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The Melnyk Rumours: I'll Believe it When I See it

June 5, 2019, 2:04 AM ET [24 Comments]
Trevor Shackles
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS

We go through this routine almost once every few months. Someone says that their friend or relative knows somebody who works for the Senators and says that Eugene Melnyk is about to sell the team…“for real” this time. And every single time, we eat it all up because every Senators fan wants Melynk to sell the team.

It works like a charm, and it appears as if we are going through this charade once again.

There has been talk about him selling for years, and it has been especially rampant since December 2017. From then until the end of last summer before Erik Karlsson was finally traded, there were constant rumours that a new group would be purchasing the team and that Karlsson would be staying in Ottawa. Whenever those rumours did not come to fruition, it made me realize that there is simply no point in getting my hopes up because I know that I am just going to be let down.

This time is no different, as nothing about this most recent rumour sounds more legitimate than previous ones:






With the talk about selling, the Karlsson back to Ottawa rumours naturally picked up as well:







The only reason Don Brennan gives as to why Karlsson could come back is that Melinda Karlsson is homesick, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for him to sign with an organization he clearly wanted to leave. Could new ownership change everything? There’s a real possibility that it could. However, those are two massive “if's,” and I wouldn’t recommend putting much stock into that scenario.

There have been rumblings from others about a potential ownership change, and it’s not as if there is no smoke. Part of me is at least intrigued that these rumours over the past year and a half won’t die down, but again, none of us knows how close a sale actually is. The last time we heard about an offer being put forward, it was way below Melnyk’s asking price. Perhaps something has changed since then, although we know how passionate he is about owning this team.

Bringing back Karlsson after the Cirque du Soleil group buys the team would be a dream scenario and one that would finally be cause for celebration. I’m not dumb enough to believe that there aren’t any conversations being had about a possible ownership change, but we also know how stubborn Melnyk is, and that even if a deal looks like it might be close, it could just as easily fall apart at the last minute.

Could Melnyk actually sell in the immediate future? Of course, I would never rule anything out. You’d have to think that he will sell the team at some point, but who knows when that will be. I just believe that it’s foolish to expect a sale to happen because we have been expecting a sale for an incredibly long time, plus his public comments make it seem like he wants to keep the Senators for life. I commend those of you who are eternally optimistic and believe these rumours every time, but I can’t do it anymore.

I’ll believe that Melnyk is selling the team when he has actually done it.
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