Binghamton Senators

The Binghamton Senators were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Nicknamed the B-Sens, they played in Binghamton, New York at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Along with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL, the B-Sens were minor league affiliates of the Ottawa Senators. They are the AHL's 2011 Calder Cup champions. The Senators main rivals were the Syracuse Crunch (located an hour north on Interstate 81), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (located an hour south on Interstate 81), and the Hershey Bears (located about 3 hours south via Interstate 81 & Pennsylvania Route 743).

Inception and first seasons (2002–2005)
The arrival of the B-Sens marked the return of the AHL to the area after a five-year absence. The area had previously been represented by the Binghamton Dusters (1977–1980), the Binghamton Whalers (1980–1990), and the Binghamton Rangers (1990–1997), all of the AHL. While no AHL team played in Binghamton between 1997 and 2002, the market was served by the B.C. Icemen of the United Hockey League.

The Binghamton Senators enjoyed a successful 2002–03, freshman season, going 43–26–9 with 100 points. They breezed by their first three playoff rounds, but were easily defeated by the Hamilton Bulldogs in 5 games. By contrast, the 2003–04 season was not as successful as the loss of both Antoine Vermette and Jason Spezza weakened the team. They went 34–34–9 and quietly exited the playoffs thanks to a 2–0 sweep at the hands of the Norfolk Admirals.

The 2004–05 NHL lockout meant Binghamton got a return visit from their recent graduates and several other NHL players, including Jason Spezza, Antoine Vermette, Anton Volchenkov, Chris Neil, Josh Langfeld and Brian Pothier, making the Senators a legitimate Calder Cup contender. Jason Spezza lead the way with a league high 117 points (earning the AHL MVP) and brought the team back to contender form. The Senators ended the regular season with only 21 regulation losses, tied for 2nd fewest in the league, taking the division title with a league high 276 goals scored. The Senators entered the playoffs on a roll, winners of 11 of their last 13 games, and continued their dominance by cruising through the first 2 games of their first round best of 7 series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, scoring 9 goals. But the offense inexplicably stalled and the Sens scored only 5 goals in the remaining 4 games as the Penguins answered back with the next 4 wins, crushing the hopes of bringing the Calder Cup to Binghamton for the first time.

Recent activity (2009-Present)
On 17 July 2009 it was announced that Don Nachbaur was named head coach of the Binghamton Senators. During the 2009–10 AHL season, Nachbaur coached the Senators to a 36-35-6-3 record and 81 points to finish fifth overall in the AHL's East Division. On 22 June 2010, after only one season behind the bench, Nachbaur announced that he was resigning as head coach citing personal reasons as the cause.

On August 6, 2010 the Ottawa Senators announced that Kurt Kleinendorst was appointed the head coach of the Binghamton Senators as part of a two-year contract. Kleinendorst had spent the previous year leading the USA Hockey National Team Development Program's Under-18 team to a gold medal at the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships in Belarus.

In 2011, the Binghamton Senators made the playoffs. The came back to beat the Manchester Monarchs 4-3 in the first round. In the second round, The Senators upset the Portland Pirates 4-2. They beat the Charlotte Checkers 4-0 to advance to their first ever Calder Cup Finals.

In the finals, the Senators were against the Houston Aeros. The Senators fell behind 2-1 in the series, but a two game home ice winning streak gave them the 3-2 lead. The Senators won game 6 in Houston on June 7, 2011 to capture their first ever Calder Cup.

In the 2011–12 season, the Senators faced a completely revised lineup as several free agents left to join other NHL organizations, and several players became full-time Ottawa Senators. The team finished fifth and out of the playoffs. Head Coach Kurt Kleinendorst resigned after the season to pursue other opportunities. He was replaced by former NHL player and Ottawa Assistant Coach Luke Richardson. Richardson is the team's seventh head coach.

In the 2012-13 offseason, the Senators made several moves in free agency, including bringing back former player Andre Benoit to be the Senators captain. The NHL lockout also allowed several Ottawa top prospects, such as Jakob Silfverberg and Mika Zibanejad to start the season in Binghamton. The Senators stormed out to a 27-10-4 start by the All-Star break, holding the best record in the AHL at one point. The Senators then lost many players, including Benoit, Silfverburg, Zibanejad, and Patrick Wiercioch to Ottawa as the NHL regular season started. The Senators went 17-14-4 the rest of the way to finish 2nd in the East Division, claim the fourth seed for the playoffs, and finish with a 44-24-8 record overall. However, the Senators offense struggled against the physical play of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Penguins swept the Senators out of the playoffs, 3-0.

The Senators returned almost the entire team from the previous year for the 2013-14 season; the most notable exception being goaltender Robin Lehner, who became Ottawa's regular #2 goalie. The Senators contended for the division lead for the entire season. Despite goaltender Nathan Lawson having an injury-filled year, Andrew Hammond filled in nicely in his spot with 25 wins and a 2.81 GAA. Despite the Senators losing leading scorers Mike Hoffman and Stephane Da Costa along with Mark Stone, Cody Ceci, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, among others to Ottawa during the second half of the year, the Senators clinched their 3rd division after nearly a ten-year drought since the 2004-05 season. The division title came on a 5-4 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the second-to-last game of the season to clinch the third seed in the Eastern Conference. For the second year in a row, the Senators played the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs. The first three games of the series were close, all of them going to overtime, but the Senators found themselves down 2-1 in the series. Facing a must-win Game 4 in Wilkes-Barre, the Sens were routed by the Penguins 5-1, bowing out in the first round once again.

The Future
The team's time as an affiliate of the Senators came to an end after the 2016-17 season. The Senators haf made no secret about wanting to have their AHL affiliate closer to Ottawa. Reports had indicated that the Senators are looking to relocate the team to Belleville, Ontario which lost its' Ontario Hockey League franchise to Hamilton prior to the 2015-16 season. The ride from Belleville to Ottawa is about 2.5 hours. With the announced team move speculation began that the New Jersey Devils could relocate their AHL affiliate presently based in Albany, New York to Binghamton. This was confirmed on January 31, 2017 when the move was announced and the Devils management signed a 5 year operating agreement

The Ottawa Senators announced that they purchased the AHL team on September 26, 2016  The team will be moved to Belleville, Ontario for the 2017-18 season. Eugene Melnyk had already been in negotiations with the city of Belleville to work on renovations to Yardmen Arena. The team will become the Belleville Senators when the relocate

Team captains

 * Steve Martins, 2002-2003
 * Brian Pothier, 2002-2003
 * Chris Kelly, 2003-2005
 * Denis Hamel, 2005–2006
 * Jamie Allison, 2006–2007
 * Denis Hamel, 2007–2010
 * Ryan Keller, 2010–2011
 * Mark Parrish, 2011–2012
 * Andre Benoit, 2012–2013
 * Mike Hoffman, 2013-2014
 * Mark Borowiecki, 2013-2014
 * Aaron Johnson. 2014-2015

Notable players

 * Cody Bass
 * Brandon Bochenski
 * Bobby Butler
 * Patrick Eaves
 * Brian Elliott
 * Ray Emery
 * Alexandre Giroux
 * Denis Hamel
 * Ryan Keller
 * Chris Kelly
 * Robin Lehner
 * Chris Neil
 * Brian Pothier
 * Christoph Schubert
 * Jason Spezza
 * Antoine Vermette
 * Anton Volchenkov
 * Jeremy Yablonski
 * Ben Bishop
 * Erik Karlsson
 * Cody Ceci
 * Mark Borowiecki

Single season

 * Goals: Denis Hamel, 56 (2005–06)
 * Assists: Jason Spezza, 85 (2004–05)
 * Points: Jason Spezza, 117 (2004–05)
 * Penalty minutes: 551 Brian McGrattan, 551 (2004–05)
 * GAA: Robin Lehner, 2.12 (2012–13)
 * SV%: Robin Lehner, .938 (2012–13)

Career

 * Career goals: Denis Hamel, 203
 * Career assists: Denis Hamel, 189
 * Career points: Denis Hamel, 392
 * Career penalty minutes: Brian McGrattan, 1051
 * Career goaltending wins: Ray Emery, 67
 * Career shutouts: Ray Emery, 11
 * Career games: Denis Hamel, 528