Travis Green Deserves Jack Adams Consideration

A few days ago, an NHL.com panel voted on the Jack Adams award at the three-quarter mark of the season. The Jack Adams is given to the top coach in the NHL. The projected winner? Spencer Carbery. No problem there, Carbery has done a tremendous job this season with the Washington Capitals. The panel members were able to vote for their top five coaches in order. In total, 14 coaches received at least one vote. Not among them? Travis Green. Despite the Ottawa Senators currently sitting in a playoff spot, much improved from a season ago, Green was shut out in the NHL.com vote. Let’s dive into the details on why Travis Green deserves Jack Adams consideration.

READ MORE: Getting to Know Dylan Cozens

Ottawa Senators By the Numbers

Here’s a quick comparison of the Ottawa Senators last season versus this season:

• 2023-24: 37-41-4, 14th in the East, 3.05 goals per game (20th), 3.43 goals against per game (28th), 18 PP% (23rd), 75.1 PK% (29th)
• 2024-25: 35-25-5, 7th in the East, 2.92 goals per game (17th), 2.82 goals against per game (10th), 23.4 PP% (13th), 77.7 PK% (18th)

The biggest standout among these numbers? Well the record of course. Beyond that, though, it’s the goal prevention. Helping this team shave off 0.61 goals per game is remarkable. There was no question that the Ottawa Senators were a bad defensive team. The question was whether that was a product of their players, coaches, or both? To the relief of the fanbase, the players have shown a willingness to put in the defensive effort. Pair that with Travis Green’s defensive system, and you’ve seen one of the biggest defensive turn-arounds of any team this season.

Coaching Through Adversity

This is a big reason coaches will earn votes for this award. Paul MacLean won the award with the Ottawa Senators in 2012-13 in large part because he led the Sens to the playoffs despite some serious injuries to the likes of Erik Karlsson and Jason Spezza. No, Green has not dealt with that level of adversity. The Senators have battled through their share of injuries, nonetheless. Linus Ullmark missed six weeks. David Perron missed most of the first half and Nick Cousins has been out in the second half. Artem Zub missed a large chunk of the season. Shane Pinto’s missed a dozen games.

The other adversity faced by Green is dealing with such a fragile team. Whenever things went wrong for this team, it would snowball. Not only did they suffer from a losing mentality, they didn’t seem to know why they were losing or how to fix it. Green’s been a big help, having them understand how to fix what’s gone wrong, both on the ice and with their mentality. Remember their 8-11-1 start? The sky was falling once again for this team with another bad start! With how he presented himself, Green never showed any type of panic and kept believing in this group and believing in the style of play that he was trying to implement.

The Bottom Line

Here are a few fun facts about the Jack Adams award: Jon Cooper has never won it. Neither has Mike Sullivan or Jared Bednar. Those are three Stanley Cup winning coaches, and the three longest tenured coaches in the NHL right now. Here are some of the most recent winners, and how long they lasted with their team after winning the award:

• Jim Montgomery (2022-23): fired in 2024
• Darryl Sutter (2021-22): fired in 2023
• Bruce Cassidy (2019-20): fired in 2022

This list could really keep going and going. Needless to say, winning the Jack Adams is not a great predictor of which coach will stick around long-term with their current team. It’s merely an acknowledgement for how well the current season has gone for them. I don’t expect Travis Green to win this award. He likely won’t even be nominated. That’s fine. To see the NHL.com panel give nine Eastern Conference coaches votes in their poll, and leave Travis Green off entirely is what I have an issue with. Go ahead and give the award to Mr. Carbery, but Green should at least show up on the ballot.