Kurt Kleinendorst is getting a second chance in his hockey life.

And, he couldn’t be happier.

Five years to the day he led the Binghamton Senators to a Calder Cup championship victory in Houston on June 7, 2011, the 55-year-old Kleinendorst signed a contract on Tuesday to go back behind the bench of Ottawa’s American Hockey League affiliate next season. Now, he’ll get the chance to go to a place where he was comfortable.

“I’m just generally excited. There’s not much about Ottawa that I don’t appreciate, really,” Kleinendorst said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters from his Minnesota home after the deal was announced. “You can talk about the city, the organization and we can take that right down into Binghamton as well.

“I think it’s one more of the under-rated areas and the two years that I was there (before), I really enjoyed it. I had an opportunity to meet some good people and I’m excited to head back there.

While he turned down a contract extension at the end of the 2011-12 campaign, Kleinendorst said if he could do it all over again he would have stayed and he’s looking forward to the opportunity to get Binghamton back to the playoffs.

Kleinendorst, who will have longtime Baby Sens assistant Steve Stirling on his staff, will replace Binghamton coach Luke Richardson, who left after missing the playoffs in April to pursue an NHL job.

“Sometimes you get caught up in the moment, and I’m not going to get deep into this because I don’t think that’s the right thing to do and I don’t think anybody wants me to do that, but having said that if I could turn the clock back there’s no question I would handle things differently,” said Kleinendorst.

“I just really do mean what I say when I talk about Ottawa, the Senators and Binghamton and what this job is all about. I embrace it. I absolutely embrace what my responsibilities are and if that’s the case when you think about the answer to this question, why would I not want to go back? The biggest professional regret ... no question. But what a great opportunity for me to get back and help the organization grow again.”

Kleinendorst spent last season behind the bench with Ingolstadt in the Deutsch Elite League in Germany. He took over midway through the season when the club was struggling and signed an extension to return last month but wanted the chance to take another shot at coaching in the AHL.

The Senators had no shortage of candidates for the Binghamton post with 24 applicants putting their names forward to GM Pierre Dorion and assistant GM Randy Lee for the post. There were six finalists for the job, but when push came to shove the reality is no one had Kleinendorst’s resume.

The decision was certainly helped by the fact he has a winning record.

“We’re really happy that Kurt is the choice,” said Lee, who conducted the first round of interviews with former Senators winger Shean Donovan. “He’s got a proven track record of being able to balance winning and development.

“There’s some teams that say they’re development teams and I don’t think they focus enough on winning. We want our players, not just to be NHL players, but want our players prepared to be able to compete in the Stanley Cup playoffs to help us win. To do that, you need to audition them.”

Several players he coached to a title in 2010-11 went on to play for the NHL Senators, including Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, Robin Lehner, Patrick Wiercioch, Erik Condra, Mark Borowiecki, Jared Cowen and Colin Greening.

“What we saw in the Calder Cup run (in Binghamton) that year was how many players could elevate their game in critical situations and become good players for us. That’s what we want,” added Lee.

“We like the fact that Kurt and Steve challenge guys, they make them accountable and they’re going to work within our development model but we want to see how guys are going to elevate their games in tough situations. That’s part of winning.”

The Senators have turned back the clock to hone their prospects and they couldn’t be more excited.

CRAWFORD WILL LEND HELPING HAND

Kurt Kleinendorst’s phone calls won’t go unanswered.

If the Baby Senators coach wants a helping hand or wants to bounce an idea or two off somebody, then he’ll be able to speak with Ottawa associate coach Marc Crawford, who will be a liason with Binghamton next season.

“I absolutely love it,” said Kleinendorst on Tuesday. “The one thing that generally gets lost in the whole process of an AHL team and an NHL team is all the head coaches have great intentions. They all want to be involved, they all want to have that phone call every week and they all want to have to dialogue.

“In reality, it doesn’t happen. They get too busy. They’ve got their own headaches, their focus on the next game. It sounds good in theory but honestly in my experiences it just doesn’t fall into place. That’s why I like the fact that Marc is going to be true liason. He’ll be a guy who will communicate with me when he has questions and I can communicate with him. (Ottawa head coach) Guy (Boucher) can focus on what Guy needs to focus on.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGarrioch