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Melnyk doesn’t care what the Sens are worth, because he’s not selling

Eugene Melnyk

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk doesn’t care about the latest Forbes NHL franchise estimates that put a $380 million value on his club.

Nope -- even though $380 million is considerably higher than the $220 million it was pegged at a year ago -- it just doesn’t matter to him.

“You know who’s going to be interested in that?” Melnyk said today on TSN 1200 radio (audio). “My estate. Because that’s what it’s going to take to sell this team.”

Finances are a constant hot topic when it comes to Melnyk and his team. The Sens currently operate under a strict internal budget, considerably below the league’s salary cap, with Melnyk justifying the relative frugality by claiming he’s lost over $100 million since he took ownership of the club in 2003.

On that note, it’s interesting that Forbes estimated the Sens actually had a positive operating income of $6.8 million last season.

How can that be when Melnyk is claiming significant annual losses? Probably in large part because operating income doesn’t include interest (as well as taxes, depreciation and amortization), and the Sens are reportedly paying a lot of interest on the debt the club is carrying.