Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is Fenway Sports Group looking to SELL the Penguins?

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Conflicting reports about interested parties, what's for sale, and who could be interested in buying the Penguins continue to develop. Patrick and Hunter start the show discussing the latest in the saga surrounding Fenway Sports Group, the Penguins, the Lemieux Group, and what's actually going on with the franchise. They dive into reports from both national and local writers about where the Penguins currently stand when it comes to ownership. Then, June 12 is a special day in Penguins' history - the Penguins won two of their five championships on this date, and they look back on the 2009 and 2016 Stanley Cups. Finally, at long last, game four of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final is tonight. They give the state of the series and some predictions for tonight's matchup. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHLfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Fenway Sports Group. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can give our show's account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making this part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget, we're free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, make sure you've hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Hunter, let's get right into this. I was being a little bit of a silly goose in the cold open there.

This is interesting. Let's put it that way. Because you can call it a story, even though it really isn't a story. We addressed it yesterday on the Wednesday edition of the show that there was a report from TSN and the athletics Pierre Lebrun that Mary Olamyue, Ron Berkel, and that ownership group is reportedly interested in reacquiring the penguins. But at the end of the day, this feels a lot like a game of telephone because we have known for quite some time now that Fenway Sports Group has been looking to sell a minors.

interest in the Pittsburgh Penguins. That is not uncommon when it comes to sports ownership. Teams will often sell minority shares of their team, of their franchise to get an influx of of cash or capital. It doesn't mean that they're running out of money. It doesn't mean that they're in dire straits. It just means that they're looking to diversify whether that means getting, as I said, more cash or capital into the organization.

or if they're just looking to get other stakeholders into the franchise. So that's not uncommon. The problem is what we're hearing over the last 24 or so hours has a lot of conflict. You have some reports that Lemieux and his group are interested. You have some reports, say, from Elliott Friedman, that there are other groups interested in potentially buying into this. And then you have reports that they're maybe not looking at. to sell just a minority share, they might be looking to sell a majority share. Does it mean they want to completely get rid of the penguins?

Or does it mean they want to take on a lesser role? We don't know yet. So so far, Hunter, what are you even making of this? If they want to sell a majority share, it's probably upwards of what, 450 million, 500 million. Now, if they want to sell this entire franchise, people may scoff at this number. I don't care. It's upwards of 2 billion people.

Like this is the Pittsburgh freaking penguins. This is one of the most historic franchises in the league. They are very, and I mean very valuable. And I think confusing is the word that I keep coming back to because you have some of the local media here doing a great job with this. Seth Rorbaugh, Taylor Haas. They both have gotten quotes from FSG. And Taylor in particular got this quote.

And from a representative of FSG. And the person said, we've seen the speculation. and as we previously share with the media, FSG is currently engaged in a process to explore a potential minority investment in the Pittsburgh Penguins. The focus is on identifying a small, passive partner. That is the current framework under discussion

with potential investors. She then adds at the end of her article that if the right offer came along for the majority stake, Fenway would not be opposed to selling what they owned. And they might be looking at that. Like Elliot Freeman did a radio hit today on SportsNet and Canada, and he said that he has heard that three, big groups have reached out about potentially purchasing that majority stake in a franchise.

I'm sure the Lemieux group is one of them, but we don't know what these other two groups are. And as for your other point about FSG and money, they have plenty of money here, people. I discussed this a little bit during our episode on Wednesday. But FSG, they also own Liverpool, one of the biggest soccer teams in the world. They are literally about to get a player for $150 million over in Europe. player is very good because if the transfer window right now you can buy players from other teams like they have no shortage of money here but i think the word i just keep coming back to is confusing the national guys are kind of saying one thing where it's like oh like the majority stake of the team

could be for sale heck the entire team could potentially be for sale and then you have some of the local people like taylor and set who are also doing a great job saying if this is just a minority share of the team that's up for sale. I think the biggest thing we just have to say with this, Pat, we'll see what happens. Right. And to your point about FSG, not only do they have Liverpool, not only do they have the penguins, they've also obviously have the Boston Red Sox, one of the more profitable and valuable franchises in not just North American sports, but just global sports in general.

It's a very recognizable brand. And it's quite literally the ending scene, if you've never seen, of the movie Moneyball, where the guy playing John Henry asks Brad Pitt's character, why did you take the interview? And he goes, it's the Boston Red Sox. Right. So a lot of value there. And as for the reports in the statement of what they said, I do want to caution this about that. I can understand some people might be a little taken aback by that statement from FSG.

That's just good business on their end. Because if there is somebody willing to pay you upwards or close to $2 billion for a NHL team, because let's be completely frank here, the NHL is probably not even in the top four when it comes to most popular leagues and entities in North America because you look at things like UFC and WWE owned by TKO. That's incredibly valuable. You look at, obviously you have the NFL, the NBA, the MLB. And I'd put the NHL right behind those three.

I think it's still number four for me. I would say it's close, but I don't know if I would say the NHL has fourth. It might have fourth in popularity in North America, but value-wise, it might not be. But I digress. So at the end of the day, they are doing due diligence. They're not just going to say, oh, no, no, no, no, we're strictly going to sell a minority. Anything else is off the table.

Because if some sports interest group or some board billionaire wants to hand you a cold two billion for the Pittsburgh Penguins, they probably have to take it. well, especially for that because again, they bought the team pat for 900 million back in 2021. It's been 40 years since then. You get an offer for the entire team, not the majority stakes, but you get an offer for close to 2 billion, even 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 billion. Like, that's something you, at the very least, you have to consider, if not just hang up the phone and say, yes, we're doing that right in a way. Again, we're not sitting here saying that's going to happen, but there definitely seems like there are interested parties in at least buying a majority stakes of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Again, let's just see what happens here.

I think this is going to be a process that drags out for a while. Absolutely. One last thing I want to add, D.K. Deion Kavachovic of D.K. wrote this quick little blurb, basically saying that what you have already said, Hunter, that the team sold in, 2021 for $900 million between the arena upgrades, Sydney Crosby and company still being around. It wouldn't shock me if the team has gone up in value. Now, they're probably not at $2 billion just yet, but I would say they have certainly crossed a billion dollars when you bring in the upgrades that they've done to PPG paints arena, the NHL TV rights deals that have come down the pipe over the past couple of years.

So this probably isn't a depreciating asset for Fenway. And to the other point about the Lemieux group being interested, if they're going for a minority share, it's probably not that much. But if they're looking to get a controlling interest, you're talking about half a billion dollars or more. And while Ron Burkle probably has that, like DK, I'm a little doubtful David Morehouse. and Mario Lemieux have a cool half a billion dollars just sitting around that they can use to rebuy the penguins. But as you said, we will see what happens over the next coming weeks and months and maybe even years with what happens with this ownership saga. That'll do it for our opening segment when we come back to quote Badger Bob Johnson, June 12th in Pittsburgh,

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Welcome back in to the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside my good pal Hunter Hodes. And whether it's 2009 or 2016, when June 12th comes up, on the calendar for us Penguins fans. It is always a great day for hockey. Penguins defeat the Detroit Red Wings in a rematch of the Stanley Cup final in 2009. And then in 2016,

Sidney Crosby and his super friends get their second Stanley Cup against the San Jose Sharks. Both Stanley Cups won on the road. 2009, the historic Joe Lewis Arena, and then 2016, the SAP Center in San Jose, California. But here's how I want to break this one up, Hunter. 2009, it felt like the beginning. It felt like the first of many. 2016, it was a sigh of relief.

You got to wax poetic a little bit about the 2009 cup final when I was traveling down to the beach about a week and a half ago. So I think it's only right that it's my turn to do that as well. Before you do, Hunter, I have to make a bit of a correction or add something to my waxing poetic from 2009 because my good friend, former hockey teammate and current beer league hockey teammate, my good buddy Jeff, listened to that episode and reminded me, I forgot, one great thing about the 2009 championship. When the clock hit zero,

I was at my friend Jeff's parents' house with a bunch of hockey teammates, our parents, and so forth. When the clock hit zero, my little butt got dogpiled on the couch. And you know who led that dog pile? No, it was not Jeff. It was my 50-year-old father,

jumping on top of me to celebrate a penguin Stanley Cup. Sorry to interrupt you. I had to make sure I got that out there for Jeff. I know you're listening, buddy. And you're right. I did forget to mention that. Okay, well, that's a good story. But I will say, I remember my mom in 2009 was almost in tears just because that

cup run had been such a long time coming. She hadn't seen one since 92. That was obviously the first for me since I was only at the time, 11 years old. I was going to turn 12 that year. but I remember just my mom going absolutely nuts, almost tears coming down her face. But I knew that series was different or could be different in game four when Jordan Saul went right around Brian Rolfsky

to score that shorthanded goal in the arena wet nuts. And that's Brian Ravalski, man, great in all three zones. He was still awesome for the Red Wings that year. And Stahl, even though he was young at the time, he turned him into a complete pile on and went right around him. And then just a few minutes later, the quote unquote goal between Crosby and Malkin sends the arena and everyone outside of it into a friend's. You remember those watch parties that they would show outside of Mellon Arena where all the fans would just be going nuts.

Heck, they did do them for PPGP's Arena. We've seen the pictures for 16 and 17 when the Penguins had a chance to win the cup, especially in 16 for game five against the sharks. Almost all of downtown had to be close because there's like two or three watch parties. There's one in Market Square, one right out. the arena. There's another one somewhere else I think in the city. It was absolutely nuts. But, you know, Crosby's, he gets mauled by Latang. And then Malkin gets there. He's screaming right over top of them. Detroit calls time out to calm their players down. And you just see the camera

panning to everyone in the arena. Everyone's going nuts. I remember Mario Lemieux has a smile on his face while the fans are going nuts. And I remember saying at the time, they can beat those dudes. They have what it takes to beat this team in a seven game series, and they went on to do it. Yeah, I know. The save from Mark Andre Fleury will forever live in my head, will forever live in your head and everyone that's listening to the show's heads.

But I knew they could beat this team once game four happened. They tied it up. They sent it back to Detroit. Yeah, I know. They lost game five. But they win game six. You have that infamous text message, of course, Pat, right before game seven.

and they go out there and they play the game of their lives. Yeah, I know. A lot of it was redlining out, especially in the third period, trying to defend that lead. But they still played their asses off in that game seven. And they took down an absolute juggernaut to win that Stanley Cup. That is still one of the best teams I've ever seen. The 08 team was better, but the 019 was still very good too.

For 2016, you know, nine years ago today, it's actually nine years ago today, I graduated high school as well. So it was a really nice high school graduation game. I've told that story on the show before, but that team was also a juggernaut for the penguins. They cooked the Rangers in the first round. They could have beaten that Kapp's team in five games in the second round. They beat a very good Tampa Bay team in seven games. It could have ended a little bit sooner if the Penguins had not kind of galaxy brain their

goal-tending situation for a little bit in that series. Also, Andre Vastislavski was so good before Tampa. But as I said on Wednesday, it would have been really cool to see Tampa at full health with Stancoast and Bishop. just to see how that series it would have gone. I still think it would have gone seven games, and I think the Penguins would have won, but it would be cool to see.

And then they absolutely blitzed that Sharks team in six games. That series also could have ended in five, if not from Martin Jones. But Chris LaTang, that's still the game of his life for me. The way that he played in that game, the way that he played throughout back up run, he easily could have won the Con Smyth.

That is the best hockey I have ever seen him play as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. the way path that he went all the way around the world in the offensive zone to score the game winner, the way that he played defensively in the third period. Heck, the way that the penguins defended in that third period was miraculous. They gave the sharks nothing that entire period. Textbook Suffication, textbook Mike Sullivan Hockey in his first season as head coach. They dominated that shark team.

That was a good sharks team too. When you look at the amount of high-end talent that they had, yeah, some of the guys were a bit older. That was still a damn, and I mean a damn good Sharks team. But again, I can't say enough about the way Crystal Teng played in that game and the way that he played overall throughout that run. He, as I said, he easily could have won the Kahn Smyth for that run. That's the craziest part. And the thing I'll connect what I said to start about this segment to where to speaking now is that 2009 felt like it was going to be the first of men.

It felt like this was a dynasty in waiting. This team was going to just win the cup every other year or every two years. And we know about the disappointments that happened between 10 and 16. 2016 to me is the cup that means so much more to me. And I don't want to downplay 09. I don't want to pretend like 2017 didn't matter. Every cup win matters. But 2016, there's a line that there's a great, I've referenced it on the show before,

there's a great column from the old Grantland days with Bill Simmons. He wrote a piece years ago when L.A. was on their cup runs. And it's still, I have it bookmarked. You can look it up on Google. It'll be the first result. There's a Bill Simmons column called The Consequence of Caring. And it's about his daughter becoming an L.A. Kings fan. and what fandom means to people.

And there's a part of it that always sticks out to me where he talks about when your team has a core that stays together for a long time, he compares it to having a dog where when it's a puppy, yeah, it's cute, it's fun, you have all these great memories. But when your dog starts to get a little bit older,

that's when like the great memories and things happen when you're really bonded with it. And that's how 2016 felt. We knew these guys. They had been here for more, for about a decade or more. And you, you were with them in the struggle. You were with them in the down, down times. They made the playoffs every year and even made a couple long runs.

But getting that cup in 2016 was just that sigh of relief of they were able to do it again. Yeah, because for a while, like a lot of these national people were saying like, oh, it might be time to move on from the Corps 3 in Pittsburgh. Oh, some of these guys are choke artists. They only have one cup and we're already in 2016. Well, they shut all those people up that year. And then especially in 2017, as we discussed on Wednesday for June 11th day, when they got their third Stanley Cup.

You're right. It was just a huge sigh of relief because they were able to get back to the top of the mountain after so many failed series after that year. You think of, you know, the year, that Crosby and Malkin were out against Tampa Bay, that one really stung just because they were both not able to play. You think of that game against that series, excuse me, against the Flyers, how they came completely undone. A lot of people were picking the Penguins to win the Cup that year. I remember it back when I was early in high school. You think of the next year in 2013. They get to the conference final. Literally, I remember going on ESPN, looking at the series predictions and all these other websites, everyone was picking to pick. Everyone was picking the Penguins, excuse me, to win that series, they get swept. And then you have that horrific choke against the Rangers. You then lose to the Rangers the next year.

And then you climb up the mountain. Third time was the charm against the Rangers in 16. You beat one of your other biggest rivals in the capitals. You beat a very good Tampa Bay team. And then also you dominate a very good Sharks team in the final. It was kind of just poetic justice for all of those failed playoff series after 09. Yeah. So the last thing I'll say too, because I can't let this segment end without making this point.

I know it's a forever debated topic about the 2016 run. Oh, it shouldn't have been Crosby. It shouldn't have been Cessel. You brought up LaTang. That's how good that 2016 team was. They had three legitimate cases to be made for the Con Smyth in Crosby, Kessel, and LaTang. argue with a wall people but let's hang over kessel for me and i think you could have made an argument for let's hang over crosbie i if people still want to say that i will not argue with you i think

he has a very valid case and also pat just before we end this segment it's been very busy on on london penguins these last few weeks with a lot of news we did miss june first day the 1992 sweep over the Chicago Blackcox, and we also missed, we're a couple weeks late, May 25th, the first Stanley Cup win in franchise history over the Minnesota North Stars. Do you remember anything from those runs, Pat? No, I was less than a year old and a year old for both of them, but I do remember the Stanley Cup VHS tapes. And because I know there's a bunch of hockey nerds like me who watched those as a lot as a kid, you mean May 25th, the Pittsburgh Penguins appointment with destiny.

Yeah. But that'll do it for our middle segment. We looked at the past. Now we got to look at the present. When we come back tonight is game four of the Stanley Cup final. We will talk about that really quick to end the show. But before we do that, we got to take a quick break. Stick with us.

We'll be right back. Back here on the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins, Patrick Damp, right alongside Hunter Hodes. And the big news coming into game four of the Stanley Cup final against the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers is the Edmonton Oilers are sticking with Stuart Skinner in net. This I kind of agree with because there has been because we had two days between games and that always leads to unhinged discourse. you look back at game three. Was Skinner good? Not in any way, shape, or form.

But can you put the loss on him? I don't think so. Does he need to be better? Yeah, he does need to be better. But Edmonton, as an entire 20-man roster, boy, they blew it. Stuart Skinner wasn't good, but he literally got no help from the rest of his skaters in game three.

The Oilers only had three, high danger chances at 5 on 5 in game 3. They got nothing from Connor and they got nothing from Leon, which is stunning just because they have been so damn good in these playoffs. Once again, that is the worst I have seen the Oilers play since games one and games two of their first round series against the Kings where they just got absolutely obliterated by the Kings before obviously coming back to win for straight against that team. And they will both need to be a lot better if they want to tie this up and make it a best of

three going back to Alberta. The Oilers kind of lost their way in game three. I kind of made this reference earlier this week where I felt like it was kind of like Penguins Flyers in 2012 where the Flyers did everything. They could have to get the Penguins off their game and they exactly did that. But the Panthers are also just such good at trolling the opposition. I kind of compare it to playing in like a multiplayer lobby, Call of Duty, any FPS shooter game where the guy on the.

other team is dropping 50 to 60 kills and you have proximity chat on and he's just trolling you guys on the other team trying to get a rise out of you and you snap and you get mad and that guy that drops 50 60 kills just he starts laughing he feeds off of it that's what the panthers are doing they were trolling the oilers they got them mad and they punched back and try to retaliate and you saw the panthers players skating off literally pointing at them and laughing because the panthers are experts at knowing how to troll the other team. They've been doing that for three years now, and they'll be any way you want. You want to do a 5-4-6-5 game? They'll do that. You want to play a 1-0-0-2-1 game. They'll also do that. And if you want to try to play like a bunch of rats against

them, oh, they'll throw it right back at you, and they'll do it better by trolling you pretty badly. So for the Oilers, they got to find another gear. Connor and Leon talked about that after the loss of game three. They have to find another gear tonight because you go down three games to one against this Panthers team, it's probably curtains. Yeah, I know. They need them three straight times last year before losing the series. I don't know if they're beating them three straight times here, even though game five will be in Alberta.

So they have to find a way to win this one. I get the point, but I stink at first person shooters. So I get the reference, but I just stink at them anyway. So that's kind of a reference over my head anyway. But yeah, I think the time off is actually going to work in. Edmonton's favor. The temperature can be cooled down, even though they are in Florida. But go read a book, go to the beach, have some good food, come back ready to go for game four. And the biggest thing is, to your point, do not try again to out Panther the Florida Panthers.

It's not going to work. They're just, they're too physical. They're too good at what they do. They are the masters at it. You can't play that game against. them you will lose. Get back to the things you were doing well. Counterpunch them. And the biggest thing that they're going to have to try to figure out, not just tonight, but for however long the rest of this series goes, their depth needs to wake up. The loss of Zach Hyman is becoming more and more apparent because what did we say about Edmonton all playoff? The first round, they needed Connor and Leon to be Connor and Leon or they weren't going to beat LA.

Connor and Leon woke up. They did the things they needed to do. The next two rounds. Connor and Leon had great moments because that's who they are, but they had a lot of help. They have not gotten a ton of help so far against Florida. If they can get some other guys chipping in, you get your help, you get your heroics from Connor and Leon like you always do.

They're going to be in a good spot. Hunter, before we finish, I'm just going to ask you. gut feel what happens tonight. I'm going to take the others to bounce back. I think they will win this game. Hopefully it's not the hashtag Hodes jinks here, but I think they will win this game and send it back to Alberta Tide. I took the orders in seven.

I'm going to stick by it. I'm right there with you. You know what they say? If you're going to win in seven, you got to lose three. So there we go. They're well on their way. And I think this is a more mature,

more motivated Edmonton team than we saw last year. They're ready to go. they were supposed to have an optional skate. I think it was on Tuesday and everybody showed up because Captain Connor was like, uh-uh, we don't do that here. We just got our doors blown off. We got to get back to work.

I think it's going to be a hungry, motivated Edmonton team that pushes this thing back to even and we get a best of three for the Stanley Cup. But that is going to do it for the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back with a. brand new episode for you on Friday, and it is fan take Friday. We will post a post on our YouTube channel as well as our Twitter account for you to send in whether it's questions, hot takes, you name it, and we will talk about them on our Friday show. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. We'll be back on Friday.