A look back at big dates in Ottawa Senators history

After a lot of speculation, the Ottawa Senators are offically for sale. 

How much a buyer will pay is still up in the air, but one thing that is known is a condition of the sale will require the team to stay in the nation's capital.

With the future holding some uncertainty about who will be at the helm, CBC Ottawa put together a timeline of some of the important dates in the franchise's history.

• December 1990: Bruce Firestone beats the odds and secures an NHL franchise for the city. But Firestone's passion was deeper than his pockets, and he struggles to borrow the $50 million needed for the expansion fee.
• June 1992: Firestone's company breaks ground on a new arena without the financing to build it and no lenders in sight.
• Aug. 17, 1993: Firestone steps aside. A mortgage payment on the property is missed and the development fees owed the city are overdue, while construction of the arena has not yet started. Ownership of the team and the future arena goes into the hands of financial fixer Rod Bryden, a former high-tech tycoon who built, and then lost, his own corporate empire some years before.
• February 1994: Bryden's frustration mounts in his quest to find lenders to build the arena.
• July 1994: Construction finally begins on the Palladium, as the arena was called then, with a $188 million price tag. Bryden's deal to build the facility involves almost entirely borrowed money.
• September 1999: Bryden makes a plea to governments for financial help, demanding an annual tax break of between $10 million and $12 million.
• December 1999: Bryden puts the team up for sale. 
• February 2000: Bryden changes his mind and decides not to sell the club.

Bruce Firestone steps aside as owner of the Sens in August 1993

2 years ago

Duration 2:03

On Aug. 17, 1993, Ottawa Senators founder announced he was passing the franchise to Rod Bryden, after a mortgage payment on the property was missed.

• August 2002: Bryden announces a plan to re-finance the hockey team, his second attempt. The debt for the team and the Corel Centre sits at about $375 million. 
• November 2002: Court documents reveal the Senators have borrowed $14 million from the NHL to pay bills.
• Dec. 31, 2002: The re-financing deal collapses. The club has no operating money.
• Jan. 1, 2003: Players are told there's not enough cash to pay their salaries.
• Jan. 9, 2003: The Ottawa Senators Hockey Club Corporation receives bankruptcy protection, which outlines a process to sell the team. 
• Jan. 14, 2003: Bryden and an unidentified co-investor (rumoured to be American billionaire Nelson Peltz, owner of the Arby's food chain) submit a bid for the team and the Corel Centre. 
• Jan. 31, 2003: Toronto billionaire Eugene Melnyk expresses his interest, should the team go on the open market.
• Feb. 11, 2003: Bryden announces that his deal has been accepted by the team's senior creditors, but it's conditional on the approval of the Corel Centre purchase. The bankruptcy court must also give its blessing.

Eugene Melnyk is announced as probable next owner of the Sens in April 2003

2 years ago

Duration 1:16

On April 27 2003, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that he and billionaire Eugene Melnyk had reached an “understanding” for Melnyk to buy the Ottawa Senators.

• Feb. 27, 2003: Bryden's deal falls apart after his U.S. partner backs out.
• April 2, 2003: Drug industry billionaire Eugene Melnyk submits a bid to buy the financially-troubled team.
• April 27, 2003 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the league has reached an agreement with Melnyk.
• May 9, 2003 Ontario Justice James Chadwick approves a plan put forward by bankruptcy lawyers that conditionally sells the Senators to Melnyk, although it hinges on him securing the purchase of the Corel Centre.
• March 18, 2004: Ottawa council votes to ban Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys from the Corel Centre.
• May 19, 2007: The Ottawa Senators make the Stanley Cup Final on an overtime winner from Daniel Alfredsson. The Sens would go on to lose the finals to the Anaheim Ducks in five games.

• Sept. 16, 2008: Melnyk announces he wants to add a Major League Soccer franchise to his portfolio.
• Aug. 20, 2009: Melnyk and Jim Balsillie, who at the time was trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, have a war of words through the media.
• Jan. 13, 2013: Melnyk urges fans to return to Senators games after the NHL lockout.
• June 18, 2013: Canadian Tire replaces Scotiabank as the arena sponsor and the facility is renamed.
• Nov. 13, 2014: Senators general manager Bryan Murray, who also coached the team that went to the final in 2007, reveals he has colon cancer.
• March 5, 2015: Daniel Alfredsson is given the key to the city.

• May 18, 2015: Melnyk makes a public plea for a live liver donor. Without one he says his condition will become "life-threatening."
• May 21, 2015: The person who donated their liver to Melnyk just wants the team to bring the Stanley Cup home.
• April 28, 2016: The Senators inch towards relocating to the downtown after a bid backed by the team was named as the top choice to redevelop LeBreton Flats — a desolate expanse in the heart of the capital left largely empty for decades.
• April 29, 2016: The National Capital Commission reveals the Senators-backed RendezVous Group earned the higher of two marks in the bids to redevelop LeBreton Flats.
• Aug. 12, 2017: Bryan Murray dies of colon cancer.
• March 19, 2018: With fans angry at the team's penny-pinching, #MelnykOut billboards go up around Ottawa, paid for by fans who want the owner to relinquish control of the team.
• August 2018: Rendezvous LeBreton prepares to submit official applications to redevelop the land.
• Sept. 13, 2018: Team captain and perennial all-star Erik Karlsson is traded to the San Jose Sharks.

• Nov. 5, 2018: Several Ottawa Senators players are caught trash-talking the team on video recording from an Uber ride.
• November 22, 2018: The plan for the massive redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, including a new NHL arena, is in danger of failing over a disagreement between the key members of the group awarded the major project. 
• November 23, 2018: Melnyk alleges in a lawsuit that Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson's office responded with "threats and intimidation" to news that the LeBreton Flats redevelopment project was in peril.
• March 22, 2019: Melnyk makes comments about trading players, drawing the ire of fans.
• Jan. 12, 2021: Melnyk pushes for fans to be allowed back into the Canadian Tire Centre amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

• December 1, 2021: The National Capital Commission renews its call for submissions for the stalled development of LeBreton Flats.
• March 28, 2022: Melnyk dies at the age of 62, leaving the team to his two daughters.
• June 23, 2022: The NCC inks a new agreement with the Ottawa Senators to bring an arena to LeBreton Flats.
• Nov. 4, 2022: After several days of speculation, the team is officially put up for sale.