Travis Green’s hockey journey started in a small British Columbia town and carried him through the WHL, 14 NHL seasons and now into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Ottawa Senators coach was inducted alongside former NHL players Andrew Ladd and Josh Gorges, NHL official Malcolm Ashford and broadcaster Daryl Reaugh. For Green, the honor hits close to home.
“I don’t know if I could put it into words,” Green told the Hall. “The magnitude of being honoured like this… I don’t even know if it’s still sunk in.”
Green grew up in Castlegar, a community of just over 8,000 people in the West Kootenay region, 25 kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border. He was a standout in minor hockey with the Castlegar Rebels, posting two points per game in his final season before moving on to the Western Hockey League.
At 18, Green exploded for 102 points - 51 goals and 51 assists - with the Spokane Chiefs, a season that put him on the radar of NHL teams and led to the New York Islanders taking him 23rd overall in the 1989 NHL Draft.
“I think the first thing that comes to mind is ‘humbling’,” Green told Donnie and Dhali - The Team on Vancouver Island radio station CHEK in June. “As a kid growing up in Castlegar, pretty (much) only dreamed about playing in the NHL. Never once do you dream of being in the hall of fame.”
As a player, Green skated for the Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Phoenix Coyotes and Boston Bruins. The centre finished with 455 points - 193 goals and 262 assists - in 970 NHL games.
When his playing career ended in 2008, Green moved back into the WHL and began coaching in 2010. He started as an assistant with the Portland Winterhawks, then became the team’s general manager and head coach two seasons later. Portland reached the WHL Championship in two of Green’s three seasons there and won the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2013.
That same off-season, Green moved on to the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets, the Vancouver Canucks’ farm team. In his second season behind the bench, he guided them to the Calder Cup Final.
Green returned to British Columbia in 2017 when he was promoted to Canucks head coach after Willie Desjardins was fired. Over his first five seasons behind an NHL bench, Vancouver went 133-147-34 and reached the playoffs once, winning two rounds in the 2020 COVID-19 bubble. He was let go 25 games into the 2021-22 season.
After one season as an assistant under Lindy Ruff with the New Jersey Devils, a stretch that included 21 games as interim coach after Ruff was fired, Green got another NHL head-coaching opportunity. In May 2024, he signed a four-year contract with the Senators.
“Not always do you land on what we feel is a perfect fit for our group,” said Steve Staios, the club’s general manager and president of hockey operations, at Green’s introductory press conference. “This is also a massive step for our organization.”
Ottawa has reached the playoffs in each of Green’s first two seasons, though both trips ended the same way: a quick 3-0 hole in Round 1 and an early exit.
Green, 55, finished sixth in Jack Adams Award voting in 2025-26. He steadied the Senators through a brutal December and January stretch, when historically bad goaltending dragged them deep in the standings. Once the team started climbing back, his defensive structure helped Ottawa shut down some of the league’s best teams during a late push to the postseason.
His parents still live in Castlegar, and Green returns there every summer.
“It means a lot to me,” Green told the Ottawa Citizen last month. “It’s a humbling honour, and it’s not something I ever expected. When I played in the NHL, I never once thought that something like this would happen.”
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