The Ottawa Senators signed Travis Green to a multi-year contract extension this morning, two days after a flat 3-1 loss in Philadelphia.
The term and dollars weren't part of the announcement. The message was clear enough anyway: Steve Staios wants his coach behind the bench well beyond this October.
Green took over in May 2024. Nine games into this season, Ottawa sits 6-3-0 with 12 points, 10th in the league and fourth in the Atlantic.
Not bad. But nobody's mistaking this for a runaway train.
The Senators have scored 24 goals and allowed 23. A +1 goal differential tells you a team is winning on thin margins, and thin margins vanish fast.
Saturday's loss stung for a specific reason. The Flyers are 1-6-3 with a -20 goal differential, and their only win of the season came against Ottawa.
Teams with real ambitions don't gift that kind of night to the last-place club in the East. That one lands on the coach's desk, extension or not.
Linus Ullmark is the reason this start looks respectable
Here's the uncomfortable part. Linus Ullmark owns a .945 save percentage across seven appearances, and he's been covering a lot of mistakes in front of him.
Samuel Ersson has appeared in four games without a win, carrying an .829 save percentage. The gap between the two goalies is a canyon.
So what happens the night Ullmark comes back to earth?
The blue line doesn't offer much comfort. Jake Sanderson is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and has dressed just once this season.
Without Sanderson, the younger defenders are exposed. Carter Yakemchuk, 21, is a -6 through nine games and hasn't registered a point over his last five.
Up front, Tim Stutzle is doing his part. He has 12 points in nine games, including a shorthanded goal.
Dylan Cozens is the other story. He's been held without a goal through nine games while carrying a $7.1 million cap hit.
Andre Burakovsky hasn't recorded a point in five games at $5.5 million. Those two contracts will shape how Green's new deal ages.
Extending him now is the right call. Waiting until January would have turned every losing streak into a referendum on his job, and that locker room doesn't need the noise.
It's a bit like buying the house before the inspection. Ottawa likes the bones and is betting the cracks are cosmetic.
Some of those cracks are real. William Eklund is on injured reserve with an ankle injury and isn't expected back until at least Jan. 5, which leaves $5.6 million in the press box.
Florida visits Ottawa Wednesday night riding a three-game win streak. The Senators haven't seen the Panthers yet this season.
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New contract, same question. Can Green get this group to beat the teams that matter, and not just survive the ones that don't?
Did the Senators commit to Travis Green too early?
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