1995 – 96 Ottawa Senators season The 1995 – 96 Ottawa Senators season was a season with plenty of change for the club . The club changed coaching staffs twice , changed the General Manager and moved into the new Palladium arena in Kanata . The team would again finish last in the league . Offseason . Prior to the season , on August 2 , 1995 , Brian Smith , former NHL hockey player and sportscaster at Ottawa TV station CJOH - TV was killed . He had been the primary reporter on the Senators for the station . The Senators would honor him with a patch on their jerseys , with his nickname ' Smitty ' and number 18 , which they would wear on their jerseys for the whole season . The team would also raise a banner in his memory . Regular season . There were some bright spots during the season , rookie Daniel Alfredsson would lead the team offensively with 61 points ( 26 goals - 35 assists ) , while Alexei Yashin was out of the lineup for 36 games . Alfredsson would go on to win the Calder Trophy , awarded to the NHL ' s rookie of the year . After getting off to a good start with a 6 – 5 – 0 record , the Senators would then lose their next eight games , which ended up costing head coach Rick Bowness his job , as the club replaced him with Dave Allison , who was previously the head coach of the Senators AHL affiliate , the Prince Edward Island Senators . The Dave Allison era did not last long in Ottawa , as the club would only win two of 25 games ( 2 – 22 – 1 ) before he was replaced by Jacques Martin . Under Martin , the Senators would be more competitive , going 10 – 24 – 4 in his 38 games to finish the year with an 18 – 59 – 5 , their fourth straight season at the bottom of the NHL standings . Highlights . After taking over from the fired Randy Sexton as General Manager , on December 6 , 1995 , Pierre Gauthier made three moves to strengthen the club . He hired Jacques Martin as head coach , signed hold - out Alexei Yashin to a contract and engineered a blockbuster trade on January 23 , 1996 , dealing away Don Beaupre , Martin Straka and Bryan Berard , while acquiring Damian Rhodes and Wade Redden . It was a three - way trade between the Senators , the Toronto Maple Leafs , and the New York Islanders and was necessary because Berard , the Senators ' first - round pick , was refusing to report to the Senators . The Senators played their first game in The Palladium on January 17 , 1996 in a game against the Montreal Canadiens , which turned out to be a 3 – 0 Senators loss . The pre - game ceremonies were ruined when the raising of the Senators ' Stanley Cup banners failed , leaving the banners obscuring some fans ' view of the scoreboard . On April 13 , 1996 , the Senators played the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils , who needed a win to clinch the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference . The Senators would play the role of spoiler , defeating New Jersey 5 – 2 , officially eliminating the Devils from post - season play and giving the Tampa Bay Lightning , the team that entered the league the same year as the Sens , their first playoff birth . Transactions . Waivers . Source : Draft picks . Ottawa ' s draft picks at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft in Edmonton , Alberta .