2010–11 Ottawa Senators season

The 2010–11 Ottawa Senators season will be the 18th season in the modern Senators' history.

Off-season
Early in the off-season, the Senators signed several players including summer development camp attendee Colin Greening on April 28 and Binghamton forward Ryan Keller on May 19 and goaltender Mike Brodeur on May 26. After some media speculation, the Senators also bought out Jonathan Cheechoo's contract on June 29 after he cleared waivers, making Cheechoo a free agent.

At the Entry Draft, the Senators traded their first-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for defenceman David Rundblad, who had been the Blues' first-round pick (17th-overall) in the 2009 Draft. Having now previously traded their first, second, and fifth-round picks, the Senators picked Jakub Culek in the third round (76th-overall), Marcus Sorensen in the fourth round (106th-overall), Mark Stone in the sixth round (178th-overall), and Bryce Aneloski in the seventh round (196th-overall).

Throughout July, the Senators made various signings. On July 13, they signed Swedish forward and 2004 Senator draft pick Roman Wick to a one-year, entry-level contract, and resigned Derek Smith to a one-year contract. On July 22, they resigned forward Cody Bass to a one-year, two-way contract and forward Mike Hoffman to a one-year, entry-level contract.

Having fired their goaltending coach Eli Wilson in January, the Senators signed former goaltender Rick Wamsley as goaltending coach on July 27. His most recent job was interim head coach of the St. Louis Blues' AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen. He had at one time been Pascal Leclaire's goaltending coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

On August 5, the Senators resigned Binghampton defenceman Geoff Kinrade to a one-year, two-way contract as well as signing forward and local prospect Corey Cowick to a entry-level contract. Cowick was an assistant captain with Ottawa's OHL team the Ottawa 67's and was the Senators sixth-round pick at the 2009 Draft.

The Senators entered the off-season with four restricted free agents (RFA): Chris Campoli, Nick Foligno, Peter Regin, and Jesse Winchester. The team also had six unrestricted free agents (UFA): Matt Cullen and Andy Sutton acquired via late 2009–10 season trades; Shean Donovan and Anton Volchenkov, as well as Binghamton players Martin St. Pierre and Josh Hennessy.
 * Free Agents

Of the four RFAs, all resigned with the Senators. Winchester and Foligno each signed two-year deals on July 1 and July 21 respectively. Campoli and Regin both filed for arbitration, however, they each resigned before it reached that point. Regin signed a two-year deal on July 29, while Campoli signed a one-year deal on July 30.

Of the six UFAs, none have resigned with the Senators. On July 1, the first day of free agency, Volchenkov signed with the New Jersey Devils while Cullen signed a three-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. On August 2, Sutton signed with the Anaheim Ducks in a two-year deal. While Donovan remains unsigned, it is unlikely he will return to Ottawa due to salary cap limitations. St. Pierre and Hennessy both signed with teams overseas, St. Pierre with HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk and Hennessy with HC Lugano.

In terms of acquisitions, the Senators made a notable move in signing former Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Sergei Gonchar to a three-year deal in the early morning hours of July 1. Other free agency acquisitions include forward Corey Locke, decenceman and enforcer Francis Lessard, forward David Hale, and decenceman André Benoit.

In early June, an Ottawa Sun article reported that star centre Jason Spezza was "unhappy" and that there were "indications [he] may have asked for a trade." Though purely speculation, the article prompted various other Ottawa sports media sources to issue their own perspectives. Theories ranged from conjuring up various trade rumours, noting the similarity to the previous year's Dany Heatley trade demand, or to suggesting that it was just "lazy rumor mongering." Meanwhile, the Sun received criticism for its journalistic integrity to the point where they had to defend accusations that they were "anti-Spezza"  This did not stop speculation though, which was emboldened by silence both from Spezza and GM Bryan Murray.
 * Spezza Trade Speculation

Spezza finally broke the silence during his annual Celebrity Classic golf tournament on July 20:"I just want to clear up a lot of the talk going on, at no point did I ever demand a trade to Bryan Murray. At the end of the year, I was pretty emotional and upset. I was upset at losing, I was upset at the response I got. I talked to Bryan about it, I see it in the newspapers every year, they talk about me, and I said, if you want to move me, you can move me.  I wanna be here, but if he thinks it's best for the team and the city, then he can move me.He told me he wasn't going to move me.  To be honest I was happy about it, cause I like being here in Ottawa.  It seems like every year it's been talk of "should I get traded, should I not get traded?"  My priorities are here in Ottawa, I want to win in Ottawa.  It was just a whole lot of hearsay that was going on.  I had prior conversations with Bryan, I talked to [head coach] Cory [Clouston], we were all clear on what was going on."

- Jason Spezza

Further, he expressed regret that the issue had become public at all. "Me and Bryan have talked since then and probably our conversation should have stayed between us," he said. "We probably wouldn’t even be talking here today. But it happened and it’s a reality." His statement largely settled the rumour, apart from some minor speculation (again by Ottawa Sun columnists) that Spezza had in fact demanded a trade similar to Heatley. However, sources confirmed with Spezza's team members that the situation was "not even close to the Dany situation."

Pre-season
On June 18, the Senators announced that they will play eight games during the pre-season, which includes three home games, four road games, and one neutral site game. The Senators will face the Toronto Maple Leafs three times, and will have home-and-home sets against the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.

The Senators will also play in the Hockeyville 2010 game at Dundas, Ontario against the Buffalo Sabres. The game will be played on September 28, 2010 at the J.L. Grightmire Market Street Arena.

Regular season
The Senators' regular season schedule was announced on June 22, 2010. The Senators open the season at home against the Buffalo Sabres on October 8, 2010. The Senators end the season on the road against the Bruins on April 9, 2011.

Playoffs
The Senators will attempt to return to the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 seasons. The Hockey News predicts in their 2010-11 Yearbook that the Senators will finish 10th in the Conference, missing the playoffs. The Las Vegas Hilton SportsBook has set the odds at 40–1 that the Senators will win the Stanley Cup.

Trades

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Player signings
{|class="wikitable" width=90%
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd"
 * Player || Date || Contract terms
 * Colin Greening || April 28, 2010 || One-year, $735,000 entry-level contract
 * Ryan Keller || May 19, 2010 || One-year, $525,000 two-way contract
 * Mike Brodeur || May 26, 2010 || One-year, $600,000 two-way contract
 * Jesse Winchester || July 1, 2010 || Two-years, $1.5 million
 * Roman Wick || July 13, 2010 || One-year, $625,000 entry-level contract
 * Derek Smith || July 13, 2010 || One year, $550,000
 * Nick Foligno || July 21, 2010 || Two-years, $2.4 million
 * Mike Hoffman || July 22, 2010 || Three-years, $1.83 million entry-level contract
 * Cody Bass || July 22, 2010 || One-year, $500,000 two-way contract
 * Peter Regin || July 29, 2010 || Two-years, $2 million
 * Chris Campoli || July 30, 2010 || One-year, $1.4 million
 * Geoff Kinrade || August 5, 2010 || One-year, $550,000 two-way contract
 * Corey Cowick || August 5, 2010 || Entry-level contract
 * Nick Foligno || July 21, 2010 || Two-years, $2.4 million
 * Mike Hoffman || July 22, 2010 || Three-years, $1.83 million entry-level contract
 * Cody Bass || July 22, 2010 || One-year, $500,000 two-way contract
 * Peter Regin || July 29, 2010 || Two-years, $2 million
 * Chris Campoli || July 30, 2010 || One-year, $1.4 million
 * Geoff Kinrade || August 5, 2010 || One-year, $550,000 two-way contract
 * Corey Cowick || August 5, 2010 || Entry-level contract
 * Chris Campoli || July 30, 2010 || One-year, $1.4 million
 * Geoff Kinrade || August 5, 2010 || One-year, $550,000 two-way contract
 * Corey Cowick || August 5, 2010 || Entry-level contract
 * Geoff Kinrade || August 5, 2010 || One-year, $550,000 two-way contract
 * Corey Cowick || August 5, 2010 || Entry-level contract
 * Corey Cowick || August 5, 2010 || Entry-level contract

Draft picks
The 2010 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles June 25–26, 2010.

Farm teams

 * Binghamton Senators (American Hockey League)
 * Elmira Jackals (East Coast Hockey League)

The Senators signed Kurt Kleinendorst to a two-year deal to be head coach of Binghamton. He was previously the head coach of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program's Under-18 team, which won the Under-18 world championship in 2010.