Anselmi out as Senators president

While Pierre Dorion has been charged with getting the Ottawa Senators back to respectability, the club confirmed Friday that president Tom Anselmi is no longer with the organization.

The Senators announced Anselmi’s departure, only 13 months after being selected to replace Cyril Leeder in January 2017.

Hired to help guide the Senators through a massive downtown arena project at LeBreton Flats, Anselmi — who once led the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment group — may have resigned from his post. But this was likely a mutual parting of the ways.

“We thank Tom for his contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” the team said in a news release that also announced a multi-year extension for general manager Dorion.

The RendezVous LeBreton group got the green light to continue negotiations to build a new downtown arena with the National Capital Commission on Jan. 26, but Anselmi wasn’t at that announcement and owner Eugene Melnyk represented the Senators with partner John Ruddy of Trinity Developments.

In addition to the arena project, Anselmi was brought in to help get the team’s ticket sales back on track and that hasn’t happened. The Senators tarped off 1,500 seats in the building before this season to try to create more demand, which has lowered the capacity at Canadian Tire Centre to 17,153.

Through 28 home games this season, the Senators have averaged 15,974 fans per contest, which is about 87 per cent of the new capacity. Last season, the club didn’t sell out one of its playoff games and averaged 16,744 in 41 home games, which was also close to 87 per cent of capacity.

There was no word Friday about a replacement for Anselmi.