Dave Poulin hopes to build more fond memories with Ottawa Senators

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Dave Poulin may call Timmins “home,” but he also clings to a lot of fond childhood memories staying at his grandmother’s house in Ottawa.

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He’s excited to be back in the nation’s capital. The Ottawa Senators announced Sunday that Poulin, a former Philadelphia Flyers captain, Toronto Maple Leafs executive and TSN analyst, has been hired as the team’s senior vice-president, hockey operations.

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“I do have a strong tie to the Ottawa area,” Poulin said. “My parents are from here, I spent time here as a youth in the west end, I still have family here and I’ve remained close to people in Ottawa. So, it feels good.”

For Poulin, who’s 65, there was an itch to get back into the nuts and bolts of the hockey world. But he was also quite familiar with Senators owner Michael Andlauer — whose agreement to buy the Senators closed 3 1/2 months ago — and general manager Steve Staios.

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Poulin wanted to be part of the “collaborative approach” to building a competitive hockey team.

“This is a unique opportunity for me,” said Poulin, who was vice-president, hockey operations with the Leafs from 2009-14 (and GM of the Toronto Marlies, their AHL farm team). “I’ve had a different seat for the last 10 years. I got to watch hockey in a very objective view. I wasn’t tied to a team, I wasn’t tied to wins and losses. I simply watched, commented, thought about the game and saw the way different teams were built.

“I saw what was successful and what wasn’t successful. And it added a piece that really helped all the other pieces I (already) had — the playing piece, the coaching piece, the managing piece and the fan piece.

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“When this opportunity came, I felt it was a chance to be part of something really special. This is a talented young group. There have been many challenges for them this year. But I believe the future is incredibly bright from both an individual standpoint and a team-structure standpoint. The two gentlemen I’m sitting with (Andlauer and Staios) have done it right at different levels in the hockey world, they’ve won and I believe we’ll win (here).”

Poulin, who moved from Timmins to Toronto when he was nine, skated in 724 career NHL games with 530 points (205 goals, 325 assists) over 12 seasons with Philadelphia, the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. A three-time 70-point producer with the Flyers, he was awarded the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL forward who best demonstrates defensive skill (1986-87) and was the recipient of the King Clancy Trophy (1992-93) as the NHL player who best exemplified leadership qualities on and off the ice, with a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.

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When he retired from the NHL, he returned to Notre Dame, where he had played, to be the Division 1 college hockey team’s head coach for 10 years.

 Most recently, he worked at TSN, covering the NHL as a hockey analyst on both television and radio.

“This (opportunity) is about people,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed my conversations with Steve over the years. I really like the discussions we have. We see alike on a lot of things. We’ve already challenged each other on a lot of things. It was like, ‘Why do you think that?’ Or, ‘How do you think that, what about this?’ Those are really healthy conversations to have in a management group.

“I’ve had this eclectic career. It hasn’t been a straight line at all. I’ve done some things away from the game that have added to my skillset for the game. But this is about joining people. This is about Michael and Steve and people that are put in place.”

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Poulin sat on the executive committee of the AHL with Andlauer, so he was familiar with the Senators owner. He worked with Staios in Toronto.

“When Steve retired, he joined the Leafs,” Poulin said. “(GM) Brian Burke brought him into my office one day and said, ‘There you go.’ Then he walked out. I looked at Steve and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know, what are we going to do?’ And that started a relationship in 2012. That has continued to this day with a lot of long conversations in our various posts through the hockey world.”

For Poulin, it’s a new challenge, one he looks forward to — rolling up his sleeves and helping fix the fixables, as part of a group. The Senators, who began a five-game road swing with a game in Vancouver on Tuesday night, are a club still looking for an identity.

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“When you’re putting a team together, it’s tempting to think you have perfect pieces, but they’re not perfect because they don’t go together,” Poulin said. “That’s the challenge a lot of teams face in the National Hockey League. So, there’s a process of starting to identify with our scouts — both pro and amateur — what does an Ottawa Senator look like and what are we looking to do? And what are the necessary ingredients to be successful?

“What looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily work on the ice. And on the player side of it, the consistency thing is the biggest factor. Every team in the NHL is capable on a given night. We watch some wild swings so we’ve got to better equip this group with how to handle those wild swings. Sometimes, it’s physical, sometimes it’s mental, sometimes it’s flat-out experience.”

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