32 Thoughts Updates the Dubas and Sens Ownership Situations
Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek are two of the most well-connected individuals in the hockey industry and after Friday’s ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’ episode that shared some reflections on the Senators, we were left with some pretty juicy pieces of information regarding Kyle Dubas and the Senators’ sale.
If you have not listened or read about that episode, do not worry. I have got you covered here.
When Monday’s ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’ was published, the duo picked up on a number of these storylines.
In regards to Kyle Dubas and the stories about him meeting with Sidney Crosby at the team’s practice facility last Tuesday, Friedman relayed information from his sources indicating that the organization is beginning to feel more confident that Dubas is interested in taking on the job.
“There certainly is a feeling inside the organization that it is heading in that direction.”
It is time sensitive, but the same sources indicated that some clarity on whether Dubas will join the organization should come shortly.
“Give us through the weekend and we’ll have a better picture of where this is going. So, the weekend is ending. It’s an extra day in the United States. I think we’re going to know, but there certainly is a feeling, Jeff, that the organization is preparing as if Dubas is very, very interested in the job.”
That obviously does not mean he will take it. As I outlined in the article of mine that I linked to earlier, there are a lot of concerning issues facing the Penguins. Sidney Crosby is 35 years old. Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are 36. The farm system is regarded as one of the thinnest groups in the league and the organization is lacking the quality of depth needed to insulate its aging stars. As a general manager, who grew up as a Senators fan, it would be much easier for Dubas to move his family up the 401 and keep them in Canada than it would be to move to a new city and country.
There is an assumption that wherever Dubas lands, Spezza will go with him. And, as a player who spent 11 years in Ottawa and met his wife in this city, maybe it makes more sense for this tandem to join a new or revamped Senators front office. According to Friedman, the likelihood of Spezza moving to Pittsburgh is small.
“The one thing about Spezza is, I don’t know if he’s going to move. Like, his family is pretty ensconced in the Toronto area. I think Spezza could move in terms of he goes with him from an organizational point of view, but I don’t know if anyone is certain that he’s actually going to physically pick up and move. One other thing about Spezza, Jeff, the timing of his resignation in Toronto has people wondering if initially, he was the plan – the organizational plan – to take over as interim general manager if Dubas left. I don’t know if we’ll ever get confirmation of that, but certainly, that was one of the theories.”
The other advantage the Senators have is that their young core should allow the organization to be more poised, from a competitive standpoint, to have a longer window of contention than Pittsburgh.
If Dubas is entertaining the possibility of getting back in the general manager’s chair, it would make sense for him to see how the Senators’ ownership situation shakes out before deciding to do anything. He can afford to be patient here.
Jeff Marek touched on that possibility.
“The other burning issue and some would say and I’ve talked about this before, you have as well, that maybe Dubas is waiting on a decision with the Ottawa Senators before he makes his decision on the Pittsburgh Penguins. It must be nice to have choices, Elliotte.”
The problem is that the Senators’ situation is dragging out longer than it was originally intended and the process itself has turned into a hectic mess that necessitated all of the involved parties taking the weekend off per Friedman.
“I heard that the weekend was like, ‘Phones down.’ Everyone just kind of took the weekend off. Apparently, it’s been pretty crazy the last few days. I don’t know if the weekend extends into Monday there because, of course, there are parties to this that are in the States including the bank. And, there are parties that are not including the hockey team and the family. Someone just said to me, ‘This is a book. The Senators sale is a book and it will be a good one.’ He said, ‘It will be a book that gets turned into a movie based on the book and whoever writes the book is going to get millions.’ I’ve already started to write. I’m just kidding.”
If I was a betting man and had to guess who told Friedman that, my money would be on Ian Mendes.
The topic of crazy turned the conversation to what happened with Neko Sparks engaging with fans on Twitter. Which led to this back and forth between Friedman and Marek.
Friedman: “It was a tough weekend for Sparks. He went on Twitter and… ”
Marek: “Yeah…. Not great. I understand it. I get it. I understand it, but ugh, the only thing that I look at is that normally I have no problem with it. The only thing that I think about is, again, I go back to the NHL and I go back to the commissioner and right now, everything is under the umbrella of this is a performance in front of someone who you’re trying to get to wave the magic wand over your bid in the sense that the board of governors has to approve it.”
Marek has a great point. The league prefers robotic characters and groups to stay out of the headlines. The league needs an infusion of charisma and splash, but it’s never a good look to be engaging with prospective fans in a challenging manner. Even if some of what is being written about you is unnecessary and hateful, it is better to ignore it because this is your prospective fan base if your bid is successful. In a city that desperately needs to turn the corner and unify its fans, the risk of alienating people further is real — even if the intent was an impassioned plea driven by pride.
Friedman: “Look, I don’t disagree with you, Jeff. I don’t disagree with you at all about that. Everyone here who is supposed to be in control of the process has lost control of it. And, it’s been this way for quite some time. I don’t know if there has ever been another sale process like this that I can remember.”
You know, when the fatigue of this ownership sale is very real and people begin to play favourites and throw shade at the Sparks group, hearing that Galatioto Sports Partners and the league have lost control of the process is not encouraging at all. How can anyone encourage people to simply relax and let the process unfold properly because we don’t have intimate knowledge of all the financial details of the bids when the process itself is without control?
It is a helpless feeling that feels particularly on brand at a time when all fans want is an infusion of confidence, hope and dreams of better days ahead.
Friedman: “There’s been expansion and there’s been things like that. I broke in covering the NBA expansion when it came to Toronto, and I remember there was one time and the Bitoves who initially got the team told this story. They were initially told when the NBA comes to Toronto, don’t tell anyone about it. It’s supposed to be secret and no one is supposed to be there. I can’t remember which bank it was, but the Bitoves paraded the NBA executives through a bank where all of their employees were yelling, ‘We want the NBA’ or something like that. I was there. I was a young reporter and I was there. The NBA loved it and they thought it was fantastic. If I remember correctly because they told me this story, I think that someone told them in the league or another team said, ‘The NBA is going to tell you they want this to be quiet, but if you do something big for them that makes you look big, they will love it.’ That’s why he did it and it turned out to be right. But, this one, I think initially the NHL really liked some of the Ryan Reynolds attention, but now it has completely gone off the rails.”
Maybe I should be less surprised that the Reynolds group walked away from the process.
Friedman: “We talked on Friday. I think there’s a lot of nastiness behind the scenes and the Sparks bid was basically accused of chasing money at the last minute. There were some reports that it was falling apart and his bid was a joke. There were other reports that this was not anything unusual. I did have one other group tell me that they heard there was a group, not Sparks, that was still looking to change its bid structure. Now, that might have been less debt more equity as opposed to cash. But, they said to me it wasn’t uncommon. Look, I’m a guy who gets a lot of good things said about me on the internet and I’m a guy who gets a lot of bad things said about me on the internet. I try to ignore it. I don’t think fighting with people on Twitter does anybody any good, especially myself. So, I really try to avoid it. If I was Sparks, I would have just ignored it until the end, but I understand that not everyone can do that. I think that just shows you how the nerves are fraying around that deal. There are people starting to say that whether it’s the bank, the Senators or the actions of some of the big groups, there are people starting to accuse others of being unprofessional and unreasonable. And, whoever doesn’t get this, it could get really ugly.”
It would be pretty ironic for another group to reportedly alter its bid structure while the Sparks group is taking a ton of heat for continuing to recruit more investors and raise capital. What this reflects is how much mudslinging and leaking of information there by the involved groups to make their competitors look worse.
Hopefully, once the dust settles, the final choice is it. The possibility of sore losers dragging this out longer is put to bed. Senators fans deserve better. They don’t deserve any of this.