The owner rankings are out and the Fenway Sports Group is right where they should be, 24th overall.
Which NHL team has the best ownership group? The worst? Looking at all 32 in today's piece @theathletic.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/athletic/619...
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— James Mirtle (@mirtle.bsky.social) March 17, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Part of this is the reality of when they bought the team. Purchasing the Penguins in 2021 with their stars aging and no semblance of a prospect system was always going to come with some rough edges. Add Mario’s dwindling profile with the organization and fans are primed for a letdown. There was going to be pain no matter who bought the team. The situation was rough. Considering FSG is new to hockey this was another hurdle to get over aside from the roster construction mess.
That said, FSG has kept a lot of things close to the vest and hasn’t been at the forefront of communication. They also rank 24th in franchise vision which is a result of the fans being somewhat left in the dark. Now, the people who are tuned into the team, likely those of you reading this right now, already know the deal. The team has abandoned going for it. They have traded a handful of veterans away including their star winger, Jake Guentzel. The team has acquired players for the sole purpose of being paid draft picks to do so. Kyle Dubas has acquired younger NHL players who perhaps needed a change of scenery, he’s done so on the cheap. These have all been decent changes in how the Penguins do business and it will take a little bit of time to reap the benefits of these choices.
For the regular/casual fan, they just see that Mario is gone, the team hasn’t made the playoffs for consecutive years, and there are no star prospects on the horizon to get excited about. There are a lot of unfamiliar faces. None of which being difference makers. So when you combine that with the lack of communication from ownership it is very understandable for people to be apathetic or outright disappointed with the product.
As a result, fans confidence in ownership has drastically dipped from 2024 to 2025. The dip is so significant that it is the second worst dip among all NHL teams in this survey with only Detroit coming in below them.
This ownership group is going to have to earn back the trust of the fans. They should probably be amplifying their plan more frequently than they have. It shouldn’t just be Kyle Dubas doing all the communication. I think there is a path for this ranking to go up in the next few years. The prospect pool is growing, they have a ton of draft picks, and will have a sizeable amount of cap space to work with. There is room for growth. It just needs to be coupled with proper expectations which hasn’t been communicated with constant messaging.
For now, the Fenway Sports Group very much deserves their 24th overall ranking. It was a tough starting point, but they haven’t done enough to bring the fans along with what they are trying to do. The next few years should start to show some tangible results of the plan which should shift perceptions in a positive way. I expect this ranking to rise in the following years. If it doesn’t, we are probably having some heated discussions about the Team President/GM of the organization.
Thanks for reading!
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