Andrew Campbell ready for first full season leading Belleville Senators

Before Friday, Oct. 2, Andrew Campbell had never served as a head coach for a home opener before — at any level — but that changed as the Belleville Senators welcomed the Hamilton Hammers to town to kick off their AHL campaign.

While Campell and the Senators were unable to pull off the win against the Hammers, they did bounce back that Sunday afternoon, outlasting the Rochester Americans 3-2 in a shootout, earning Campbell his first victory as a head coach without the interim tag.

The 38-year-old was named the fourth head coach in Belleville history in June, after serving as interim head coach following the departure of David Bell last December. That was the first time he’d ever served as head coach, at any level.

“As a coach, you're always learning and you're always trying to evolve and better yourself. I've never been a head coach before, so going through it the first time, you learn [what] worked, what didn't work, messaging that you need to be firmer with or clearer with, and whatnot,” said Campbell. 

“So yeah, constantly trying to get better. I'm always learning. I'm surrounded by a great staff that I lean on heavily. You know, [assistant Stefan Legein]'s been awesome. [Assistant Joe Cirella’s] been awesome. [Goaltending coach Paul Gibson], and [video coach] Tom Black, and everybody. It's a collective group. It's not just about me. We're one staff and we're very unified. We work on everything together every day, and it's been a lot of fun.”

A veteran of 761 pro games in the NHL and AHL, the former defenceman stepped to the other side of the bench as soon as his playing career was finished. 

He joined the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs as an assistant coach during the 2019–20 season, working under head coach Vince Laise. Though Laise was fired in March 2020, Campbell was retained by Bulldogs president and general manager Steve Staios. 

Campbell, Staios, and Senators owner Michael Andlauer helped guide the Bulldogs to the OHL’s Robertson Cup in 2022. That gave Staios the confidence to hire Campbell as an assistant coach in Belleville ahead of the 2024–25 season.

Campbell was happy to join another organization led by the pair when he got the call. In May 2025, former Bulldogs general manager Matt Turek was appointed to the role of Belleville general manager, giving the two teams plenty of familiarity between their management groups.

“It always just felt like a big group of togetherness, everyone pulling the same rope in the same directions, for the same reasons, for the same cause, right from Michael down,” Campbell told the Locked On Senators podcast this summer about his experience with the Bulldogs.

“It’d be a Wednesday night in January, and we’d be playing in Peterborough, and Michael’s there watching, just showing how much he cared about the Bulldogs and the team, and that just permeates down through the whole group. We were fortunate to have a lot of success there, and it obviously starts at the top and filters its way down. Everyone was always on the same page and doing all the right things for the right reasons, for the team first.”

When he joined the Bulldogs, Campbell had no idea where his post-playing journey would take him. But he had even less of an idea, at least when he started, that he was landing with a management and ownership group that would have such a positive effect on that journey.

“At that time, they didn't own the NHL team at all, and it was just the Bulldogs. That's where my feet were, and that's where I was focused on, and everything's obviously organically grown from that point forward,” said Campbell.

“But you know, I'm just thankful for that first opportunity they gave me, and I continue to try to serve them on a daily basis.”

One player very familiar with Campbell’s leadership is Senators centreman Stephen Halliday. The 24-year-old’s first full pro season came with Campbell in his first season as an assistant coach on the bench of David Bell.

“First and foremost, a guy that knows so much about the game. The thing I loved about ‘Soupy’ the most is how much he can relate for you. He played in the league for so long. He’s a pro. Even as an assistant coach, he helped me a lot, in terms of my habits off of the ice,” said Halliday.

“And he’s just a great guy. You can always talk to him. He always has stuff for you. Like especially for me, trying to work on the D side of the puck… tips and stuff that I still take with me to this day. I was fired up when ‘Soupy’ got that [three-year extension], because he’s an unreal guy, and I think Belleville is going to be really good this year.”

This offseason, Staios signed a handful of players expected to be impact AHLers when free agency opened, helping provide Campbell with a more than respectable class of incoming talent this year, especially when coupled with prospect graduations and players picked up via trade in the offseason, like Kasper Halttunen.

Among that free agent class are players like Sammy Blais, Ryan Suzuki, Eskild Bakke Olsen, Phil Tomasino, and Christian Kyrou. Campbell got a good look at the new additions during the Prospect Challenge in mid-September and then training camp in Ottawa.

“We’re excited about them, I mean, [Halttunen] can obviously shoot the puck. Suzuki, Tomasino, and Blais have come in here, especially this week, getting back to Belleville, they’ve been leaders for us out there in practice, on the ice, in the room,” said Campbell.

“And the returning guys that we have, they've been good too, so we're excited about our group. We’ve got a lot more skill than years past in there, but we have to continue with the work ethic, continue with the compete, because the skill means nothing if both those things don’t happen.”

Everyone around the organization was impacted by the slew of injuries to Ottawa’s blueline last spring which saw defender-after-defender plucked from Belleville’s blueline to support the parent club’s playoff push. That was one reason for the additional depth added during the offseason. 

It’s already been tested this year, with Jake Sanderson, Artem Zub, and Cam Crotty missing time due to injury.

Campbell can draw positives from the experiences that players like Crotty, Carter Yakemchuk, and Jorian Donovan had last season, when they were called up to Ottawa.

“It's great for those guys. I mean, our job here is to provide Ottawa players, and get those guys ready to play in the NHL. So, if injuries do happen, like they did in Ottawa at the end of last year… [I’ve] never seen it happen before, where basically all six of the NHL team’s defencemen are hurt at one time, and everyone's up there playing, but it's great for their confidence,” said Campbell. 

“It's great for them to see what it takes to play in the NHL… they went up there not just in garbage time, they were in a playoff hunt. Every point mattered, every shift mattered, every play mattered. So it only betters those guys, and it's only going to dial them in and help them moving forward.”

With a fresh slate in front of him — and a three-year contract signed which will keep him in Belleville through the 2028–29 season — Campbell is looking forward to getting his group back into the playoffs for the first time since 2024.

“Those trials and tribulations, they only make you stronger, right? You see what works, what doesn't work, what has brought some success, what hasn't worked, and has led to missing the playoffs,” said Campbell. 

“And health's a big part of it. You know, you cross your fingers that they stay healthy in Ottawa. You cross your fingers that our lineup stays healthy here, so you can kind of roll with what you got. 

“There's always going to be volatility. Guys are always going to be here, there, and everywhere. But you know, the depth always comes into play, and the organization's done a good job of providing some depth here, especially at the start of the year. So yeah, we're excited to get going.”

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