{"id":627567,"date":"2026-07-21T05:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/627567\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T05:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:24:16","slug":"paul-bissonnette-stunned-by-daniel-alfredssons-move-to-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/627567\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Bissonnette stunned by Daniel Alfredsson’s move to Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Bissonnette<\/a> believes Daniel Alfredsson\u2019s decision to join the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> is a painful moment for Ottawa Senators<\/a> fans. What makes the situation more difficult to process is that it happened shortly after captain Brady Tkachuk left the organization.<\/p>\n

The former NHL<\/a> forward reacted after Toronto hired Alfredsson as associate coach on July 7, following his three seasons behind Ottawa\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n

MORE: NHL world reacts as Maple Leafs hire Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on the \u201cSpittin\u2019 Chiclets\u201d podcast, Bissonnette questioned how the move would be viewed across the rivalry. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to dump on somebody when they\u2019re down. But my God, your top two or three guys, if not, like you (Whitney) said, the top guy in the Ring of Honour, other than maybe Chris Neil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bissonnette then added, \u201cHe just jumped ship and goes to your arch-nemesis. I don\u2019t know. This is the low of the low for the Ottawa Senators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfredsson spent 17 seasons with Ottawa and remains the franchise\u2019s all-time leader in goals, assists and points. He recorded 426 goals, 682 assists and 1,108 points across 1,178 games with the Senators.<\/p>\n

His No. 11 jersey was retired in 2016, and he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022. Before joining Toronto, he also helped Sweden as an assistant coach at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Senators reached the playoffs with 99 points last season before suffering a first-round sweep at the hands of the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes. Toronto endured a far different campaign, finishing last in the Atlantic Division with 78 points before reshaping its organization.<\/p>\n

Ottawa icon joins a longtime rival Maple Leafs<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Daniel Alfredsson speaks to the media at Canadian Tire Centre where he announced that he would be retiring. | Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Ryan Whitney admitted the coaching move caught him completely by surprise. He said, \u201cDaniel Alfredsson, I would say the most popular, biggest legend in the history of the Ottawa Senators, is now working for the Toronto Maple Leafs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitney compared the situation to another iconic rivalry. \u201cIt would be P.K. Subban going to work for the Bruins. If he\u2019d been working for Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer publicly supported Alfredsson, despite the rivalry.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWhile I wish he wasn\u2019t joining an arch-rival, Alfie is forever an Ottawa Senator and the door will always be open for his return. He has done so much for our organization and community, and he has my full respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Maple Leafs announce 2026 NHL preseason schedule featuring Canadiens, Senators<\/a><\/p>\n

The move reflects Alfredsson\u2019s coaching ambitions more than his playing legacy. Toronto offers another opportunity under new coach Jim Hiller, while longtime friend Mats Sundin remains part of the organization.<\/p>\n

Still, for Senators supporters, seeing their greatest player wearing Maple Leafs colors will remain difficult to accept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Bissonnette believes Daniel Alfredsson\u2019s decision to join the Toronto Maple Leafs is a painful moment for Ottawa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,20,4,72,25,5157,1291,73,31],"class_list":["post-627567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa-senators","tag-hockey","tag-maple-leafs","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-ottawasenators","tag-paul-bissonnette","tag-senators","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116956303741226214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}