1995–96 Ottawa Senators season



The 1995–96 Ottawa Senators season was a season with plenty of change for the club. The club changed coaching staffs twice, changed the General Manager and moved into the new Palladium arena in Kanata. The team would again finish last in the league.

Offseason
Prior to the season, on August 2, 1995, Brian Smith, former NHL hockey player and sportscaster at Ottawa TV station CJOH-TV was killed. He had been the primary reporter on the Senators for the station. The Senators would honor him with a patch on their jerseys, with his nickname 'Smitty' and number 18, which they would wear on their jerseys for the whole season. The team would also raise a banner in his memory.

Regular season
There were some bright spots during the season, rookie Daniel Alfredsson would lead the team offensively with 61 points (26 goals-35 assists), while Alexei Yashin was out of the lineup for 36 games. Alfredsson would go on to win the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL's rookie of the year.

After getting off to a good start with a 6–5–0 record, the Senators would then lose their next eight games, which ended up costing head coach Rick Bowness his job, as the club replaced him with Dave Allison, who was previously the head coach of the Senators AHL affiliate, the Prince Edward Island Senators. The Dave Allison era did not last long in Ottawa, as the club would only win two of 25 games (2–22–1) before he was replaced by Jacques Martin. Under Martin, the Senators would be more competitive, going 10–24–4 in his 38 games to finish the year with an 18–59–5, their fourth straight season at the bottom of the NHL standings.

Highlights
After taking over from the fired Randy Sexton as General Manager, on December 6, 1995, Pierre Gauthier made three moves to strengthen the club. He hired Jacques Martin as head coach, signed hold-out Alexei Yashin to a contract and engineered a blockbuster trade on January 23, 1996, dealing away Don Beaupre, Martin Straka and Bryan Berard, while acquiring Damian Rhodes and Wade Redden. It was a three-way trade between the Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the New York Islanders and was necessary because Berard, the Senators' first-round pick, was refusing to report to the Senators.

The Senators played their first game in The Palladium on January 17, 1996 in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, which turned out to be a 3–0 Senators loss. The pre-game ceremonies were ruined when the raising of the Senators' Stanley Cup banners failed, leaving the banners obscuring some fans' view of the scoreboard.

On April 13, 1996, the Senators played the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, who needed a win to clinch the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Senators would play the role of spoiler, defeating New Jersey 5–2, officially eliminating the Devils from post-season play and giving the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that entered the league the same year as the Sens, their first playoff birth.

Regular season

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Awards and records

 * Calder Memorial Trophy, All-Rookie team - Daniel Alfredsson
 * Molson Cup - Damian Rhodes
 * NHL All-Star Game selection - Daniel Alfredsson

Waivers
Source:

Draft picks
Ottawa's draft picks at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft in Edmonton, Alberta.

Farm teams

 * Prince Edward Island Senators (American Hockey League)
 * Thunder Bay Senators (Colonial Hockey League)