Chris Phillips

Hockey Athlete - Inducted 2020

Calgary’s Chris Phillips was a rugged, stay-at-home defenseman who patrolled the blue line for the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators from 1997 – 2015. Drafted first overall by the Senators at the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, Chris scored 71 goals to go along with 217 assists over the course of his career. On February 5, 2015, he played in his 1,179th career regular season game with the Sens – surpassing the team record previously set by former team captain Daniel Alfredsson. The Western Hockey League’s Rookie of the Year in 1995-96, Chris was also a member of two gold-medal winning Canadian World Junior Hockey Teams, in 1996 and 1997.

Chris began his junior hockey career at the age of 15 with the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), before joining the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Prince Albert Raiders in time for the 1995-96 season. In 61 games with the Raiders, Chris scored 10 goals and added 30 assists on his way to winning Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie.

Midway through the 1996-97 season, the Raiders traded Chris to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, where he helped lead the Hurricanes to the Memorial Cup Final, which they lost to the Hull Olympique.

At the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, Chris was drafted first overall by the Ottawa Senators and would spend his entire NHL career with the team. Chris began his career during the 1997–98 season and retired following the 2015–16 season, after spending the entire season on the injured list.

A stay-at-home defenceman, Chris played over 1,100 regular season games and 114 playoff games with Ottawa, making him the longest-serving player in Senators franchise history.

On February 18, 2020, Chris’ jersey number (#4) was retired by the Senators in a pre-game ceremony. Chris is only the second player to have his jersey retired by the team – the first was Alfredsson.