Ottawa Senators owner takes sarcastic shot at Gary Bettman
The Ottawa Senators are turning into a more serious NHL team under the new ownership of Michael Andlauer, who earned new fans for taking a swipe at Gary Bettman.
Earlier this week, the Ottawa Senators announced plans to move their arena from a suburb of the city to the downtown core - a long overdue move that should improve fan attendance for the Senators. When speaking about Gary Bettman contacting him to discuss arena plans, Andlauer made a joke about the commissioner taking away a first round draft pick from him.
Andlauer (in FR) looking back on the last year: «It was a pretty busy year with some speed bumps, when Gary Bettman called me yesterday I said «oh damn I hope I didn't lose another first pick for next year»
Andlauer purchased the Senators in autumn of 2023. Shortly after, the NHL penalized Ottawa for their role in the Evgeni Dadonov trade by forfeiting a first round draft pick. The Senators traded Dadonov to the Golden Knights, but failed to send over his no-trade list. Dadonov was later traded to Anaheim, but it was invalidated, and the NHL found the Senators to be at fault.
Andlauer was vocal in his complaints that he shouldn't be punished for the mistakes of previous leadership regime, and he's still not letting ups his commitment to stick it to Bettman on this issue multiple times certainly earned him some fans. Especially those who think the commissioner finds any way to punish Canadian teams.
The announcement of the new arena in LeBreton Flats is a massive success for the Ottawa Senators, but now the team needs to turn it around on the ice.
Since their miracle run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017, the wheels fell off the team completely and they've crumbled into a perpetual rebuild. They now have some young talent on the roster signed to long term contracts, but now they need to earn their money and make the playoffs. They'll be hard pressed to make up ground in the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division, but if nothing improves soon, major trades will be made.
| POLL | ||
Is Andlauer right to take a shot at Bettman? | ||
| Yes, it wasn't right | 43 | 79.6 % |
| No, they were right to surrender a draft pick | 9 | 16.7 % |
| See Results | 2 | 3.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
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