Eugene Melnyk obit

 

Longtime Senators owner Melnyk passes away at age 62

He was not on the list.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has died from an illness, the team said Monday night. He was 62.

The team announced Melnyk's death with a statement from his family that mentioned “an illness he faced with determination and courage.” The statement did not explain what the illness was, and a team spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking additional details.

Melnyk had a liver transplant in 2015 after a public campaign for a donor. He had owned the Senators since 2003, when he bought the NHL club for $92 million. Ottawa reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, losing in five games to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Toronto native was involved in other businesses around Canada and in 2010 had an estimated net worth of $1.21 billion.

Melnyk bought the Senators after Rod Bryden’s deal to reacquire the franchise was unsuccessful.

“The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “The words ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’ define the man who has owned the Ottawa Senators since 2003.

“While successful in business, it was our game and his Senators that he was most passionate about. Eugene was often outspoken but he maintained an unwavering commitment to the game and his roots and he loved nothing more than donning a Senators sweater and cheering on his beloved team. On behalf of the entire National Hockey League, I extend my deepest sympathies to Eugene’s daughters, Anna and Olivia, his extended family, and all those who benefited from his generosity.”

Senators captain said in a tweet: “Mr. Melnyk provided me, my teammates, and many Sens players who came before us with an opportunity to live out our dream. The Ottawa community will miss you greatly. Condolences to your family.”

Melnyk was also a successful thoroughbred horse-racing breeder, twice being named Canada’s top owner. His horses won all three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown, including Archers Bay capturing the ’98 Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes en route to being named Canada’s champion three-year-old male.

In 2013, Melnyk reduced his horse-racing operation and went from breeding to purchasing yearlings and racing those instead. Melnyk was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.

n 2017 Melnyk told reporters that he would be open to the idea of moving the franchise to a different city if the fanbase didn't make efforts to increase attendance at Senators' home games. When pressed by reporters to clarify whether or not he would consider moving the team out of Ottawa, Melnyk replied, "If it becomes a disaster, yes. If you start not seeing crowds showing up, yes."

In early 2018, some fans in Ottawa had gradually become disillusioned with Melnyk's management style and perceived unwillingness to spend the money needed to build a championship-caliber team. This came after the Senators fell just one overtime goal shy of reaching the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals, and resulted in pressure from the Senators' fanbase for a change in team ownership in 2018, which culminated in a crowdfunding campaign to pay for billboards to go up across Ottawa. Despite the backlash, Melnyk often stated on the record that he had no intention of selling the franchise.

On September 11, 2018, the Senators released a video online in which Melnyk outlined the franchise's plans for a rebuild. The video received considerable criticism from fans and media for its awkward presentation and for the owner's own characterization of his team as being "in the dumpster."[21] The relationship between Melnyk and Senators' fans further deteriorated at the 2019 trade deadline when the Senators traded away their leading scorers and remaining core players, Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Mark Stone, all of whom were well liked in the community. Despite earlier promising to make every effort to re-sign the star players, Melnyk later contradicted himself when he was quoted as saying that trading away Mark Stone had been "[planned] for some time" as part of the rebuild.

In November 2018, Melnyk was accused of being behind newly created and suspicious Twitter accounts began appearing, all of which praised Melnyk's performance while attacking his detractors. The Twitter accounts largely targeted certain writers who covered the Senators for local newspapers the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun, making similar claims that these writers had treated Melnyk unfairly. Speculation immediately arose that these were bot accounts and not real human beings. A subsequent investigation conducted by the Ottawa Citizen revealed that, although the bots could not be conclusively traced back to Melnyk, they were "created to launch a co-ordinated disinformation campaign and to attack media coverage of the Sens while lauding the team and its owner Eugene Melnyk".

In 2016, the Ottawa Senators in partnership with the City of Belleville, Ontario announced that Melnyk purchased the American Hockey League franchise which was currently located in Binghamton, New York, and that the team would relocate to Belleville, Ontario for the 2017–18 season. The team agreed on an eight-year lease to welcome the Belleville Senators to the city. The Belleville Senators are the Ottawa Senators' AHL affiliate team.

On September 16, 2008, Melnyk proposed plans for an Ottawa Major League Soccer professional soccer team, and a new soccer-specific Ottawa Soccer Stadium but could not obtain support from Ottawa's municipal Council. Instead, the Mayor and Council chose a different site for the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Redblacks franchise.

In 2009, Melnyk served as chairman of the IIHF World U20 Championship.

Business ventures

    Ottawa Senators (NHL Team)

    Canadian Tire Centre (Multi-purpose Arena and home of the Ottawa Senators)

    Trimel Pharmaceuticals Corporation

    Biovail Corporation (retired), formerly known as Trimel Pharmaceuticals (same name as Melnyk's new pharmaceutical company)

    Bert's Bar (Barbados)

    Bert's Bar (Ottawa)

    Providence Charitable Trust

    Providence Elementary and Secondary schools

    Winding Oaks Farm (Florida, USA)

    Clean Beauty Collective Inc. (Cosmetics & Fragrances)

    Olivann (Fragrance)

    PurGenesis Technologies Inc.

    Barbados real estate

    Neurolign Technologies Inc.

    Belleville Senators

Melnyk was involved with various charitable organizations. His primary charitable focus is on helping children and the elderly. His involvement has included:

    Honorary Director of Help Us Help the Children (HUHC), a humanitarian organization that benefits from his annual donation of medical supplies and clothing. The organization, founded in Canada, helps to offer vital care to over 100,000 children living in 220 orphanages scattered throughout Ukraine.

    Donated $1.8 million to St. Michael's College School to upgrade the field with new state-of-the-art artificial grass, stadium lights, sound system, and an electronic scoreboard. This field is called "The Eugene Melnyk Sports Field".[43][44] Melnyk has made several significant donations to the school making him the single largest individual donor in the 150+ year history of the St. Michael's College School.

    Donated $1 million to the Belmont Child Care Association for the construction of a child care center at Belmont Park. Called Anna House, it is named after one of his two daughters and the center is the first facility in the United States to be located on the grounds of a racetrack. The center provides child care for all families who work at Belmont Park regardless of their ability to pay for services. Many of the children belong to grooms, exercise riders and other behind-the-scenes racetrack employees.

    Donated to finance the elaborately decorated Ukrainian, Byzantine Catholic chapel at the St. Demetrius Residence Centre for the elderly in Toronto.

    Donated $1 million to launch the foundation "Patrons of Sport" with Canadian Athletes Now Fund (CAN Fund). The foundation supports Canadian athletes.

    Honorary Patron of the St. Joseph's Health Centre; Donated $5 million to St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto to help improve patient access to one of Toronto's oldest hospitals. Eugene's father, the late Dr. Ferdinand Melnyk, was instrumental in creating the hospital's first emergency room department that now services the largest volume of patients of any single site hospital in the Greater Toronto Area. This donation was the single, largest private donation in the 86-year history of St. Joseph's Health Centre.

    In April 2007, Melnyk made a special surprise visit to Kandahar, Afghanistan to deliver a special donation of hockey equipment to Canadian and United States troops involved in the NATO rebuilding efforts in that country.

    The Ottawa Senators Foundation is the second largest charity in Ottawa/Gatineau region. His involvement with this Foundation has led him to become a Founding Partner of an ambitious and innovative $4.5 million pediatric palliative care facility in Ottawa called Roger's House which he helped to officially open in April 2006 and is only the second facility of its kind in North America.

    Hosts the "Eugene Melnyk Skate for Kids" event at Canadian Tire Centre every year where he donates Senators jerseys, helmets and brand new skates to hundreds of underprivileged children living in Ottawa.

    In 2014 Melnyk spearheaded a campaign to boycott sponsors of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in order to push FIFA to remove the event from Russia, out of protest for its war with Ukraine.

Melnyk was born in Toronto, Ontario, on May 27, 1959, the son of Ferdinand and Verna Melnyk, who were both born in Ukraine. He was a Canadian citizen and also a resident of Barbados.

In July 2019, Melnyk was sued by Connecticut casino Mohegan Sun for more than US$1 million over a gambling dispute that occurred in 2017. The casino alleged that Melnyk failed to make good on a US$900,000 debt when multiple bank drafts totalling the amount were "dishonored" by TD Bank. Melnyk claimed the casino refused his requests to cash him out when he was winning, and his lawyer Jonathan Katz alleged that the casino "induced" Melnyk to continue playing by refusing to cash him out when his play had led to winning "significant amounts of money".