Ruszkowski Steps Down as COO

For the third time since January of 2017, the Ottawa Senators will look for a new Chief Operating Officer.

As if needing to fill the vacant positions of head coach and President of Hockey Operations weren’t daunting enough tasks, Nicolas Ruszkowski is resigning from his position with the Ottawa Senators. Eugene Melnyk’s right-hand man, who has held the position for about a year like predecessor Tom Anselmi, will stay with the team in an advisory role for the rest of the summer before leaving the Senators.

Ruszkowski was maligned by a section of the fanbase for his attempts to smooth over the team’s public relations. A lot of his comments didn’t go over well, but the guy’s task was relatively unenviable, all things considered.

Ruszkowski is now the second of Cyril Leeder’s replacements to resign from the organization, since the beloved executive was unceremoniously fired a little over two years ago. According to a report by The Athletic, VP of Strategic Development Geoff Publow is also leaving the organization. Publow was the man behind the failed Lebreton Flats initiative.

In further reshuffling, Brad Crombie will transition to full-time Chief Financial Officer, Mark Bonneau moves to Chief Revenue Officer, Rob Mullowney moves up from Belleville to take the Senior Director of Corporate Sales position, and Carrie Croft joins as Senior Director of Communications.

With so many personnel decisions still needing to be made, this just gives further credence to the theories regarding the Senators’ organizational disfunction. They now have three major positions to fill, as what’s sure to be a long summer rolls on.