All 32 NHL Owners, Ranked From Worst to First

NHL owners have seen the value of their teams skyrocket in recent years.

While NHL franchises still lag behind their counterparts in the NBA, MLB and NFL in terms of value, they’ve actually seen their values skyrocket in the last decade just like the other three leagues.

It’s worth pointing out that, as a whole, NHL owners seem pretty invested in their hockey teams and have a genuine interest in seeing them succeed. They’re mostly great to really good to average, and there are only a few notable exceptions where one could really consider the owners genuinely awful.

Here’s a look at where all 32 NHL owners rank, from worst to first.

32. Ottawa Senators: Estate of Eugene Melnyk

Sean Kilpatrick / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $92 million (2003)

Current team value: $800 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: While Eugene Melnyk has been dead since March 2022, his name is still on the deed to the Ottawa Senators (as represented by the Melynk estate), so even in death, he’s making this franchise the worst ownership group in the NHL.

The Senators are expected to sell for approximately $900 million in the near future, but that will do little to erase the damage Melnyk did in 20 years with the team. It would be tough to categorize all of Melnyk’s transgressions — The Ringer’s Katie Baker already did a brilliant job laying it out — but believe us when we say, if Melnyk’s lips were moving, he was probably lying.

Note: Team values are current through August 2023.

31. Vancouver Canucks: Francesco Aquilini

Ted S. Warren / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $207 million (2005)

Current team value: $1.01 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Francesco Aquilini doesn’t seem like a very good guy. He’s been found guilty of ripping off migrant workers he employed and has been accused of horrific child abuse by his four adult children.

The Canucks are also as bad as they’ve ever been. The team made the playoffs twice in the last decade — a first-round and second-round loss — and not in the last three seasons.

30. San Jose Sharks: Hasso Plattner

bleedteal61 / Twitter

Purchase price (year): $147 million (2002)

Current team value: $740 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: German businessman Hasso Plattner has a staggering net worth of $17.9 billion, but it’s fair to question how he’s running the San Jose Sharks or which direction his ownership might be taking them — the franchise hasn’t made the postseason since 2019. Plattner had one of the all-time strangest quotes for an NHL owner back in 2013 when, after a decade of owning the team, he declared, “You cannot make money off a hockey team.”

Maybe that’s why the Sharks have one of the lowest operating incomes in the NHL at just $6.7 million per year.

29. Nashville Predators: Herb Fritch

LM Otero / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $174 million (2007)

Current team value: $810 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: This is a weird one to put on the list. Current Preds owner Herb Fritch is in the middle of a four-year payment plan with former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam to sell the team, and the deal’s final payment is expected in 2025. Regardless, it’s worth noting that the Predators play in one of the NHL’s best venues at Bridgestone Arena and have one of the best home cities.

How will Bill Haslam be as an owner? As one of the heirs to the Pilot Corporation, he isn’t the first person in his family to own a sports franchise, as his brother, Jimmy Haslam, owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. Let’s just hope Bill won’t be taking tips from Jimmy, who happens to be one of the NFL’s worst.

28. Buffalo Sabres: Terry and Kim Pegula

David Duprey / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $165 million (2011)

Current team value: $610 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: The husband-and-wife team of Terry and Kim Pegula is a different monster when it comes to NHL ownership — mainly because their other major sports investment is as owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

And here’s the thing … NFL teams require a lot of attention. And rightfully so. The Sabres seem to be collateral damage to the Pegulas owning the Bills — as the hockey team hasn’t made the NHL playoffs since they bought the team in 2011.

27. New York Rangers: James L. Dolan

John Minchillo / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $195 million (1997)

Current team value: $2.2 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: We don’t have James Dolan at the bottom of this list because it seems like he doesn’t really have much interest in the New York Rangers, which is probably a good thing for fans because he’s run the NBA’s New York Knicks into the ground for the last two decades. Imagine that when Dolan was the most invested in the team, which was right after he bought it in 1997, they missed the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons.

It’s worth pointing out the Rangers are the highest-valued team in the NHL at $2.2 billion. But that has nothing to do with who owns the team.

26. New Jersey Devils: David Blitzer and Josh Harris

Julio Cortez / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $320 million (2013)

Current team value: $960 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Josh Harris and David Blitzer spent approximately $600 million between 2011 to 2013 to buy the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils — the combined value of the teams in 2023 clocks in at just a shade over $4 billion.

Aside from a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2012, it’s been rough sledding for Harris and Blitzer since buying the Devils, with just two playoff appearances in the last decade. That said, the Devils have seen their valuation shoot up a whopping 24 percent from 2022 to 2023.

25. Pittsburgh Penguins: Fenway Sports Group

Lynne Sladky / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $900 million (2019)

Current team value: $990 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) — the same people who own the MLB’s Boston Red Sox and Liverpool soccer club — purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins from longtime owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle in 2019. It’s not clear what role Lemieux and Burkle still have in the Penguins other than stories about Lemieux maybe or maybe not getting along with the people at FSG.

The fact is the Penguins are facing a rebuild with star Sidney Crosby in the last act of a Hall of Fame career, and the franchise missed the postseason in 2023, ending a streak of 16 consecutive playoff appearances. Not great.

24. Columbus Blue Jackets: John P. McConnell

Columbus Blue Jackets owner John P. McConnell

Columbus Blue Jackets / YouTube

Purchase price (year): $253 million (2012)

Current team value: $620 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: John P. McConnell inherited the Columbus Blue Jackets after the death of his father, John H. McConnell, in 2008.

We’re still not sure how an NHL franchise can remain viable in Ohio or how the Blue Jackets are supposed to keep fans in the fold because they range from average to really bad most seasons. Columbus hasn’t had a winning record in three seasons and has never made the conference finals in 23 years as a franchise.

23. Florida Panthers: Vincent Viola

J Pat Carter / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $160 million (2013)

Current team value: $550 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: West Point grad and Brooklyn, New York, native Vincent Viola made a fortune on the stock market and bought the Florida Panthers in 2013 but looked into putting the team in his wife’s name in 2016 when President Donald Trump nominated him to be U.S. Secretary of the Army. (Viola eventually withdrew his name from consideration for the job.)

Viola’s horse, Always Dreaming, won the Kentucky Derby in 2017, and the Panthers lost in the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals to the Vegas Golden Knights, who are owned by another West Point grad in Bill Foley. If you’re wondering why the Panthers have such a low valuation, it’s probably because they’ve only made the playoffs eight times since losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996, and that includes each of the last three years.

22. Seattle Kraken: Jerry Bruckheimer, David Bonderman, Tod Leineke

Ted S. Warren / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $650 million (2018)

Current team value: $1.05 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 40 years, you should recognize the name of Seattle Kraken co-owner Jerry Bruckheimer, who is perhaps the greatest film and television producer of all time. Bruckheimer’s movie credits include “Flashdance” (1980), “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), “Top Gun” (1986), “Bad Boys” (1995), “Armageddon” (1998), “Remember the Titans (2001), the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Picture in 2023.

While the Kraken have only been around for two seasons, it’s pretty amazing that Seattle has an NHL team, and we can only hope that soon they’ll get an NBA team back as well.

21. Arizona Coyotes: Alex Meruelo

W.A. Harewood / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $300 million (2019)

Current team value: $450 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: The first Latino owner in NHL history, Alex Meruelo made his initial fortune with a pizza shop catering to Latino customers — La Pizza Loca. He turned that into a vast real-estate and media empire that includes television stations, radio stations and casinos.

The Coyotes have traditionally been one of the NHL’s worst-run franchises, and it’s probably too early in his tenure to judge Meruelo as a good owner or bad owner. It appears as if he’s going to move the team to a new arena in Mesa, so that’s something at least.

20. Minnesota Wild: Craig Leipold

Jim Mone / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $225 million (2008)

Current team value: $850 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: The Minnesota Wild are the second NHL franchise Craig Leipold has owned — he owned the Nashville Predators from their inception in 1997 but sold the team and bought the Minnesota Wild in 2008.

Leipold openly pines for the day he can bring a Stanley Cup to Minnesota, and his team is competitive year in and year out. This is what you want in an owner.

19. New York Islanders: Jon Ledecky and Scott D. Malkin

Mary Altaffer / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $485 million (2016)

Current team value: $1.02 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: When Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin completed their purchase of the New York Islanders in 2016 for $485 million, it ended a decades-long quest by Ledecky to become a majority owner in a pro sports franchise that included rejected bids to buy the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics and the Washington Nationals.

Ledecky and Malkin, who are former Harvard roommates, saw the value of the Islanders shoot up after buying them from one of the worst owners in pro sports history — Charles Wang — as the Islanders were an example of gross mismanagement for a long time. The Islanders deserved a great owner and finally got a few.

18. Anaheim Ducks: Henry Samueli

Kyusung Gong / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $70 million (2005)

Current team value: $725 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2007)

Bottom line: The son of Polish-Jewish immigrants who survived the Nazis’ occupation of Europe and showed up in the United States with almost nothing, Henry Samueli made a fortune as a genius engineer by co-founding the Broadcom Corporation — he now has a net worth of $6.3 billion.

Samueli purchased the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 2005 from the Walt Disney Corporation, and his first move was to change the name — by dropping the “Mighty.” In 2007, the Ducks became the first California team to win the Stanley Cup. The team is now worth 10 times what Samueli paid for them, but they’re terrible. Anaheim hasn’t made the playoffs since 2019 and is on its third head coach in five years. Not good.

17. Philadelphia Flyers: Brian L. Roberts

Todd Williamson / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $150 million (1996)

Current team value: $1.25 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Brian L. Roberts is the heir to the Comcast cable fortune and used some of that cash to make one of his best investments when he bought the Philadelphia Flyers for $150 million in 1996. The team is now valued at $1.25 billion and is one of the most recognizable brands in pro sports.

What the Flyers haven’t done since Roberts bought the team is win the Stanley Cup, and they haven’t advanced past the second round of the NHL playoffs since 2012.

16. Carolina Hurricanes: Tom Dundon

Carolina Hurricanes owner and CEO Tom Dundon

Gerry Broome / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $420 million (2018)

Current team value: $640 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2006)

Bottom line: Investment guru Tom Dundon appears to have turned around the fortunes of the Carolina Hurricanes in five short years as an owner — the “Bunch of Jerks” philosophy of the team recently has been pretty cool to behold.

The Hurricanes were arguably the worst-run team in the NHL until Dundon bought them from hated owner Peter Karmanos Jr. You certainly can’t say that anymore, as they’ve made the NHL playoffs every year since Dundon became owner after missing the postseason for the previous nine seasons before that.

15. Calgary Flames: N. Murray Edwards

Wikipedia

Purchase price (year): $16 million (1980)

Current team value: $855 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (1989)

Bottom line: If you know anything about how pro sports owners function, you know one of the main things they’re judged on is their ability to build a new arena for their team when the time comes and how they pull that off.

Ask any owner what the ideal situation is for building a new arena, and the answer will be … get the city and the people who live in it to pay for most of it. That’s exactly what Murray Edwards has done in Calgary, Canada — where you have to think he has the entire city (pop. 1.5 million) over a barrel whenever he wants something. So, don’t get it twisted … the Flames are the only show in town.

14. Winnipeg Jets: Mark Chipman and David Thomson

jetsarmy / Twitter

Purchase price (year): $170 million (2011)

Current team value: $650 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: There is no greater hero in Winnipeg than Mark Chipman — a Winnipeg native who played college football for the University of North Dakota and was a lawyer in Florida before returning home to form True North Sports & Entertainment in 2001.

Chipman’s decade-long vision quest for True North was to bring the NHL back to Winnipeg. He hit his mark in 2011 when he purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and brought them back home as the Winnipeg Jets — the same name of the old franchise that left to become the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996. Plus, the Jets have been decent since returning, making the playoffs in seven of the last 10 seasons.

13. Dallas Stars: Tom Gagliardi

JoshKotai / Twitter

Purchase price (year): $240 million (2011)

Current team value: $925 million

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Say this for Tom Gagliardi — dude was determined as anyone ever has been to own an NHL team. Gagliardi came agonizingly close to owning the Vancouver Canucks in 2004 and the Atlanta Thrashers (now the Winnipeg Jets) in 2010 before finally buying the Dallas Stars out of bankruptcy court in 2011.

While it’s not the heyday of the franchise from the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Stars have been super steady since Gagliardi took over — just one losing season in the last 13 years and a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2020. Gagliardi essentially saved hockey in Texas, not to mention the team has tripled in value since he bought it and should see a $1 billion valuation in the next few years.

12. Chicago Blackhawks: Danny Wirtz

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $1 million (1954)

Current team value: $1.5 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 4 (1961, 2010, 2013, 2015)

Bottom line: The Wirtz family has owned the Chicago Blackhawks since 1954 and has had sole control over the team since 1966. Under the leadership of the Wirtz family, the franchise has seen one of the worst owners in sports history (Bill Wirtz) to one of the best when his son, Rocky Wirtz, turned the franchise into a winner in the 2000s, including three Stanley Cup championships from 2010 to 2015.

After the death of Rocky in July 2023, his son, Danny Wirtz, has taken over. With just one playoff appearance since 2017 and once-in-a-generation prospect Conor Bedard now a Blackhawk after being taken No. 1 overall in the 2023 NHL Draft, the future seems bright in Chicago.

11. Los Angeles Kings: Philip Anschutz and Edward P. Roski

Reed Saxon / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $113.3 million (1995)

Current team value: $1.3 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 2 (2012, 2014)

Bottom line: Few people in the world of sports and entertainment wield more power than Los Angeles Kings owner Philip Anschutz, who also owns the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) — the largest owner of sports teams, venues and events in the entire world. Anschutz, who is also a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, founded Major League Soccer and also owns the Coachella Arts & Music Festival. He’s also the owner of two Stanley Cup championships with the Kings.

Anschutz’s public image makes him seem like a supervillain out of a comic book — he’s granted just three interviews in the last 40 years, with the last one being a story on the 20-year MLS anniversary in 2015. Plus, the man is certainly powerful. In 2006, President George W. Bush had a Supreme Court vacancy to fill and wasn’t even considering Neil Gorusch. Anschutz wrote a letter recommending him, and Gorusch became a Supreme Court justice.

10. Montreal Canadiens: The Molson Family

Montreal Canadiens president Geoff Molson

Paul Chiasson / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $575 million (2009)

Current team value: $1.85 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: Possibly Canada’s most well-known family of business people, the Molsons own the Montreal Canadiens with 52-year-old Geoff Molson serving as the team’s CEO. The Molsons paid a record $575 million for the Canadiens in 2009, which looks like a steal right now with a valuation that should surpass $2 billion in the next two years.

Of some cause for concern — the Canadiens haven’t been to the playoffs since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2021.

9. Vegas Golden Knights: Bill Foley

John Locher / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $500 million (2016)

Current team value: $965 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2023)

Bottom line: The Vegas Golden Knights have experienced unprecedented success in just six seasons as an expansion franchise, making it to the Stanley Cup Finals twice and winning it all in 2023 — all under the leadership of owner Bill Foley, a West Point grad.

When the Golden Knights began play, Foley promised to win a Stanley Cup in six years and delivered. What he didn’t deliver on is putting the actual name of the city in the team’s name because he thought a four-word name was too long and most people just call it “Vegas” instead of Las Vegas.

8. Toronto Maple Leafs: Larry Tanenbaum

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Larry Tanenbaum

Seth Wenig / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $1.263 billion (2012)

Current team value: $2 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: There’s a certain irony to the fact that, in Toronto, both the city’s MLB franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays, and its NBA franchise, the Toronto Raptors, have both won world championships in the time since the Toronto Maple Leafs last won a Stanley Cup in 1967.

Larry Tanenbaum, who also owns the Raptors, bought the Maple Leafs in 2012 for a staggering $1.2 billion, and the team is now the second-highest-valued NHL team at $2 billion. Were the Maple Leafs to ever win another Stanley Cup, it would be one of the biggest stories in the entire world of sports.

7. St. Louis Blues: Tom Stillman

St. Louis Blues Chairman and Governor Tom Stillman

Scott Kane / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $180 million (2012)

Current team value: $880 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2019)

Bottom line: One incredibly cool thing about the St. Louis Blues ownership group led by Tom Stillman is that it’s comprised of 100 percent local investors who saw the franchise win its first Stanley Cup championship in 2019.

Stillman is one of the NHL’s best owners, and the team has missed the playoffs just twice since he bought the team in 2012.

6. Washington Capitals: Ted Leonsis

Alex Brandon / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $85 million (1999)

Current team value: $1.2 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2018)

Bottom line: If you’re an NBA fan — specifically a fan of the Washington Wizards — then you know the main criticism of Ted Leonsis as a basketball owner is that he cared more about his hockey team, the Capitals, than his basketball team.

If you’re a Capitals fan … that’s great! Leonsis and his ownership team’s single-minded focus on bringing a championship to D.C. paid off when they won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. In 2011, Leonsis even claimed to have written a computer program that prevented Pittsburgh fans from buying tickets for a first-round playoff series against the Capitals.

What else can you ask for as an NHL fan?

5. Colorado Avalanche: Ann Walton Kroenke

Brennan Linsley / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $202 million (2000)

Current team value: $860 million

Stanley Cups as owner: 2 (2001, 2022)

Bottom line: Ann Walton Kroenke owns the Colorado Avalanche and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets seemingly in name only after her husband, Stan Kroenke, transferred ownership to her when he moved his NFL franchise from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2015. But their son, Josh Kroenke, runs both Colorado-based teams.

Most importantly, the Avalanche stayed in the Kroenke family, and that means they’re always going to have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. In the last three years, the Kroenke family has won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams (2021), Stanley Cup with the Avalanche (2022) and an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets (2023).

4. Boston Bruins: Jeremy Jacobs

Winslow Townson / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $10 million (1975)

Current team value: $1.4 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 1 (2011)

Bottom line: Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is a second-generation owner of professional sports franchises, and his family’s fortune has included ownership of teams dating back to the 1930s.

Jacobs’ purchase of the Bruins in 1975 for $10 million — the equivalent of $56.7 million in 2023 — has proven to be one of the great sports investments of all time, with the Bruins now valued at $1.4 billion. Jacobs is hated by the players but beloved by the owners, mainly for his role in the 2012-2013 NHL strike. But you can’t argue with the facts that everything he does has pushed the value of his franchise up, that his team operates with almost no debt and that it’s one of the most profitable teams each year.

Jacobs is 83 years old, and even though he’s turned over CEO duties of the Bruins to his son, Charlie, he still has a major role in team decisions. He’s an example of good ownership, which included sometimes making hard business decisions.

3. Edmonton Oilers: Daryl Katz

Jimmy Jeong / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $170-$200 million (2008)

Current team value: $1.275 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: None

Bottom line: The heir to his father’s drugstore empire, Daryl Katz purchased the Edmonton Oilers for approximately $200 million in 2008 — 15 years later, that investment has proven to be one of the greatest in NHL history, as the team is now valued at $1.275 billion.

Katz, who has a net worth of approximately $4.6 billion, is also responsible for bringing the new Rogers Place arena to Edmonton in 2016, which serves as the center of the city’s ICE District. Imagine if the Oilers were to win another Stanley Cup?

2. Tampa Bay Lightning: Jeffrey Vinik

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $93 million (2010)

Current team value: $1 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 2 (2020, 2021)

Bottom line: Jeffrey Vinik’s investment in the Tampa Bay Lightning and the greater Tampa area has been nothing short of a genius business move — he purchased the franchise for $93 million in 2010, and they’re now valued at $1 billion.

On the ice, the Lightning has become one of the NHL’s marquee franchises with back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 and two more Stanley Cup Finals appearances in 2015 and 2022. Since he bought the team in 2010, Vinik has seen his teams play in the Stanley Cup Finals or conference finals seven times and only missing the postseason three times.

1. Detroit Red Wings: Ilitch Holdings

Paul Sancya / AP Photo

Purchase price (year): $8.5 million (1982)

Current team value: $1.03 billion

Stanley Cups as owner: 4 (1997, 1998, 2002, 2008)

Bottom line: Former minor league baseball player Mike Ilitch and his wife, Marian, opened the first Little Caesars pizza restaurant in 1959 outside of Detroit — it would be the building block for a multibillion-dollar fortune.

The Ilitchs purchased the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings in 1982 and the MLB’s Detroit Tigers in 1992, paying just under $90 million for the two teams, which are worth a combined $2.5 billion in 2023. Both teams have won championships since, with the Red Wings winning four Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

The Iltich’s youngest son, Christopher, has been the CEO of the Red Wings, Tigers and Little Caesars since 2010. They’re one of the most respected ownership groups in all of professional sports.