Ottawa Senators: How Ownership Issues Can Impact The 2018/19 Season

For a team that just two seasons ago was one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals, the Ottawa Senators have quickly become the mess of the NHL. Ownership and player/personnel issues have overshadowed the team and drama regarding the on-ice and off-ice product seems to ooze out of every pour.

Fans don't show up for games, the team can't afford to pay its stars, and both former and current players want to see the club find new ownership in an effort to right the ship. The franchise is openly a bargain-basement team and almost everyone has had enough.

How it got this way is an interesting story. Why it's still this way remains frustrating for fans and where it will go in 2018-19 and beyond is anyone's guess.

How The Ottawa Senators Drama Started

With former GM Bryan Murray at the helm, the Senators were a respectable organization. In April of 2016, he announced his resignation to focus on his colorectal cancer diagnosis and assistant general manager Pierre Dorion was promoted to the general manager position. A consistently rotating coaching staff tended to make the front page of the news stream until the team finally made a run in the 2016-17 postseason.

The Senators finished second in the Atlantic Division that year and came within one game of the Stanley Cup Final, but lost in double overtime of the seventh game against the Pittsburgh Penguins — the team who went on to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, what overshadowed the playoff run was poor attendance.

While every team had a waiting line for tickets, Senators games couldn't sell out. From a lack of corporate sales to the location of an arena that was too large for the population, questions existed as to why the team couldn't attract fans and why the federal government — the city's biggest employer — couldn't and wouldn't give tickets to employees to attend games.

How It Got Ugly

It was later discovered owner Eugene Melnyk was openly at war with the government for not sinking any money into the team, the fans for not attending games and his own management team who he kept firing and instead of replacing with qualified candidates added new titles to his own job description. He threatened to move the team and the moment he did so, things got ugly.

A hate-hate relationship developed between Melnyk and the fans. It reached a boiling point when former star Daniel Alfredsson said he hoped the team would find a new owner and #MelnykOut billboards went up at various points across Ottawa.

On the GoFundMe campaign to pay for those billboards, it said, “Eugene Melnyk has decided that he would rather tear the team down and sell it for spare parts than admit he can no longer run it effectively.” Many insiders felt it was hard to disagree. Not long after, the worst blow to the team would come in the form of rumors Melnyk was looking at trading his star defenseman.

Where It's At Now

When news that the Senators might not be willing to pay elite defenseman Erik Karlsson what he was worth became public knowledge, the fans essentially lost it. Since that time, the Senators acknowledged their intention to make an offer come free agency, which they did, but the offer was not on par with what the best defensemen were making. Prior to that, issues came to light that former teammates were involved in drama over their respective wives.

Mike Hoffman was traded after it was alleged his fiance had been threatening Karlsson's wife but it was too little too late. Knowing the team was willing to let issues go unresolved, Karlsson had no desire to stick with the Senators unless ownership changed and the offer improved. Speculation throughout the summer is that Karlsson had been, and still is being shopped to teams like Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Vegas.

All the while, the Senators have been looking to dump salary. Bobby Ryan's deal has been discussed as a trade dealbreaker for the Senators, meaning management wants Ryan thrown in to facilitate a Karlsson trade. The team is potentially shopping Matt Duchene (their top center) and the club did not sign any major names in free agency.

At the very least, the Senators are not considered a team that will be competitive in 2018-19. They're losing players, fighting or stringing along current ones and fans have realized the team is much more eager to save money than be competitive.

Should ownership not change in Ottawa, most insiders believe things will continue to go downhill and with Melnyk at the helm, it won't be long before everyone has given up altogether.

NEXT: SENATORS ALLOW OTHER TEAMS TO TALK CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH KARLSSON