Rick Bowness, fired Monday as coach by the Boston Bruins, reportedly has signed a two-year, $300,000 contract to become the head coach of the expansion Ottawa Senators.
(Bowness played for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles 1979-80 and 1980-81 and was a team captain.)The Ottawa Sun reported Thursday that Bowness met Wednesday with Senators general manager Mel Bridgman. Brian Sutter, who rejected an offer from the Senators, succeeded Bowness as Bruins coach.
A Senators' spokesman confirmed Friday that Bowness was in town, but the team has no announcements planned.
There has been no comment from Bowness, who is still under contract to the Bruins. While Bowness was dismissed for what Sinden described as a lack of "instinct" for coaching, he was offered the job as the Bruins' scouting director.
The 37-year-old Bowness was the Boston head coach for just one season. The Bruins went 36-32-12 and finished second in the Adams Division, then beat Buffalo and Montreal to reach the Wales Conference title series. That is when their season ended as Boston was swept by eventual champion Pittsburgh.
Other candidates for the Ottawa job were former Buffalo head coach Rick Dudley and minor-league coaches Barry Melrose and Bryan Maxwell.
Joining Ottawa would reunite Bowness with John Ferguson, who is the Senators' player personnel director. When he was general manager at Winnipeg, it was Ferguson who traded for Bowness and then started him on his coaching career by naming him a playing coach for Sherbrooke of the AHL.
The Senators will make their debut this fall.