 14-point gap and make the playoffs.

The Senators lost which defenceman to Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft?

Marc Methot. Ottawa could not strike a deal to shield him, Vegas took him, and five days later the Golden Knights traded him on to Dallas.

Which former player was named the Senators' president of hockey operations in September 2023?

Steve Staios. Within five weeks he was general manager as well, after his predecessor left over a mishandled trade that cost Ottawa a first-round draft pick.

Which goaltender's Game 5 shutout in Toronto kept the Senators alive after they trailed 3-0 in the 2025 playoffs?

Linus Ullmark. He stopped all 29 shots for the first playoff shutout of his career and forced a sixth game, where Toronto finally closed out the series.

Which team swept the Senators out of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs?

Carolina Hurricanes. Ottawa had reached the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 2013, but was shut out 2–0 in the opener and lost in four straight.

Which downtown Ottawa site did the Senators agree to buy for a new arena in a 2025 land deal?

LeBreton Flats. An earlier plan for the same site collapsed in 2019 with the partners suing each other for hundreds of millions of dollars; the 2025 deal has the club buying the land itself.

What is the name of the Senators' practice facility, a joint venture with the City of Ottawa?

Bell Sensplex. The city agreed to buy 2,400 hours of ice time a year for public use, so since 2004 residents have skated at the same four-rink complex as their NHL team.

Which television host announced the Senators' third overall pick, Tim Stützle, at the 2020 NHL Draft?

Alex Trebek. The Jeopardy! host, a University of Ottawa graduate, read the pick out as a quiz clue ("Who is Tim Stützle?"), a month before he died of cancer.

Which Senators winger scored a hat trick in his first home game back from treatment for alcohol abuse in 2020?

Bobby Ryan. Three months after leaving the team for the league's assistance programme he scored three times against Vancouver to a standing ovation, and he later won the Masterton Trophy.