Blogger says Alfredsson wants new Sens owner; he says comments were off the record

Daniel Alfredsson is inadvertently stirring the pot in Ottawa after making an eyebrow-raising comment over the weekend.

The former Senators captain and executive indirectly criticized team owner Eugene Melnyk while talking to Susan Sherring - a former Postmedia reporter and columnist - at Mayor Jim Watson's campaign kickoff event Sunday.

“(Watson and I have) talked a lot, we’ve talked about the future of the Senators and of its ownership and we agree,” Alfredsson told Sherring, as she wrote on her blog shortly after the event. “We hope we get a new owner."

After making the comment, Alfredsson claimed it was off the record, according to Sherring. However, standard journalistic protocol dictates that must be agreed upon before an interview begins. Otherwise, whatever is said is fair game.

Watson wouldn't say whether he shared the same sentiment, but did reveal Alfredsson told him he didn't know he was talking to a reporter. His claim comes despite Sherring interviewing the former player several times, and despite Alfredsson asking the former reporter to keep the comments off the record.

Alfredsson was the Senators senior advisor of hockey operations for nearly two years, beginning in the fall of 2015 and ending in the summer of 2017.

He's the club's all-time leader in goals, assists, and points, and ranks second on the franchise's all-time games played list.