Belleville Senators

The Belleville Senators are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that began play in the 2017–18 season as the top minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Ottawa Senators. Based in Belleville, Ontario, the Senators play their home games at CAA Arena. The franchise was previously based out of Binghamton, New York, as the Binghamton Senators.
==History==
In July 2016, Broome County officials stated that the Ottawa Senators intended to relocate their franchise, then known as the Binghamton Senators, closer to the parent club for the 2017–18 season despite still having three more years on their lease. On September 26, 2016, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk confirmed that he had purchased the Binghamton team and would be relocating it to become the Belleville Senators for the 2017–18 season with the Binghamton Devils eventually announced to be taking over their lease. In order to accommodate an AHL team, the City of Belleville approved more than $20 million in upgrades to Yardmen Arena once the Senators agreed to an eight-year lease.
The Senators kept Kurt Kleinendorst as head coach for the franchise's inaugural season in Belleville, but after a 29–42–2–3 record and missing the playoffs, his contract was not renewed. He was replaced by Troy Mann, the recently released coach of the Hershey Bears. The team improved in the 2018–19 season, finishing in fifth place in the North Division behind the play of younger players Drake Batherson, Logan Brown, Rudolfs Balcers, and Erik Brannstrom.
Led by Josh Norris, Alex Formenton, and Drake Batherson, the B-Sens were leading the North Division when the 2019–20 season was cancelled on May 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team had amassed a 38–20–4–1 record and were the best road team in the league having won 23 games and a .790 road win percentage. The B-Sens' 234 goals were the most in the AHL.
The start for the following 2020–21 season was delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. In December 2020, the Senators agreed to a seven-year lease extension with the city of Belleville through the 2026–27 AHL season. In January 2021, the league announced a temporary realignment due to the pandemic border restrictions and the B-Sens were placed in an all-Canada division, but had no set start date due to venue usage and restrictions in the province of Ontario. The league eventually announced a start for the teams in Canada for one week after the rest of the league, but without any games initially scheduled in Ontario. The Belleville Senators started on the road before announcing their home games would be played in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre for the entire season.
During the 2022–23 season, Belleville fired Troy Mann as coach on February 2, 2023, while sitting sixth in the AHL's North Division. Assistant coach David Bell was named new head coach.
== Broadcasting ==
The official broadcasting partner of the Belleville Senators is radio station 800 CJBQ. Commentators David Foot and Jack Miller cover all games. David Foot also has a weekly podcast featuring news on the Belleville Senators and the AHL.
==Season-by-season results==
Calder Cup champions	Conference champions	Division champions	League leader
Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Playoffs	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs
Season 	Games 	Won 	Lost 	OTL 	SOL 	Points 	PCT 	Goalsfor 	Goalsagainst 	Standing 	Year 	Prelims 	1stround 	2ndround 	3rdround 	Finals
2017–18 	76 	29 	42 	2 	3 	63 	.414 	194 	266 	6th, North 	2018 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
2018–19 	76 	37 	31 	3 	5 	82 	.539 	228 	228 	5th, North 	2019 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
2019–20 	63 	38 	20 	4 	1 	81 	.643 	234 	197 	1st, North 	2020 	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 	35 	18 	16 	1 	0 	37 	.529 	102 	111 	3rd, Canadian 	2021 	No playoffs were held 	No playoffs were held 	No playoffs were held 	No playoffs were held 	No playoffs were held
2021–22 	72 	40 	28 	4 	0 	84 	.583 	219 	218 	4th, North 	2022 	L, 0–2, ROC 	— 	— 	— 	—
2022–23 	72 	31 	31 	6 	4 	72 	.500 	233 	258 	7th, North 	2023 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
2023–24 	72 	38 	28 	3 	3 	82 	.569 	209 	211 	4th, North 	2024 	W, 2–1, TOR 	L, 1–3, CLE 	— 	— 	—
Totals 	466 	231 	196 	23 	16 	501 	.538 	1,419 	1,489 	 	 	2 playoff appearances 	2 playoff appearances 	2 playoff appearances 	2 playoff appearances 	2 playoff appearances
==Players==
===Current roster===
Updated May 13, 2024.
 
===Team captains===
*Mike Blunden, 2017–18
*Erik Burgdoerfer, 2018–19
*Jordan Szwarz, 2019–20
*Logan Shaw, 2021–22
*Dillon Heatherington, 2022–present 
===Team scoring leaders===
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game average;
 Points 
Player 	Pos	GP 	G 	A 	Pts	P/G
Egor Sokolov 	LW 	240	76	104	180	0.75
Drake Batherson 	RW 	103	38	78 	116	1.13
Angus Crookshank	LW 	140	55	54 	109	0.78
Jake Lucchini 	LW 	133	39	65 	104	0.78
Cole Reinhardt 	LW 	225	40	59 	99 	0.44
Lassi Thomson 	D 	202	24	69 	93 	0.46
Maxence Guenette	D 	170	18	75 	93 	0.55
Filip Chlapik 	C 	146	37	51 	88 	0.60
Roby Jarventie 	LW 	136	38	48 	86 	0.63
Jordan Murray 	D 	169	23	60 	83 	0.49
===Notable alumni===
The following players have played both 100 games for the Belleville Senators and 100 games in the National Hockey League:
*Drake Batherson
*Andreas Englund
*Parker Kelly
*Nick Paul
==References==
==External links==
* 
 
Category:American Hockey League teams
Category:Ottawa Senators minor league affiliates
Category:Ice hockey teams in Ontario
Category:Ice hockey clubs established in 2016