This morning, news broke that the Ottawa Senators will have a familiar face return for one more year. Daniel Alfredsson, who has long been the face of the franchise, will return to the team that drafted him in 1994 and one that he has played for since 1995. Think about this: the Senators in their current incarnation have been in the NHL since 1992, and Alfredsson has been in a Senators uniform for all but the first three seasons of the franchise. He won the Calder Trophy in 1996, was named captain in 1999 during the Alexei Yashin Holdout Redux, and has led the team to their only Stanley Cup Final to date in 2007. Oh, and he leads the franchise in just about every category. The Senators made an unlikely run to the playoffs last year, and it was no coincidence that Alfredsson was a major part of that. Personal output aside, he has also been a great mentor to Erik Karlsson, who himself had a breakthrough year on the way to a Norris Trophy (a bit of useless trivia: Alfredsson and Karlsson are the only players to have won a major award in a Senators uniform), and will likely serve as a mentor to both Mika Zibanejad and Jakob Silfveberg as they prepare for full time NHL duty next season.
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