Ottawa Senators Owner Eugene Melnyk Dies At Age 62

Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, has died after an illness, the team announced Monday. He was 62.

“The words ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’ define the man who has owned the Ottawa Senators since 2003,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in a statement Monday evening.

“Whether it was in the boardroom with his fellow governors, at the rink with his beloved Senators or in the community with his philanthropy, he cared deeply about the game, about his team and about bettering the lives of those in need, particularly underserved children, organ donation and, most recently, with his commitment to his parents’ home country of Ukraine.”

The Senators finished as regular-season champions in the 2002-03 NHL season. They were on their way to a Game 7 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Final when Melnyk purchased club out of bankruptcy protection during the spring of 2003, for a reported $92 million.

Melnyk had reached billionaire status as founder and CEO of Biovail Corp., a startup which, at one point, became Canada’s largest publicly traded pharmaceutical corporation. He had entered the sporting world as the owner of the St. Michael’s Majors in the major junior Ontario Hockey League, and relocated them to become the Mississauga Steelheads.

The Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning joined the NHL as expansion franchises in the 1992-93 season, after paying expansion fees of US$50 million each. With a record of 10-70-4 in its inaugural season, Ottawa tied for last place in the NHL standings. And while the club moved into its new 19,000-seat arena in the suburb of Kanata in 1996, a debtload reported to have been in excess of $300 million forced the team’s sale just seven years later — even as it was experiencing unprecedented on-ice success.

Early on in Melnyk’s ownership tenure, there was more reason for optimism. Led by Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, the Senators reached the Stanley Cup Final for the only time in franchise history in 2007, eventually falling in five games to the Anaheim Ducks.

But that on-ice success proved unsustainable; Ottawa didn’t win another playoff round until 2013. And the Senators found they were unable to keep their star players in the fold. Heatley was traded in 2009. Alfredsson played his last NHL season as a member of the Detroit Red Wings in 2013-14. Spezza was dealt away in 2014.

Later, the next wave of stars also moved on. Most notably, Mika Zibanejad was traded in 2016, Erik Karlsson left in 2018 and Mark Stone followed suit six months later.

As more and more seats remained empty in Kanata, Melnyk turned his focus toward a new downtown arena for his hockey club. An arena proposal for federally owned land at LeBreton Flats fell apart in 2019.

Despite their difficulties, and the financial challenges that the sports world has endured over the last two years due to the global pandemic, the Senators franchise has appreciated in value. In December, Forbes pegged the franchise’s valuation at $525 million, up 22% from the previous year but still 28th among the NHL’s 32 teams.

And while the Senators are currently headed to a fifth-straight season without a playoff appearance, the club has been successful at building up a core of promising young talent, and inking a number of those players to long-term contracts that will keep them in Ottawa for the foreseeable future.

“Mr. Melnyk provided me, my teammates, and many Sens players who came before us with an opportunity to live out our dream, 22-year-old captain Brady Tkachuk wrote on Twitter on Monday evening. “The Ottawa community will miss you greatly. Condolences to your family.”

In 2015, Melnyk’s health took center stage. In need of a liver transplant, he issued a successful public plea for a live liver donation. Surgeons said they removed 70 per cent of the anonymous donor’s liver, which was expected to regenerate within about six weeks and allow a return to work in three to six months.

“The donor has asked me to tell you that the motivation to do this is to help Mr. Melnyk return to good health, to enjoy his family and friends, and most importantly to bring the Stanley Cup home to the Ottawa Senators,” said Dr. David Grant, of the University Health Network’s multi-organ transplant team in Toronto. “The donor hopes that others will be inspired by this story and will also consider organ donation.”

Melnyk’s philanthropic efforts included numerous initiatives to support children in Ottawa, his hometown of Toronto and in Barbados, where he was a longtime resident.

In addition to the Senators and their arena, the Canadian Tire Centre, he also owned the AHL’s Belleville Senators, and was a successful horse breeder. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.

Melnyk is survived by daughters Anna and Olivia.