List of Ottawa Senators head coaches The Ottawa Senators , a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa , Canada . The team is a member of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . The Senators , named after the original Ottawa Senators , began play in the NHL as an expansion team in 1992 . Having first played at the Ottawa Civic Centre , the Senators have played their home games at the Scotiabank Place , which was first named The Palladium , since 1996 . The team has been to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2006 – 07 season , but lost to the Anaheim Ducks in five games . The Senators are owned by Eugene Melnyk , former head coach of the Senators ; Bryan Murray , is their general manager , and Daniel Alfredsson is the team captain . The current head coach is Cory Clouston . Summary . The modern Senators ' first head coach was Rick Bowness a former NHL head coach , who coached for four seasons until November 1996 , when he was fired by then - GM Randy Sexton , let go in a dispute over the playing time of Alexandre Daigle , who was not playing well . Bowness ' successor , Dave Allison , the then - coach of the Senators ' farm team the Prince Edward Island Senators of the American Hockey League ( AHL ) had no success with Ottawa . The club won only two of 25 games during his tenure . The club , in turmoil at the time , replaced GM Sexton with Pierre Gauthier , who fired Allison . Allison is the only person to have each spent his entire NHL head coaching career with the Senators . One of Gauthier ' s first moves as GM was the hiring of Jacques Martin . Martin , who coached the Senators for nine seasons , is the franchise ' s all - time leader for the most regular - season games coached ( 692 ) , the most regular - season game wins ( 341 ) , the most playoff games coached ( 69 ) , and the most playoff - game wins ( 31 ) . Martin is also the only Senators coach to have won the Jack Adams Award , having won it in the 1998 – 99 season . Although the club had regular - season success with Martin , he never led the team to much playoff success , and he was fired after the team lost in the first round of the 2004 playoffs . During Martin ' s tenure , the club hired Roger Neilson , a long - time NHL head coach , as an assistant coach . For the last two games of the 2001 – 02 season Neilson was officially made the head coach so that he could become the ninth head coach in NHL history to coach 1 , 000 games . Martin returned to head coach the team for the playoffs . Neilson would be the assistant coach for Ottawa for one more season , before succumbing to cancer in 2003 . The club won the President ' s Trophy in 2003 for the best regular - season record in the league and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils . Neilson is the only Senators head coach to have been elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame , elected as a builder . Martin ' s successor was Bryan Murray . Murray , at the time of his hiring in 2004 , was the general manager of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim . He joined the Senators to return home , having been born in nearby Shawville , Quebec . The first season of Murray ' s term was lost to the lockout , but when the team returned to play it continued its winning ways . Murray coached the team for two seasons , and the club made it to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals , the modern Senators ' first appearance in the Finals . After the Finals , Murray ' s contract to coach was due to expire . GM Muckler ' s contract had one more season to run and Muckler was expected to retire after that one further season . Rather than let Murray go , team owner Eugene Melnyk and team president Roy Mlakar decided to promote Murray to GM , replacing Muckler . Murray promoted assistant John Paddock to head coach for the 2007 – 08 season . The club started well , but the team declined to the point where Murray fired Paddock after 64 games . Paddock ' s overall record of 36 – 22 - 6 was good , but the club was playing below . 500 since a 15 – 2 start to the season , and there were controversies surrounding goaltender Ray Emery and Wade Redden . Murray returned to the bench to guide the Senators for the rest of the season and the playoffs , where the team lost in the first round . For the 2008 – 09 season , the Senators made several personnel moves and chose Craig Hartsburg , a former NHL head coach , as head coach to promote ' accountability ' on the part of the players . However , the team continued its sub . 500 record and Hartsburg was let go after only 48 games with a record of 17 – 24 – 7 . Cory Clouston was named the head coach on February 2 , 2009 . Head coaches . " Note : Statistics are correct through the 2008 – 09 season . "