Latest On Ottawa Senators Sale
The long-awaited sale of the Ottawa Senators has entered the final stages, with only two potential buyers left vying for ownership of the franchise. Toronto billionaire Michael Andlauer and the Kimel brothers, Jeffrey and Michael, of the Harlo Capital Group are now officially the leading contender in what’s been a highly competitive and drawn-out process, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reported late Saturday night.
Sources close to the negotiations told Garrioch that an agreement in principle to sell the team is expected to be announced imminently. It’s believed the NHL is pushing former owner Eugene Melnyk’s estate representatives to close the deal “as soon as possible,” Garrioch added this morning.
Galatioto Sports Partners, the New-York based banker facilitating the deal, has kept a lid on most of the details of the bids submitted by four leading candidates last month. However, on Friday, it was reported that Toronto billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos, who had a well-financed offer exceeding $1B, withdrew from the process due to frustration with the prolonged negotiations and demands from the Melnyk estate representatives – hence the NHL’s reported impatience.
Apostolopoulos’ exit has cleared the path for either Andlauer or the Kimel brothers to become the new owners of the Senators. Both parties are familiar with the NHL’s head office, and their initial bids ranged between $850MM and $1B, but it’s believed both have raised their offers to the $950MM range, Garrioch said.
Andlauer is considered the frontrunner due to his position on the NHL’s board of governors as an alternate for the Montreal Canadiens, although he would need to sell his 10% stake in the Habs. Per Garrioch, a deal is close with André Desmarais of Power Corp, a Montreal-based company.
If Andlauer emerges as the winner, significant changes in the Senators’ hockey operations department can be expected, says Garrioch. As the owner of the Hamilton (soon-to-be Brantford) Bulldogs in the OHL, Andlauer aims to bring connections he’s made there to roles in the Sens organization.
But the Kimel family remains a formidable contender. They have been involved in the sale process from the beginning, initially attempting to partner with Eugene Melnyk for the bid to build a new rink at LeBreton Flats in December 2021. Garrioch clarifies the Kimels, who were part-owners of the Pittsburgh Penguins, sold their share to Fenway Sports Group when they became majority owners of the Penguins in 2021.
The Kimel bid also includes backing from star Canadian singer The Weeknd and New York billionaire Jamie Salter, who Garrioch says just recently joined the group.
Although Los Angeles-based producer Neko Sparks (and Snoop Dogg) remains in the picture as a potential bidder, Garrioch says the prevailing belief among other contenders is that Galatioto and the Melnyk estate are seeking to maximize the sale price while keeping Sparks as a fallback option.
DeBrincat Is Open To Extension With Senators
In recent days, the trade market for Ottawa Senators forward Alex DeBrincat has heated up, as many sources have indicated that DeBrincat has given the Senators a list of teams that he would prefer to be traded to. As the Ottawa organization prepares to go through a sale in the next couple of weeks, DeBrincat has seemed to be apathetic towards signing a long-term deal with the Senators given the cloudy ownership situation.
To throw a little bit of cold water on the idea that DeBrincat may be moved by draft day this season, Steve Warne of The Hockey News reports from a source close to the family that DeBrincat is more than happy to continue his career in Canada’s capital. To quote the article, Warne writes, “[T]he 25-year-old winger remains open to staying with the Senators, but he is looking for term and wants to make sure he gets this right“.
Behind the scenes, it isn’t easy to fully ascertain the entire thought process that DeBrincat is putting into this situation, or which way he is leaning up to this point. All news indicates that he has not decided, but the Senators have given the young forward a deadline. By the draft, General Manager Pierre Dorion needs an answer from DeBrincat, as to whether he will sign a long-term deal in Ottawa, or if the team could make a trade to recoup some resources for his services.
Steve Apostolopoulos Pulls Out Of Ottawa Senators Sale Process
Toronto-based businessman Steve Apostolopoulos, the presumptive owner of the sole $1 billion bid submitted for the Ottawa Senators, has pulled out over frustration surrounding the length of negotiations, per Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.
Apostolopoulos’ decision marks the second bidder to walk away. As Garrioch notes, this move comes after Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds and the Markham-based Remington Group also withdrew last month due to the estate over former owner Eugene Melnyk and New York-based banker Galatioto Sports Partners’ (GSP) refusal to grant an extended negotiating window with the National Capital Commission and the city of Ottawa for a new arena.
With Apostolopoulos and Reynolds out of the picture, the remaining two serious contenders are Toronto businessman Michael Andlauer and the Kimel brothers, Jeffrey and Michael, minority owners of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although neither group has submitted a bid surpassing $1 billion, those close to Andlauer suggest he’s determined to acquire the Senators and is exploring options to bring in additional investors to bolster his bid, which is currently estimated at around $900 million.
As a part-owner of the Montreal Canadiens and a member of the NHL’s board of governors, Andlauer’s involvement in the league is seen as a positive factor by the NHL’s head office, says Garrioch. The more publicized bid led by Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Neko Sparks, including backing from Snoop Dogg and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg First Nation group, still is not fully funded but remains in the running.
Meanwhile, Garrioch reports Toronto billionaire Jamie Salter has submitted a revised bid to GSP over the weekend, intensifying the competition. The franchise was officially put up for sale on November 7, and it has now been four weeks since the binding bids were submitted, which, with hindsight, seems a rather pointless exercise considering the team is barely any closer to a sale.
Bidding Process Continues For Ottawa Senators Ownership
- The final stage in the sale of the Ottawa Senators has been going on for over three weeks and according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia there has been no indication of who will be awarded preferred bidder status. Garrioch writes that this may be a tactic being used to keep all the groups engaged in case they need fall back options should one of the bids fall through. The belief is that the final stage has been slowed by all the back and forth between the parties involved as they try to hammer down the final details in what should be the end of a very long process. Garrioch goes on to say that is does appear that this has become a three-horse race as it looks as though the Neko Sparks group is a long shot to win ownership of the club. They are having issues putting the financing in place, but at this time, they are still in the running.
Free Agent Focus: Ottawa Senators
Free agency is less than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Ottawa Senators.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Alex DeBrincat – Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion has said numerous times that the team will explore all options when it comes to DeBrincat. This includes the trade market or a long-term deal. DeBrincat had an uneven first season in Ottawa but appeared to get more comfortable as the season went on. While he wasn’t as good as he was in previous seasons in Chicago, he was still a machine on the powerplay putting up 11 goals and 19 assists with the man advantage. Overall DeBrincat was fine in his first season with the Senators putting up 27 goals and 39 assists in 82 games.
Ottawa acquired the Michigan native last year prior to the draft with the intention of signing him long term, however the 25-year-old forward still isn’t ready to discuss a long-term deal with the Senators which has prompted Dorion to explore the trade market. Given Ottawa’s needs this may be the best course of action, Ottawa has a lot of cap space tied up in the forward group and DeBrincat may be a luxury they can no longer afford.
Ottawa badly needs to improve their bottom six and goaltending situation and $9MM can go a long way towards doing that. DeBrincat will be looking for an eight-year deal on an extension and one would have to assume that it will exceed $8MM annually. The Senators may be wise to recoup their assets and try to fill out their roster with more depth as they attempt to get back to the playoffs for the first time in six seasons.
C Shane Pinto – Pinto is an interesting RFA case as he has Group 10.2 (c) status which basically means he hasn’t accumulated enough playing time to qualify for Group 2 RFA status. This provision will keep Pinto from being eligible for arbitration which allows Ottawa more bargaining power when talking contract with Pinto.
In his first full NHL season Pinto was expected to handle third line center duties but was elevated when Josh Norris went down with a should injury early in the season. Pinto filled in admirably putting up 20 goals and 15 assists in 82 games. The 22-year-old saw some powerplay time with Ottawa on their second unit but did most of his damage at 5v5.
Pinto doesn’t have much in the way of leverage as he enters his contract negotiations and will most likely sign a one-year deal for something between $1MM and $2MM and hope he can improve upon his performance last season and sign a longer-term deal down the road at a much higher cap number.
D Erik Brännström – Brännström took a step forward in 2022-23 as he set a career high with two goals and 16 assists in 74 games. While those numbers aren’t lofty, they do represent a moderate improvement for the young rearguard. Brännström will continue to have unrealistic expectations placed on him due to his draft selection as well as the fact that he was traded for the beloved Mark Stone. While he was drafted 15th overall in 2017, it is unlikely he will ever live up to those kinds of expectations. Despite his draft position, Brännström has become a productive player who should be a good piece for the Senators as a bottom pairing defenseman should they choose to keep him.
It’s hard to see Brännström topping $2MM annually on his next contract, but he could find himself pushed out of the Senators depth charts given how many left-shot defensemen the team already employs. He does still hold some value, and Pierre Dorion could view him as a piece to try and acquire forward help or another goaltender.
Other RFAs: D Jonathan Aspirot, D Jacob Bernard-Docker, G Dylan Ferguson, F Dylan Gambrell, F Julien Gauthier, D Jacob Larsson, F Viktor Lodin, G Kevin Mandolese, F Egor Sokolov
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
G Cam Talbot – Talbot came over from the Minnesota Wild in the now ill-fated one-for-one trade for Filip Gustavsson. While Talbot struggled with injuries and inconsistency, Gustavsson quickly develop into one of the best young goalies in the game and exactly the type of netminder the Senators were starving for. Dorion has already stated that Talbot will not be back, making the 36-year-old an unrestricted free agent coming off a down year in which he posted an .898 save percentage and a 2.93 goals against average. Talbot will likely be staring down a one-year deal with a cap hit somewhere between $1MM and $1.5MM with some incentives added in.
D Travis Hamonic – Hamonic came over in a trade from the Vancouver Canucks that was widely panned. Despite some shortcomings, Hamonic was relatively steady for the Senators this past season. He will never be an offensive juggernaut evidenced by his six goals and 15 assists in 75 games. But he did provide stability to Jake Sanderson during his rookie season. Sanderson praised Hamonic for the steadiness of his game and how easy it was to play with him. At 32 years old Hamonic could still be a part of the Senators defense, but it would likely be in a bottom pairing role on a cap number far less than the $3MM he made last season.
F Derick Brassard – Brassard had his best season since 2019-20 as he put up 13 goals and 10 assists in 62 games before finishing the season on IR with an injury. While he isn’t the offensive threat he was in his prime, Brassard proved that he could still provide depth scoring in the bottom six while jumping up to play on the top two lines in a pinch. At 35 years old the Hull, Quebec native might elect to hang up his skates and move on, however he is still an effective player who could find a role on a one-year contract around league minimum. Given that the Senators badly need help in the bottom six, they might be wise to hang onto Brassard as a cheap depth option who can slide up and down the lineup.
Other UFAs: G Antoine Bibeau, F Patrick Brown, F Rourke Chartier, D Nick Holden, F Jake Lucchini, F Scott Sabourin, F Austin Watson
Projected Cap Space
The Ottawa Senators provide a very good example of how quickly cap space can disappear as effective young players enter your depth charts. Just a few short years ago the Senators struggled to reach the cap floor and at times had to bring in expensive veterans on bad contracts just to reach the minimum. Now with so many good young players in the system and signed long-term, Ottawa is going to need to be creative to fill out their depth with inexpensive and effective players. This is something they haven’t been able to do the past few years, but it will be of utmost importance if they are going to become a contender in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa has just a shade over $17MM in remaining cap space for next season, but they have just 13 players signed to guaranteed NHL money next year. Pierre Dorion is going to be in tough to improve upon a roster that missed the playoffs this past year and is trending in the direction of being very top-heavy. Ottawa also must contend with possibly trying to fit in another big contract extension should they decide to keep Alex DeBrincat in the fold for the foreseeable future.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Latest On Alex DeBrincat
After recently reporting that the Ottawa Senators were open to all options with all-star forward, Alex DeBrincat, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the Senators are now fully examining the trade market for the young forward. A restricted free agent this offseason, DeBrincat is due a $9MM qualifying offer, a number that few teams are going to be able to absorb.
On the first day of last year’s draft, the Senators acquired DeBrincat from the Chicago Blackhawks for a package including the seventh overall pick, the 39th overall pick, and the Senators’ third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Just after earning a 40-goal season with Chicago, Ottawa was hoping that DeBrincat would be the jolt of offense the team needed to get back to the playoffs.
Although starting off slow in Canada’s capital, DeBrincat finished the 2022-23 season with respectable numbers for his standards. In 82 games played, DeBrincat scored 27 goals and 39 assists, also providing the Senators with 109 hits, showing off a lot of physicality.
Ottawa has shown quite a bit of interest in signing DeBrincat to a long-term extension, but he has shown little to no inclination to sign a deal to remain with the Senators, as the team is now going through a change in ownership. Understandably, with the ownership of the team still in doubt, DeBrincat is wary of sticking around long-term in that situation.
For teams that have the cap space available, and should be in a position to be a consistent playoff contender in the near future, look towards two Atlantic-division rivals for the Senators, the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings. This season, Buffalo was much closer to the playoffs than the Red Wings, and still has a long-term extension to work out with stud defenseman, Rasmus Dahlin. Nevertheless, DeBrincat would surely make the Sabres’ offense almost impossible to defend against, and with the cap space reportedly growing after next season, they would be able to fit DeBrincat into the long-term outlook.
For Detroit, DeBrincat makes perfect sense as the big-name acquisition that fans have been waiting on for years. Growing up in Farmington Hills, MI, DeBrincat gives the team a right-handed shooting forward that carries high-octane offense, something that the team has been missing for quite some time. As the Red Wings’ depth of prospects make the jump to the NHL over the next several seasons, Detroit has the cap space available to them to make DeBrincat a big part of their future.
New Owner Coming Soon For Senators
- As the Ottawa Senators look to find a new owner, Bettman states that the process could still take a couple more weeks (Tweet Link). The last time the Senators went through a sale was back in 2003 when the late Eugene Melnyk purchased the team for a reported sum of $92MM. Melnyk oversaw the Senators team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. Having passed in the spring of 2022, the team residing in Canada’s capital should have a new owner by the end of the month.
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Snapshots: Senators, Penguins, Luostarinen
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reported today that the talk amongst the bidders for ownership of the Ottawa Senators is that Toronto billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos is the current favorite to purchase the franchise. Apostolopoulos was one of four bidders with the other three being Los Angeles-based producer Neko Sparks, Michael and Jeffrey Kimel of Harlo Capital, and Toronto’s Michael Andlauer. Garrioch goes on to say that Apostolopoulos, who missed out on purchasing the NFL’s Washington Commanders is in the driver’s seat as he had the highest bid at $1 billion.
Garrioch adds that it is far from a done deal as there has been talk that the other ownership groups have been making moves to improve their bids and add additional people to their groups. Sources have told Garrioch that Andlauer is confident he will get the team and he believes his position with the Montreal Canadiens as an alternate member of the NHL’s board of governors will give him the inside track to the Senators ownership. There was talk earlier in the week that Andlauer and the Kimel’s might form a collective group, but those talks have apparently stopped after not getting very far.
It’ll be interesting to see where the Senator’s ownership saga goes in the upcoming weeks. Gary Bettman doesn’t generally like to have other teams making announcements during the Stanley Cup finals, and with game 1 set for Saturday night it might be well into June when there is an official announcement about who will be the next owner of the Senators.
In other snapshots from around the NHL:
- The Pittsburgh Penguins got to work today in the first day with Kyle Dubas at the helm. Dubas took over as president of hockey operations and interim general manager from Brian Burke and Ron Hextall and was quick to make moves to dismiss some members of the old guard. Josh Yohe of The Athletic reported that director of pro scouting Kerry Huffman, director of hockey operations and salary cap management Alec Schall, and senior VP of integrated performance Teena Murray were all let go with at least one year remaining on their contracts. All three were hired by Hextall and will not be part of the new management group in Pittsburgh as they rebuild their hockey ops after a disappointing season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time in 17 years.
- Tom Gulitti of NHL.com writes that Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen is practicing with the team in Vegas ahead of game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals tomorrow night. Luostarinen was paired back up with his usual linemates Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell. The 24-year-old was injured in game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes but has yet to miss a game. Paul Maurice was quoted in The Hockey News on Monday saying that he expected Luostarinen to be ready for game 1 and things appear to be trending that way. Luostarinen has been a big part of the Panthers third line in this postseason putting up two goals and three assists in 16 games.
Ottawa Senators Open To Every Option With Alex DeBrincat
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia is reporting that general manager Pierre Dorion and the Ottawa Senators are open to every option when it comes to pending restricted free agent forward Alex DeBrincat. Dorion and the Senators are prepared to offer the winger an eight-year contract extension, however the 25-year-old DeBrincat has yet to decide on his future which has left the Senators in a holding pattern.
It’s hard to fault DeBrincat for taking his time with such a life altering decision, especially given all the turmoil that has surrounded the Senators in the last decade and the uncertainty surrounding the franchises ownership situation. But, from Ottawa’s perspective they will need a decision soon as they move closer to the draft and free agency at what is a pivotal time for the club.
Dorion expressed these sentiments saying that if DeBrincat indicates he doesn’t want to sign long term or if they can’t reach a number that is palatable for both sides then the Senators will need to look at all their options which includes exploring the trade market or even taking the young forward to arbitration to try and shave as much as 15% off his $9MM qualifying offer. Dorion went on to say that the team should have more clarity prior to the draft making the next month a very interesting one in Canada’s capital city.
DeBrincat was good in his first season in Ottawa, although his numbers did drop from some of his previous campaigns in Chicago. The Michigan native tallied 27 goals and 39 assists in 82 games this past year but put up just 36 points at even strength compared to 50 even strength points the year prior. Dorion felt that DeBrincat struggled at times during the season but got stronger as the year went on giving him optimism that he could get back to some of the elite numbers he posted in Chicago when he topped 40 goals in multiple seasons.
Latest On The Sale Of The Ottawa Senators
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia is reporting that league sources believe that there will be an agreement in place for the sale of the Ottawa Senators by this Friday. Garrioch quotes a league source that was told one of the bidders believes that Steve Apostolopoulos has the highest bid right now. Once a winning bid is selected and an agreement is made, the next step would be to have the deal be approved by the NHL’s executive committee. This step could drag the process into the summer making for an interesting draft and free agency period for Senators management. This comes at a crucial time for the on-ice product as the clubs young core will be looking to take that next step come the 2023-24 season.