Eugene Melnyk’s long and colourful run as owner of the Ottawa Senators ended with his untimely death on Monday at age 62.
He will be remembered as the man who rescued the Senators from bankruptcy in 2003 and kept the NHL team in Ottawa, even if he infuriated fans at times by musing about moving the franchise if he couldn’t sell more tickets.
This was the yin and yang of Melnyk. He burned through chief executives and financial officers the way some people toss out spent lottery tickets, and yet at his heart, he wanted the Senators to succeed in Ottawa, pushed hard to give them a bigger profile and burned to win a Stanley Cup.
He came close — losing the Cup Final to Anaheim in 2007, and falling short with arguably an even better team in 2006, only to lose starting goaltender Dominik Hasek to an injury at the Olympics.
Under Melnyk’s tenure, the Senators and the City of Ottawa played host to a World Junior Championship tournament (2009), an NHL All-Star Game (2012) and the NHL 100 Classic outdoor game in 2017. That year also marked the Senators’ most recent appearance in the playoffs, a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Final.
In more recent years, Melnyk and his hockey staff, headed by Pierre Dorion, had undertaken a massive rebuild, which has resulted in the seeds of a strong team in the future, led by captain Brady Tkachuk.
Melnyk arrived in 2003, as though on a white horse. The Senators, while one of the premier teams on the ice at the time, were in the throes of bankruptcy and Melnyk had the credentials — and bank account — as the founder and chairman of Biovail, once Canada’s largest pharmaceutical company.
In his opening remarks after buying the franchise, Melnyk said he felt it was tragic when Quebec lost the Nordiques franchise in the mid 1990s, ultimately moving to Denver. He was motivated to buy the Senators to ensure they would remain in Canada. A longtime Toronto native and proud product of St. Michael’s College, Melnyk had made overtures to buy the Maple Leafs, but when that didn’t pan out he bought their provincial rival, purchasing the arena and team for about $130 million.
At times, Melnyk infuriated the fan base, talking flippantly about moving the franchise at a moment of one of its finest triumphs — hosting the historic outdoor game to mark the 100th anniversary of the opening night of the NHL in 1917.
“I’m not going to blow a lifetime of working hard to support a hockey team. It’s not gonna happen,” Melnyk said at Parliament Hill, which was the planned site of the outdoor game, until security concerns moved it to TD Place in the Glebe.
He was famous for “saying stuff,” combining the clout of an owner with the passion and fickle ways of a fan.
While suggesting he could move the team, Melnyk also proclaimed that this was going to be the “greatest outdoor game” ever.
“The words ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’ define the man,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. Bettman wasn’t amused by Melnyk’s musings at the outdoor game, but he couldn’t deny Melnyk’s drive and spark, which sometimes led to big headlines.
In 2004, after Mike Fisher scored an overtime goal versus the Leafs to force a Game 7, I heard Melnyk in the Senators weight room telling a TV camera, “we’re gonna kill ‘em” in the deciding game.
When the Senators fell 4-1 in Game 7 in Toronto, sources said a certain team owner trashed the stick rack in anger.
Who didn’t love the passion of the man? Many are the fans who probably felt like doing likewise, after a meek ending to a fourth playoff series loss to the Leafs since 2000.
After that 2004 defeat, Melnyk fired head coach Jacques Martin and Bryan Murray was hired as coach. By 2007, Murray had succeeded John Muckler as team GM and would form a tight bond with Melnyk that would last until Murray’s death from cancer in 2017.
Murray had a way of keeping Melnyk calm during tense hockey moments.
Without question, Melnyk had some difficult relationships, especially in business, yet adored his daughters, Olivia and Anna. Divorced from wife Lori, Melnyk had a long-term relationship with Sharilyne Anderson.
At one time he said it was a necessity for the team to move to LeBreton Flats, and he was pleasantly shocked when the RendezVous LeBreton project he had backed won a bid to build a new arena as part of a massive development project.
But that project fell apart in a crossfire of lawsuits between Melnyk and Trinity Developments.
In the aftermath, Melnyk said the team would do just fine in Kanata.
It wasn’t only club executives who came and went under Melnyk’s reign, but alumni as well. In recent years, ex-Senators like Daniel Alfredsson, Erik Karlsson and Chris Phillips have grown estranged from the franchise, and the original Senators Foundation disbanded.
And yet, Melnyk’s philanthropic bent has been a consistent part of his tenure. I was at the St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto in 2005 when Melnyk donated $5 million for a new hospital entranceway. The redevelopment was named in honour of Melnyk’s parents, the Ukrainian-born Vera and Dr. Ferdinand Melnyk. Dr. Melnyk was instrumental in developing the first emergency department at St. Joseph’s.
Melnyk was extremely proud of his Ukrainian heritage. One of his last initiatives was to pay homage to the people of Ukraine, currently under siege from Russian president Vladimir Putin. Melnyk arranged to have the Ukrainian anthem sung before every Senators home game at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Due to the pandemic and other financial pressures, the CTC has not had great attendance, even when fans were finally allowed back in the venue as COVID-19 concerns eased somewhat. But Melnyk would have been inspired to hear that in the final home game before his passing, the arena was rocking with more than 17,000 fans on hand to witness an exciting overtime game against the Florida Panthers.
Fiercely private, Melnyk and the team disclosed very little about his declining health in recent weeks. Melnyk underwent a liver transplant in 2015 and while he rebounded somewhat, he has had recurring health issues.
In recent years, there has been endless talk of Melnyk selling the team or at least taking on new partners, but he soldiered on solo.
“Why would you sell it? It’s something that’s very difficult to buy,” Melnyk said a few years ago.
“It’s just too much fun. What else are you going to do? I’m a Canadian. I’m a hockey fan.”
Melnyk often said that the franchise would remain in the hands of his daughters long after he was gone.
Melnyk’s oldest, Anna, is still in her early 20s, so it will be interesting to see how the family and NHL proceed from here. With NHL teams selling at more than $600 million US, the family has a lot of equity at stake with the Senators.
