{"id":789488,"date":"2026-07-09T01:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T01:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:42:09","slug":"alfredsson-sends-love-to-senators-fans-as-he-takes-assistant-coaching-gig-with-rival-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789488\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfredsson sends love to Senators\u2019 fans as he takes assistant coaching gig with rival Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa Senators assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson takes part in the team’s 2024 training camp in Ottawa.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Daniel Alfredsson understands why Ottawa Senators fans might feel blindsided by his move to a bitter cross-province rival.<\/p>\n

But the Senators legend \u2013 whose No. 11 hangs from the Canadian Tire Centre rafters \u2013 believes joining the Toronto Maple Leafs is a necessary step in his coaching career.<\/p>\n

Alfredsson was hired as an associate coach on Jim Hiller\u2019s staff in a stunning turn Tuesday, leaving Ottawa for Toronto after his contract as a Senators assistant coach expired June 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the Ottawa fans, love you as always,\u201d Alfredsson, captain for 13 seasons in the nation\u2019s capital, said Wednesday on a video call from Sweden. \u201cI understand this is an interesting day, but also an exciting chapter for me as I expand my coaching career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfredsson spent the last three years as an assistant coach in Ottawa but said he had decided he wouldn\u2019t be back on Travis Green\u2019s bench next season.<\/p>\n

The 53-year-old from Gothenburg, Sweden, added that he knew a change was needed to move his career along.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my dreams, would I have loved to stay and then become the head coach of Ottawa? Maybe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut nobody stays as a coach forever in one spot, no matter how popular you are. You\u2019ve got to perform, and for me to get better as a coach, this is the path. I knew at some point I had to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t hand out jobs easily in the NHL. It\u2019s a tough job to get, and when I had this opportunity, I felt it was the right one for my coaching career without a question.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hall of Fame winger was a prominent figure in the \u201cBattle of Ontario\u201d between the Maple Leafs and Senators, which included four playoff showdowns between 2000 and 2004 against former Toronto captain and current hockey operations adviser Mats Sundin. The two Swedes won Olympic gold together in 2006.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ed Belfour shakes hands with Ottawa Senators’ captain Daniel Alfredsson after their Game 7 Eastern Conference quarter-final win over the Senators in Toronto in the 2024 NHL playoffs.Frank Gunn\/CP<\/p>\n

Alfredsson said he first interviewed with Sundin and Toronto general manager John Chayka for the Leafs\u2019 head coaching job. After they gave it to Hiller, the Leafs brass returned with an offer to join his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I felt that this could be a good step and a great challenge for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alfredsson captained Ottawa to a Stanley Cup final berth in 2007 and finished with 1,108 points in 1,178 games for the Senators before spending his 18th and final NHL campaign with the Detroit Red Wings in 2013-14.<\/p>\n

As a coach, Alfredsson oversaw the NHL\u2019s eighth-best power play last season (24 per cent), although Ottawa managed just one goal on 24 opportunities in a first-round sweep by the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll now be tasked with turning around a Leafs unit that finished just 15th in the league despite boasting loads of talent, including fellow Swede William Nylander.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question, he has some unbelievable tools that are hard to teach,\u201d said Alfredsson, who played with Nylander\u2019s dad, Michael, on Sweden\u2019s national team. \u201cI worked with him at 4 Nations for the first time and saw it firsthand as well, so I\u2019m really honoured. He is a player that is very important to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leafs lock up three Calder Cup champions<\/p>\n

Toronto also announced contract extensions Wednesday for forwards Ryan Tverberg and Jacob Quillan, and defenceman William Villeneuve. Quillan appeared in 23 games with the Maple Leafs last season, while all three helped the Toronto Marlies win the 2026 Calder Cup. <\/p>\n

Villeneuve signed a two-year contract, with Tverberg and Quillan agreeing to one-year deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ottawa Senators assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson takes part in the team’s 2024 training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,20739,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-789488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-ottawa","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}