Ottawa Senators – The Alfredsson Era

Ottawa Senators – The Alfredsson Era

Teams have been naming captains since the first season of the NHL, when the Montreal Canadiens bestowed the title on Newsy Lalonde. The main functional application of the title is as the official team spokesmen with the referees, but the captain also serves as the team’s on-ice leader. A good captain elevates the players around him, providing motivation and focus through which the team’s individual skills can come together. Because of this, NHL captains who serve in the position for a long time become the face of their organizations, shaping the team’s identity through their tenure. Players like the Philadelphia Flyers’ Bobby Clarke or the Detroit Red Wings’ Steve Yzerman come quickly to mind, but while NHL history is rich with good captains, no single player defined the identity of his team more than the Ottawa Senators’ Daniel Alfredsson.
Alfredsson’s first season in the NHL was with the Senators in 1995-96. He netted 26 goals and 61 points in his rookie year, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy despite the struggles of his team, which won only 18 games the entire season. Alfredsson played 17 of his 18 NHL seasons in Ottawa and spent 13 of those as the team’s captain, from 1999-2000 through 2012-13. In total, he played 1,178 games with the Senators, scoring 426 goals and 1,108 points. He holds the all-time record for pretty much every individual statistic in Senators history, with the most goals and the most points in both the regular season and the playoffs.

There have been other captains who have served in that role for longer; Yzerman remains the league’s longest-serving captain, filling the role for the Red Wings for 19 seasons (1986-87 thru 2005-06). But though the Yzerman era is an important part of the Red Wings’ history, it is only a part. The Red Wings have existed since 1926, and have a long tradition of strong leaders. The Senators only joined the league in 1992. As of the start of the 2015-16 season, the team played only five seasons in its history without Alfredsson on their roster, compared to the 17 played with him; he was captain for more than half of those. Moreover, the three seasons the Senators played before Alfredsson’s arrival were the three worst in the team’s history. They had an abysmal record of 33-165-18 in their first three seasons. The team turned around within two years of Alfredsson’s arrival. They reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2006-07 after nearly a decade of consistent post-season appearances; with Alfredsson on their team, the Senators reached the playoffs 14 of the 17 seasons.

In the two seasons following Alfredsson’s departure, the Senators have had two different captains. Jason Spezza served in the role for the 2013-14 season, but was traded to the Dallas Stars during the 2014 off-season. Defenseman Erik Karlsson was named captain for the 2014-15 season. Though he’s a very different kind of player than Alfredsson was, Karlsson has the qualities to be a good leader in the Alfredsson mold. Drafted by the Senators 15th overall in the 2008 draft, Karlsson is the only Senator in history other than Alfredsson to win an individual NHL award, bringing home the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the best all-around defenseman in both 2012 and 2015. He also holds his share of team records. He set the franchise record for most points in a season by a defenseman in 2011-12 when he scored 78 points (the record was previously held by Norm Maciver, who scored 63 points in 1992-93) and took the record for most goals by a defenseman in a single Senators’ season with 20 in 2013-14.

The departure of franchise players can start a difficult period of transition for an NHL team, especially when that player was one of the team’s leaders. The Senators stumbled in 2013-14, ending up 5th in the Atlantic Division and five points out of playoff contention. Under Karlsson’s new leadership in 2014-15, they returned to the playoffs, though they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Conference Quarterfinals. With the era of their first great captain now at an end, the Senators have made a quick transition into the next chapter of their history. The first step will be solidifying their identity without Alfredsson on the ice.