BELLEVILLE, ONT — In early October, Michael Andlauer travelled to Belleville to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at the recently-renamed CIBC Place, home of the Belleville Senators.
It had been just over three years since Andlauer took control of the Ottawa Senators as majority owner. Before taking over the Senators, he owned the Hamilton Bulldogs, first in the AHL and later in the OHL, after relocating the latter franchise from Belleville. That OHL team moved to Brantford temporarily before being sold by Andlauer in 2025 and kept there permanently.
The musical chairs of hockey franchises along Highway 401 continued this year, with the New York Islanders moving their AHL affiliate to Hamilton and dubbing them the Hammers. Coincidentally, the Hammers were in town that day to face their new provincial rivals in the Belleville Senators' home opener.
As Andlauer stood in the lobby at CIBC Place for a post-ceremony interview, he spotted two familiar faces in Hammers jerseys. He recognized them from his time with the Bulldogs and greeted them.
“Different colours, huh?” Andlauer joked.
“Got to stick with my hometown team!” replied one fan.
“It’s all good. Good to see you again,” said Andlauer.
All joking aside, Andlauer is quite happy in Eastern Ontario these days, be it in Belleville or Ottawa.
“I use the word super excited, because we've laid a foundation that’s of stability, of care, of hard work, and I think we’re starting to see the fruits of our labour,” said Andlauer, speaking about his outlook on the season.
“I look at this this year's lineup, not only in Ottawa, but even in Belleville, and I see it's much stronger than I've had in the three years that I've been here. So I applaud our hockey ops team, led by Steve Staios, who, in a very competitive league, have [laid] the foundation to be successful, not only this year but years from now.”
On Monday, the Senators solidified that foundation, signing head coach Travis Green to a contract extension that will keep him in Ottawa for at least four more seasons. Staios also rewarded Green’s staff of Mike Yeo, Nolan Baumgartner, Ben Sexton, and Justin Peters with multi-year extensions.
“It’s stability, right? I think at the end of the day, you look at it even from a fan perspective, case in point, re-signing Drake Batherson, having Claude Giroux decide to come back to Ottawa and play here, they all have choices, and they decide that, you know, this is a stable environment. This is an environment that they want to play in,” said Andlauer.
“In years two and three, we made the playoffs after eight years of [drought]. So that was important for our fans to give hope. But it's not a one-and-done. To me, it's about creating a solid base that we can continue to build and continue to grow from.”
Green’s extension was the latest in a series of announcements made in the Canadian Tire Centre’s media room over the past month.
First, Thomas Chabot stood alongside Staios and Green at the podium after his wife and newborn daughter surprised him with the news that he would become the team's next captain.
Just days later, Staios introduced locker room attendant Bradley Mitchell as the team’s new emergency backup goalie (EBUG) in a mock press conference attended by the team.
Those were happy moments, displaying the ‘care factor’ that has been stressed over the past three seasons time and time again by Andlauer.
“This is a team game. It's not an individual game. Everybody has to be, you know, either pulling or pushing in the right direction. And at the end of the day, I think one of the things that that's not measurable all the time is character,” said Andlauer.
“And back to the values that I try to preach, in terms of working harder and caring more, it's evident that we're seeing that. And it's to have increased communication, increased care, people feeling they’re valued and know what their accountability is. All going in the same direction, I think, is what excites me for this year, and what's important for success.”
