NHL Brews Up An Unexpected Bidding War Between Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dogg

The NHL team Ottawa Senators are up for sale and already have a number of bids ready to battle, two

Snoop Dogg

The NHL team Ottawa Senators are up for sale and already have a number of bids ready to battle, two of which belong to popular celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dogg.

Eugene Melnyk who is the most recent owner of the NHL team died last year ar 62 years old after battling an illness. He purchased the team in 2003 for $92 million, a time when the franchise faced bankruptcy, and a recent valuation done by Forbes lists the Senators at $800 million. Melnyk had previously planned to leave the team to his daughters, Anna, and Olivia, but it seems as though plans have changed and the Senators are up for grabs, under the “condition of any sale will be that the team remains in Ottawa,” according to the NHL team themselves.

Making NHL History

Located in the capital city of Canada, the Ottawa Senators are expected to be sold for $1 billion dollars, according to ESPN. If this projection is true then this would be the largest sale of a team in NHL history.

The Senators became part of the NHL in 1992 as an expansion team and have yet to win a Stanley Cup. They were seen fighting for the cup one time in 2007 but have yet to make their way back since. This season specifically they missed out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing with the sixth-worst record out of the 16 teams in the Eastern Conference.

Will the new ownership be what the team needs to advance forward next season?

Reynolds Vs. Snoop

 

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Among the six major groups expressing interest in purchasing the NHL Senators franchise are Reynolds and Snoop Dogg.

Reynolds is reportedly ready to spend more than $1 billion to buy the Ottawa Senators alongside real estate module Christopher Bratty. The group has several cities in mind for building a new arena, some of which are closer to downtown Ottawa and the city’s entertainment district. However, the current suburban home of the NHL team, Kanata, is on the table as a location for the new arena as well. According to the Ottawa Sun, Reynolds and Bratty would finance a potential Senators deal with the NHL, the Melnyk family, and Galatitioto Sports Partners who have been hired to oversee the bids.

Reynolds said back in December, “If we progress with the Ottawa Senators I will be a frothy, rabies-infused fan the likes of which the NHL has never seen. There’s not too much I can say about that now, but I have a real connection to Ottawa, to the community of Ottawa.”

Another contender is the one and only Snoop Dogg who recently shared, “I WANNA BRING HOCKEY BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY.”

Monday night, the rapper confirmed via Instagram that he’s working with Neko Sparks, a Los Angeles-based businessman, to bid on the NHL Senators. He shared, “Amazing what [Neko Sparks] is trying to do in Ottawa. I’m looking forward to being apart [sic] of that ownership team. I WANNA BRING HOCKEY BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY.”

If Sparks, Snoop Dogg, and the rest of their group seal the deal, they would be the first Black owners of an NHL team.

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