Devils interim head coach Travis Green interviews for Ottawa Senators opening
New Jersey Devils interim head coach Travis Green has interviewed with the Ottawa Senators for their vacant head coach position, Daily Faceoff hockey insider Frank Seravalli reported Tuesday evening.
Green, 53, took over from Lindy Ruff as Devils head coach on March 4, leading the team to an 8-12-1 record in 21 games while serving on an interim basis. He remains one of the candidates to succeed Ruff in New Jersey on a permanent basis.
“Coaching update: Add Travis Green to the list of candidates to have interviewed with the [Senators],” Seravalli tweeted on Tuesday. “It’s a loooong list. Green is still a strong candidate with [the Devils], but as they are interviewing other candidates, it was only fair to allow him to interview elsewhere as well.”
The Senators have been looking for a full-time head coach since relieving D.J. Smith of his duties back on December 18, 2023. Jacques Martin, who had been serving as senior advisor to Ottawa’s coaching staff, took over from Smith for the rest of the season, but the plan was always for the 71-year-old to return to his previous capacity with the team as a consultant.
Coaching update: Add Travis Green to the list of candidates to have interviewed with #GoSensGo. It’s a loooong list.
Green is still a strong candidate with #njdevils, but as they are interviewing other candidates, it was only fair to allow him to interview elsewhere as well.
The Senators haven’t qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2017 and are about to enter their first offseason under the ownership of Michael Andlauer, who officially purchased the team from the estate of Eugene Melnyk last September.
Not long after Andlauer took over the team, the Senators replaced long-standing general manager Pierre Dorion with former NHL defenseman Steve Staios, whose connection with Andlauer dates back two decades. The two became particularly close while Staios managed the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, which Andlauer owns.
Staios and Green faced off against each other numerous times in the NHL during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since retiring as a player in 2008, Green has served as the head coach of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, the AHL’s Utica Comets, and, later, the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.
Green spent parts of five seasons behind the bench in Vancouver, leading the team to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2020, before being fired in 2021 and replaced by Bruce Boudreau. He joined the Devils as an associate coach ahead of the 2023–24 season.
Through 335 career games over parts of six seasons as an NHL head coach, Green has led his teams to a 141-159-35 record. The Canucks advanced to the second round of the playoffs with Green at the helm in 2020.