Mario Lemieux famously walked away from hockey in 1997 when he was without a doubt the best player in the world. He returned 3.5 years later and looked like he hadn’t left at all. At the tail end of 2021, Lemieux (and Ron Burkle) sold the controlling shares of the Penguins to the Fenways Sports Group. Well, here we are 3.5 years later and it looks like Mario wants to return, yet again.
“Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t,” the source said. “But they’re interested. They’re very interested. And they’re trying to make it happen.”
According to sources close to Lemieux and Burkle, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been made aware of the group’s interest in rejoining the Penguins in an ownership capacity
While there’s no word on if Mario Lemieux is in the best (financial) shape of his life for this return, there appears to be authentic interest in getting back into the game. I’m not going to lie my initial reaction to this news is to be excited. My entire life Mario Lemieux has been doing great things for the Penguins. He was my favorite player growing up (still is). He saved the team from moving to Kansas City and secured PPG Paints Arena being built. The team won three Stanley Cup championships and spent to the cap during his run as an owner of the team. Having him as a face of the franchise just feels right.
That being said, I would have some light reservations about an ownership change at this particular moment. I don’t think FSG has knocked it out of the park being the Penguins owners, but I do think the way they are building up their hockey operations with the prospect/scouting departments has been something that was sorely lacking.
I did not like the work Kyle Dubas did to try and keep the Penguins competitive. He immediately wasted his cap savings on Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry and the competitive window effectively closed. Since then, I believe Dubas has done a very nice job of collecting futures and adding to the talent pipeline at the lower levels. This was a necessary move and it is ongoing. I might not agree with every draft pick, but the overall vision and plan is something I can get behind. I think it has absolutely been the right approach.
If there were assurances that the plan in place would not be impacted I would of course welcome Mario Lemieux back with open arms as an owner. The thing is, Mario’s last hires were complete rubbish. He hired Ron Hextall and Brian Burke. It was a completely inept and rudderless operation. I don’t want a return to Hockey Men® I don’t think they are the right people to run an organization in general and I certainly don’t think they are the right people for the task at hand right now.
What Dubas is trying to accomplish is something that will take roughly three or four years to do. There is wiggle room to speed up the timeline if they transition from futures collectors to futures spenders on younger RFA aged talent. I think they will eventually make that shift perhaps in the next year or so. The idea of disrupting what has already taken place would be nonsensical at this point in time.
Dubas made the decision to take the organization down this major rebuilding path. Stopping it during the process is what poorly run franchises would do. You aren’t going to shortcut your way out of what needs to be done to get the Penguins back on the path as contenders. It is what it is. They had a superb run for almost 20 years. We knew this task was coming. Dubas and FSG are the ones who are taking it on head first.
In a perfect world, I would love to have Lemieux back and things continue according to plan. The world I’m in right now I have some reservations. For the first time ever, if Mario Lemieux came back would be the best thing for the Penguins?
Thanks for reading!
This is a strange story. Seems like the “ask” will be north of 1.5 billion. Mario certainly doesn’t have that kind of money. Burkle does, but that’s substantial even for him. I don’t think anything will happen unless it’s a minority stake. If I’m FSG, I wouldn’t want Morehouse anywhere near my team. By all reports, he meddles in hockey ops. He should never be involved in decisions on players.
Mad Mike & JBoyd – thanks for the heads up on this site… I’ve missed all of you guys. Was this board missing a sarcasm and terrible trade proposals? I can fill in the gaps there.
I would love to have the Burkle group take things back over. I just don’t understand why they would have sold a few years ago for under $1B and now want to pay way more than that? The team certainly shouldn’t be worth more money after the past few years of FSG/Dubas flushing the toilet.
I feel like FSG is just floating these rumors to drive up value on a minority stake they are looking to sell (because they massively overextended themselves on debt).
It’s being widely reported that the interest is real. However, everybody is asking the same questions and nobody is talking.
Anyway…. Go to Forums on this site and click the Pens link. Most of the conversations are happening there.
Thanks Mike. Ill check it out.