Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk dead at age 62
Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 29, 2022 • 13 minutes ago • 7 minute read
Eugene Melnyk battled right until the end.
And, unfortunately, when his Ottawa Senators finally bring the Stanley Cup back home to Canada, he’ll have to take a front row seat in heaven.
Melnyk’s family and the Senators issued a joint statement late Monday that he passed away “after an illness he faced with determination and courage.”
The statement said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
“He was a proud Canadian a passionate hockey fan,” the statement said.
Melnyk’s enduring legacy will be that of the man who saved the Senators and kept it from moving when former owner Rod Bryden declared bankruptcy in January 2003.
Though the league had suitors who wanted to put the team on wheels to the United States, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was bullish on keeping the Senators in Ottawa and that’s when Melnyk reached out to declare his interest with the priority of making sure the club stayed in Canada.
He bought the Senators and the Canadian Tire Centre for $130 million US after making a deal with the creditors. Melnyk was a passionate hockey fan who wanted badly to bring the Stanley Cup back to Ottawa when he purchased the team.
The founder of Biovail Corp., a highly successful pharmaceutical company, Melnyk also owned the Ontario Hockey League St. Michael’s Majors and was well-known for a being a big player in the harness racing industry.
For those who didn’t know Melnyk’s résumé in the horse game, before he decided to step back from that sport in 2013 he had more than 500 horses. He was inducted into Canada’s Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Melnyk loved competition, he enjoyed the battle and he was, in every way, shape and form, the Senators biggest fan. He wanted to win and was determined to make sure everything the organization did was with those thoughts in mind.
He loved spending time with his daughters Olivia and Anna along with his longtime partner Sharilyne Anderson. He made regular trips to his mother Vera’s home in Barrie over the past two years, during the pandemic, to spend time with her.
Melnyk had a great appreciation for life and everything it brought, especially after a near-death experience seven years ago.
On May 20, 2015, Melnyk had a life-saving liver transplant at the Toronto General Hospital. A public campaign by the organization to find a donor netted a perfect match for Melnyk and more than 2,000 people responded to the call.
Melnyk was only days away from death when the match was found. A meeting with close friends and his family was the only reason Melnyk allowed the organization to go public to find the right match.
Doctors told them all other routes had been exhausted and a public plea was the only way to go to save his life.
“They told me, ‘We’re done. We don’t have anybody. We’ve exhausted everybody,’” Melnyk told this newspaper in an interview in October 2015. “I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ They said, ‘Well you don’t have a choice’ and that’s when the kids came in.
“Olivia said, ‘Dad if you don’t go public, you will die. We know that. They’ve told us.’ I said, ‘OK, what else did they tell you?’ ‘That if we’re successful that you are going to live. This is a no-brainer, Dad, you have to go public.”
As difficult as it was, Melnyk felt he had no other choice.
“The donor has asked me to tell you that the motivation to do this was to help Mr. Melnyk return to good health to enjoy his family and friends and, most importantly, to bring the Stanley Cup home to the Ottawa Senators,” Dr. David Grant, director of the living donor liver transplant program of the University Health Network, told reporters in the days after the surgery. “The donor hopes that others will be inspired by this story and will also consider organ donation.”
Melnyk was still trying to deliver on that promise when he lost his battle.
He wasn’t without detractors. Before the Heritage Classic outdoor game in 2017 at Lansdowne Park, Melnyk mused about moving the Senators elsewhere if people didn’t come out to support the team.
Fans reacted by raising money to buy billboard to show their displeasure.
The Senators came close several times while he owned the organization, but couldn’t get it across the finish line. The club went to the Stanley Cup final in 2007 before losing in five games to the Anaheim Ducks and lost in overtime in Game 7 of the East final to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That came on a heartbreaking overtime goal by Chris Kunitz on Craig Anderson after a magical playoff run and it was the last time Melnyk would get the chance to witness his team in the playoffs.
He believed strongly in the rebuild route taken by GM Pierre Dorion and the pieces the organization has put in place. Menlyk knew there would be tough nights but he wanted this done right.
After acquiring centre Matt Duchene from the Colorado Avalanche in November 2018 and returning from a successful trip to Sweden, the Senators’ fortunes quickly took a turn for the worse. Tough decisions then had to made. It wasn’t easy to accept, but Melnyk and Dorion put in place a plan they felt would pay dividends if people were patient.
That was also why, when he sat down with Dorion in Barbados in February 2018, they made the decision to start from the ground up. It meant some players would be offered the opportunity to stay, while others would have to be sent packing.
“Nobody’s done what I did. I don’t care what anybody says,” Melnyk said. “Nobody has gone and gutted a team the way I did. We made a list … the top six guys gone. Show me a team, in any sport, where the top six guys are gone. This was specifically designed. You had to be a certain age to be part of it.
“Could we upgrade? On a scale of one to 10, we were about an eight when we lost to Pittsburgh. I think we could have won a Stanley Cup if we’d gotten by Pittsburgh. The bottom line was the team itself had to be upgraded, and the only way I felt we could do this … and we took a shot. From there, we methodically started going through the lineup.”
Melnyk knew the pressure on Dorion and coach D.J. Smith was tremendous. During a meeting with sponsors at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Melnyk promised he’d do this rebuild the right way and in the end would have a “five-year run of unparalleled success.”
“The pressure on management who live in the city is dramatic,” Melnyk said. “The coaches tell me, the GM tells me … They run into people at the supermarket, at the gas station and at social events and they’re constantly being asked, ‘How are we going to do?’ If you’re only competitive, you can get away with it and you can get away it for decades, just be there.
“I didn’t show up in Ottawa (when he bought the team) 17 years ago just to be there, just to play around and be competitive. If I didn’t believe I could win a Stanley Cup, I would be so gone and so quickly. I would have never bought the franchise. I went into horse racing in the same way and my intention when I went into that game was that, if I was going to play, I was going to play big.”
The pieces are in place with likes of captain Brady Tkachuk, alternate captain Thomas Chabot along with forwards Tim Stuetzle, Josh Norris, Alex Formenton and more prospects are on the way. It’s just difficult to accept Melnyk won’t be around to see that success.
He told this newspaper in 2015 that life meant a lot more to him. He took nothing for granted.
“I wasn’t afraid of dying,” said Melnyk.
“That didn’t bother me one bit. If I’m gone, I’m gone. I was more concerned about the girls and how they would be and I thought about my mom, my friends, my loved ones. People like that.”
For Melnyk, being thankful had taken on new meaning.
“In that 11th hour what you’re thinking about is your family and your loved ones. That’s all you care about — the people that you care for. That’s the only people that should matter, frankly.”
The expectation is the Senators will remain in Melnyk’s family. He told me once “I’ve set this up so it’s in my family for generations.”
At this time, we’re thinking about Melnyk’s family and his loved ones.
A GLIMPSE AT THE SENATORS UNDER EUGENE MELNYK
• The club has made nine playoff appearances and won 44 post-season games;
• In that stretch, it has also seven playoff series
• Northeast Division leaders 2005-06; advanced to Stanley Cup final in 2007
• Advanced to Eastern Conference playoff final in 2017
• Ottawa had the best combined record of any Canadian NHL franchise from 2003 to 2017 before commencing a rebuild midway through 2018-19.
Twitter: @sungarrioch
https://ottawacitizen.com/sports/hoc...2-711dd8ae0275
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