The Ottawa Senators were on a nice little “good news” run of late. With the draft lottery rules being final, fans now know that they can expect two incredibly high-end prospects to join the system. Reports of a key Restricted Free Agent (Connor Brown) wanting to stay were floating around. Josh Norris and Alex Formenton scooped up American Hockey League awards. Even with no hockey being played, there was plenty of positivity in the Senators sphere. Then, today, things took a bizarre turn, as the team and Senators Foundation essentially announced that they will be parting ways later this summer.

BREAKING: The @sensfoundation appears to be ending their ties with the hockey club.

From their news release: pic.twitter.com/DL22VEqbnG

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) June 4, 2020

The Senators released a statement of their own, which stated that they told the Foundation months ago that they were going to put the team’s charitable operation out to a request for proposal in order to ensure that vital community work could continue with the support of the team.

Social media speculation took off at lightning speed. It’s not every day that a team and its associated charitable arm make an announcement like this; in fact, it’s a downright rarity. Many fans immediately assumed that the decision to cut ties had to do with the Foundation using its platform in recent days to voice the need to listen, learn, and understand issues surrounding systemic racism:

pic.twitter.com/sztrjhyUCi

— Ottawa Senators Foundation (@sensfoundation) June 3, 2020

This speculation was fueled by the fact that the team’s own Twitter account has been noticeably quiet on the topic. However, Ken Warren of the Ottawa Sun has reported that the decision had nothing to do with that, and Ian Mendes of TSN 1200 indicated that there have been issues permeating the relationship for a long while. Warren further noted that he believes the decision boils down to Eugene Melnyk wanting more control of the organization’s charitable operations.

Whatever the reason, this is a curious move that only serves to fuel uncertainty. More than anything else, Senators fans want a sense of stability at the top. Cutting ties with the team’s named Foundation to start fresh, amidst a global pandemic that has only heightened the need for support to causes funded by that Foundation, achieves the exact opposite. This is something I didn’t think we’d be discussing in June 2020. But, alas, here we are.

As always, thanks for reading.

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