Tom Mitchell has been involved in hockey for 49 years, not including his many years playing as a kid in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada.  Mitchell has experienced the game both on and off the ice in many ways, and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Operations and Co-Owner of the Binghamton Senators, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Ottawa Senators, a unique position he has held since 2002.

Mitchell played his junior career for the Estevan Bruins who were sponsored by the Boston Bruins organization.  This was common practice during the 1950’s and early 60’s when many junior teams were sponsored by NHL clubs to develop talent. 

With the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, each existing NHL club was allowed to protect two players from their respective junior teams, of which Mitchell wasn’t one.  “Minnesota picked me up,” explained Mitchell.  “I thought I had a good training camp but they sent me to Clinton (New York) who were a good professional team in the Eastern League.” 

It wasn’t an easy decision for Mitchell having never even heard of Clinton.  “It was a fork in the road in my career.  I had to be convinced to go to Clinton.  At the time, I was a pilot so I was considering going home and becoming an Airline pilot.  I decided to try the hockey route for at least a year and I ended up staying.”

Mitchell and the Clinton Comets would go on to win the EHL Championship in 1969 and 1970.  “It was a little different from today’s game.  Back then teams dressed 13 players.  There weren’t 4 forward lines and 6 defenseman.  It was 9 forwards and 4 defenseman.”  The EHL was made famous in part by the iconic movie Slapshot which depicted the toughness of the league.

Although Mitchell’s final season in a Comets uniform was in 1970-71, in the Fall of 2013, with the return of Utica to the American Hockey League, the Comets made a classy gesture by hanging banners of 8 former Clinton Comets in the Utica Memorial Auditorium, including Tom Mitchell.  “I was excited about it.  Those were some great years in Clinton.  Back in those days we played half our games in Clinton and the other half in Utica.  We actually won a championship in Utica.”  Clinton and Utica have a rich hockey history that has been shared through the 8 miles that separate the two communities.  “A lot of the guys on those banners still live in that area.”

Mitchell played 3 full seasons with Clinton before deciding to move on.  “I saw the young kids coming up through the organization and realized that I wasn’t going to make the NHL.”  Fortunately for Mitchell, he had made many business connections through the hockey community and didn’t take long to find a new career path.  “Through hockey I had met a gentleman in Utica who I became friends with who owned a materials handling company.  He made me an offer to come work for him at the beginning of training camp.  I decided to play a few games but ended up going to work for the company.  They then talked about opening a branch in Binghamton so I moved there and it wasn’t long before I got approached by locals to get involved with the Binghamton Whalers.  The Hartford Whalers owned the Binghamton Whalers at the time but were looking for local people to get involved as Owners.  A bunch of us agreed to get involved and we were originally buying only half of the franchise, but only three of us showed up at the meeting and it turned into owning the whole franchise.  I had known Emile Francis for a while and trusted him when he told me to get involved and that Hartford would help.”

Hartford agreed to a long-term affiliation agreement which turned out to be 5 years.  “Once the Hartford Whalers affiliation expired, the New York Rangers came in.  We eventually sold the franchise and moved it to Hartford.”  Part of the deal required Mitchell to move to Hartford to become the Vice President of Hockey Operations.  His heart was still in Binghamton despite the move.  “I worked in Hartford but I wanted to be in Binghamton especially for my business.”

Mitchell went home to Binghamton and was out of the hockey world for 2 years before he was urged to return.  “The State Senator called me asking if there was any interest in bringing AHL hockey back to Binghamton.  The United League was here at the time but wasn’t doing well and the owner wanted to transition to the American League so I got in contact with AHL President Dave Andrews and the league was interested.”

The Ottawa Senators and Roy Mlakar (President and CEO at the time) were the first team very interested in coming to Binghamton.  “We needed money to fix the arena and make renovations.  I found investors and we got the deal done with Ottawa.” 

Binghamton and Ottawa have been affiliated since the 2002-03 season and it has been a perfect fit for both sides.  “We are 4 hours from Ottawa but they don’t always call-up players when they are in Ottawa.  It could be Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Montreal, Toronto, or Buffalo and it will still be close to us.  We are in a perfect spot geographically.”

Mitchell believes that Binghamton’s relationship with Ottawa has been a great fit.  “It’s terrific, I love their philosophy of developing young players.  This is a great community and although we have an older building built in 1973, it’s been refurbished including dressing rooms, weight rooms, player lounges, coaches offices, and a new video scoreboard.  Ottawa appreciates the facility because it has a major part in the development of players.  Ottawa has a huge investment in a lot of these guys and they do a tremendous job of taking care of them with coaching, nutrition, psychological training, and conditioning.”

The Binghamton Senators are perceived as a small market team to fans of the AHL but ranked 24^th in attendance out of the 30 teams in 2014-15.  “People in this community see the Senators as a big fish in a little pond.  We have a great fan base compared to other big markets.  The corporate community supports us well and the other benefit is that there is no building management company here.  The arena is run by the County and we are the primary tenant.  Rent is reasonable and our business model is different compared to the other 29 AHL teams but it works here.”

As an AHL team, the Binghamton Senators operate a little differently from an NHL team.  “In the NHL, if you’re the Director of Media Relations then you work with the media.  Our Director of Media Relations has that responsibility along with managing community relations and selling corporate sponsorships.  We have a fairly large staff for a small market team with 10 full-time staff.  6 of those staff, including me, are responsible for selling corporate partnerships and renewals.” 

For Mitchell, he manages both the hockey side and business side of the team.  “On the hockey side, we want to develop players, coaches, and trainers.  On the business side, it’s all about financial feasibility.  We also develop front office staff just like we develop players.  There are owners in the ECHL that started as Interns here.”

People in the hockey community dream about reaching Mitchell’s level in a pro organization, however he cautions it isn’t for everyone.  “This job is 24/7, 12 months of the year.  It’s funny how people think that once the season is over that you take a long vacation.  It doesn’t work that way.  In January, we start planning for the following season.”

A typical day for Mitchell as the Vice President of Operations keeps him busy.  “It’s pretty hectic most of the time.  This is the time of year that the league is putting together the schedule. They do a fantastic job putting almost 1200 games together in a 180-day period.  It’s a tough job for them and the teams, managing the dates and going through the scheduling process.  I take all my scheduling stuff with me everywhere I go so I can try to improve the team schedule and take care of travel situations.  I also manage all the sales people in the organization and they submit call reports that I go over weekly with them.  You always want to create an environment where everyone can be the best they can be.”

AHL hockey is more than just the on-ice aspect seen by fans.  Without the hard work from the league, teams, and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) behind the scenes, there wouldn’t be as good of a product and development system for the NHL.  For instance, Ottawa has boasted several players who first developed in Binghamton including the likes of Jason Spezza, Ray Emery, Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Brian Elliott, Nick Foligno, Erik Condra, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Andrew Hammond, and plenty more.  “The AHL and PHPA have done a great job of taking care of players.  Dave Andrews and Larry Landon have a great relationship.  Both sides have always been reasonable and the conditions are a lot better for players today.  Issues have always been resolved between the AHL and PHPA and you can’t say that about other leagues and player associations.”

Despite being involved in the front office of an AHL franchise since 1985, Mitchell still loves to reminisce about his junior hockey career.  “My biggest year in hockey was my final year in junior when we went all the way to the Memorial Cup in 1968.  We lost to the Niagara Falls Flyers in the final but we played around 132 games that season.” 

His favorite story to tell is about his former teammate Jimmy Harrison who went on to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.  “ We were playing the Regina Pats and were losing 4-2. Harrison scored to make it 4-3 with 29 seconds left and then we had a faceoff in their end.  He scored again off the faceoff to make it 4-4 with 16 seconds left.  They brought the puck back to centre ice, Harry poked it between the centremans legs and fired it to make it 5-4 with 5 seconds left.”  Jimmy Harrison’s 3 goals in 24 seconds still stands as the fastest 3 goals by one player in the Canadian Hockey League.  Tom McDonell tied the record in 1976 with the Ottawa 67’s.

Tom Mitchell has enjoyed an illustrious hockey career, including winning two Calder Cups, one in 1999-00 with Hartford, and the other in 2010-11 with Binghamton.  “It’s been a great trip so far,” said Mitchell reflecting back on his career.  He hopes to continue building a successful franchise in Binghamton, helping develop players who could one day bring a Stanley Cup to the Senators organization.