Eugene Melnyk's complicated legacy
He will not be here to see the finished product, but Melnyk's decision to tear down the Senators and rebuild them might be the best one he's ever made
To fully understand Eugene Melnyk’s complicated legacy, you first have to go back to 2003, when he saved the Ottawa Senators from bankruptcy. On Aug. 26, the day he bought the Senators and what was then known as the Corel Centre for $130 million, the Canadian dollar was trading at 71 cents. Earlier in that year, it was as low as 63 cents. The NHL was in the midst of the Dead-Puck Era. The New York Rangers had a payroll of $76.5 million, the Minnesota Wild $20.7 million. The disparity in the exchange rate was hammering Canadian NHL teams, to the point where the federal government concocted a scheme to give each team in Canada $2 million of taxpayer money, an initiative that was pulled back only after universal negative reaction.
Players on the Senators were running, not walking, into the bank with their paychecks. Former owner Rod Bryden couldn’t keep up with the team’s payroll and its creditors. The local economy, based largely on tech, was taking a pounding. Even though the NHL was repeatedly promising cost certainty, which it would achieve two years later after a season-long lockout, owning an NHL team wasn’t exactly an enticing opportunity. That was even less so in Canada, where those kicking the Senators’ tires had an eye to moving the team. Melnyk didn’t. He kept the team in Ottawa and that should never be forgotten.
Throughout their second incarnation as an NHL team, the Senators have had some interesting, but checkered, ownership and Melnyk, whose death at the age of 62 was announced by the team Monday night, fit very well into both those classifications. Like other NHL owners who benefitted from the cost certainty that the NHL achieved and under his ownership, the Senators became a league power. They were never able to win a Stanley Cup, but they came close and were brimming with skill.
The good times on the ice never last and the key is to handle the rebuilding years by not alienating your fan base. And that’s where the legacy gets complicated. Melnyk saved the team, but in a way, the team saved him. When his family put out a public plea for a liver transplant in 2015, his life was saved by an anonymous donor who informed the surgeon, “I’d like to remain anonymous, but please tell Eugene I want him to bring a Stanley Cup to Ottawa.” Two years later, the Senators would come within an overtime goal of going to the Stanley Cup final, a final they may very well have won if not for Chris Kunitz’s goal in double overtime of Game 7.
Then everything changed quickly and remarkably, both for the Senators and Melnyk. The team cratered in the NHL standings the next season, and Melnyk’s relationships with everyone from current and former star players to the fans to members of the local media deteriorated. Franchise cornerstone Erik Karlsson was dealt – in a trade that is now looking very good for the Senators – Daniel Alfredsson went through his second rather bitter divorce with the organization and Melnyk made veiled threats that the team would be moved if the fans did not adequately support it. Fewer than seven months after his team’s magical playoff run, Melnyk was pressed to clarify on whether he’d ever consider moving the team he saved. “If it becomes a disaster, yes,” he said. “If you start not seeing crowds show up, yes.”
From there, things went off the rails. A crowdfunding campaign resulted in billboards going up across Ottawa calling for Melnyk to be ousted. He feuded with those who criticized him. One outspoken Ottawa columnist who was critical of Melnyk was forced, with the tacit approval of the NHL and his employer, to apply each game for media credentials, but only after he had his story idea approved by the team. By the time he announced that the Senators would be undergoing a complete roster rebuild in 2018, he was persona non grata absentee owner in the city where he was once adored.
There are NHL markets where fan bases beg for the kind of strip-to-the-wood rebuild Melnyk undertook. And even though the Senators are nowhere near being a contender at the moment, the future looks promising. It’s a tragedy that Melnyk will not be around to see it come to its fruition. Melnyk was passionate about his team, his country, his former high school and the many charities he and the Senators supported. He was an innovator in generic drugs and medical devices.
And he saved the Ottawa Senators. No one should ever forget that.