Staios promoted to general manager, president of hockey operations by Senators

OTTAWA -- Steve Staios was named general manager and president of hockey operations by the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, and Dave Poulin was hired as senior vice president of hockey operations.

Staios, who was hired by the Senators as president of hockey operations on Sept. 29, had been the interim GM since Pierre Dorion was fired on Nov. 1. No other outside candidates were interviewed for the role.

“Michael (Andlauer) was desirous of me being the general manager,” Staios said.

Andlauer, whose purchase of the Senators was approved by the Board of Governors on Sept. 21, believes Staios and Poulin are a “two-headed monster” that will establish a new foundation in Ottawa.

“Stability is not a word that has been synonymous with this organization,” Andlauer said. “So, my New Year’s resolution, as we enter 2024, would be to make stability part of our fans’ vocabulary for years to come.”

The changes on Sunday were just the latest in a rapid succession made by Ottawa in recent weeks.

The Senators hired Jacques Martin as senior adviser to the coaching staff on Dec. 6 before naming him interim coach just 12 days later, when they fired D.J. Smith. Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa's all-time leader in points, was named an assistant to Martin that day, replacing Davis Payne.

Staios said the coaching staff will be reevaluated after the season.

Poulin, who previously served as the vice president of hockey operations with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2009-14, will help fill a void in the hockey operations department, which Staios noted in early December was “a little light compared to most NHL front offices.”

Ryan Bowness, who was hired as an assistant general manager on June 30, 2022, was named associate GM on Sunday as well.

“Ultimately, I’ll make the final decision, but it’s a collaborative approach,” Staios said. “I think far too often in the past here, if I can say it, it hasn’t been that. Having a process and a collaborative approach to all of our decision-making and creating an environment is hugely important.

“With [Poulin], he’ll be able to take a longer look at the long-term vision of the group and look at processes that we can put in place, look at areas of need that we’ve spoken about already on how we can build this up. There’s areas of this organization where we still need to build a foundation.”

Poulin will rely on his diverse experience to help build that foundation.

As an NHL forward, Poulin had 530 points (205 goals, 325 assists) in 724 games over 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. He won the Selke Trophy as the League's top defensive forward in 1987.

Poulin also spent the better part of the last decade as an analyst for TSN.

“I’ve had a different seat for the last 10 years,” Poulin said. "I’ve got to watch hockey in a very objective view. I wasn’t tied to a team, I wasn’t tied to a group, I wasn’t tied to wins and losses. I simply watched and commented and thought about the game and saw the way different teams were built and saw what was successful and what wasn’t successful. It added a piece I feel that really helped all the pieces I had, the playing pieces, the coaching piece, the managing piece, the fan piece that I’ll never lose. And when this opportunity came, I felt it’s a chance to be part of something special here in Ottawa.”

That chance began when he first met Staios more than a decade ago.

“Steve, when he retired (from the NHL in 2012), joined the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Poulin said. “Brian Burke brought him into my office one day and he said, ‘Here you go.’ And then he walked out. And then I looked at Steve and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know, what are we going to do?’ And that started a relationship in 2012 that has continued to this day.”

Now that relationship will be tasked with helping the Senators return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017, when they lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Final.

“When you think about our team today, our assistant coach and Hall of Famer Daniel Alfredsson, to coach Jacques Martin, our winningest coach in [Senators] history, to Ryan Bowness, our associate general manager who won two Cups with Pittsburgh before joining us, and now Dave and Steve Staios, we’ve created a hockey [operations] environment with a common culture of care, passion, hard work, experience, collaboration and incredible competitive fire, too," Andlauer said.