Travis Green was hired as coach of the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
The 53-year-old replaces Jacques Martin and will coach his third NHL team. He went 8-12-1 for the New Jersey Devils after taking over for Lindy Ruff, who was fired March 4.
Green was Devils associate coach at the time. He previously coached the Vancouver Canucks from 2017-21 (133-147-34) and guided them to the 2020 Western Conference Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but was fired Dec. 6, 2021, after 25 games (8-15-2).
"I was going through the process with New Jersey, and I should thank (Devils general manager) Tom Fitzgerald for allowing me to go outside the organization to interview with other teams," Green said Wednesday. "I received a call from Tom that (Senators GM) Steve (Staios) wanted to interview me, and really it just took off from there.
"I've watched this team from afar for a while now. I see a very young, talented team, but also has a lot of room to grow. There's a lot of room for growth here. And I think I check that box as far as teaching, developing and working with young players. So, for me, that was exciting, looking at where this team was at. Another box that coaches will talk about is ownership. Where is the ownership at within the organization? And I talked about Michael [Andlauer] earlier and man, when I talked to him I was excited. And then you look at management. Like, where's the management at in relationship with the coach, to ownership? Is there a collaboration there? Again, I was blown away throughout this process.”
"I think when you look at coaching records, as we went through this, you've got to look at what the team was, what the team was at the time, all the circumstances behind it, the age of the group, the talent of the group,” Staios said. “I know coaches get judged on their coaching records, but there's also a lot more to it. And I think as we watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now, you could look at a few or a handful of coaches that are contending for Stanley Cups now that were in the same position as Travis is right now after their first coaching stint. So, it's a lot deeper than just looking at win-loss records."
Ottawa (37-41-4) was 26-26-4 under Martin after he replaced D.J. Smith on Dec. 18, 2023, and hasn't qualified for the playoffs since 2017.
"Players want to know where they stand, they want to know what's expected of them, and that starts really by communicating, having open, honest discussions with players, building relationships,” Green said. “If you want to have accountability, you've got to be able to express to your players what's expected. And that process takes a little time, but any winning team has accountability within their group and that doesn't happen overnight. I'm a firm coach, a detailed coach, I can be demanding, but I'm also very approachable and the players will always know that I care and want the best out of them."
Staios said after the season that Martin will continue in a consultant role and credited him for helping to instill stability and confidence within the group.
"It was on the work on the backs of Jacques Martin and the coaching staff," Staios said. "You talk about stability, but also professionalism, detail and the approach to the game. As far as looking for that stability and that next layer for us to continue to build this program on, I do feel good about that."
Martin was hired as senior adviser to the coaching staff Dec. 6. He previously coached the Senators from 1996 to 2004, going 341-235-20 with 96 ties in those nine seasons. He is Ottawa's leader in games coached (748), regular-season wins (367), playoff wins (31) and playoff games coached (69).
Four teams are without a coach: the Devils, San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets. Jim Hiller (Los Angeles Kings) is an interim coach.
NHL.com independent correspondent Callum Fraser contributed to this report
