NHL Board of Governors approves sale of Lightning to Doug Ostrover

On Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman reported that, among other things, the NHL’s Board of Governors approved the sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning to Doug Ostrover and his ownership group. The approval was a bit of a formality and it won’t affect the day-to-day operation of the club as current owner Jeff Vinik plans on being involved for years to come. Friedman did mention that the valuation of the club in regards to this sale is at $1.8 billion, which is a pretty nice sum for a franchise that many thought would never last when they began play back in the early 1990s.

As we discussed when this news originally broke back in August, it won’t be an immediate takeover by Ostrover once the deal is finalized. Heck, at this point, there doesn’t even seem to be a time table for when the deal will be done. The Board of Governors approval is a necessary step, but isn’t accelerating anything. Mr. Vinik will continue to sign the checks and, as he has in the past, leave the hockey stuff to the hockey people.

Sportnet’s Eric Engels reports that Ostrover and his business partner, Marc Lipschultz, will be acquiring a 54% stake of the team that can/will grow up to 60% within three years.

Through the charitable wing of the organization, Mr. Vinik continues to give back to the community as it was recently announced that the Lightning Foundation will be donating $2 million to Hurricane Helene relief efforts. Victor and Sanna Hedman also pledged $150,000 of their own money to help the community out following the storm.

Other items of note from Friedman’s Tweet Thread were:

• The league told the Board of Governors that they would start talking to the NHLPA about a new CBA some time after the first of the year. The current deal is set to expire following the 2025-26 season.
• The first estimations of next year’s salary cap is $92.5 million.
• Speaking of salary caps, Columbus has been granted an exception to be below the cap floor for this season. They are estimated to be about $1.4 million below the bottom limit at this point, but will likely acquire a veteran forward which would add some salary to their total. Additional reporting by Aaron Portzline states that a $2 million signing bonus that was paid to the late Johnny Gaudreau will count towards the cap total (which brings them within the $1.4 million). The league waived the deadline of October 7th for the Blue Jackets to be cap compliant with the expectation that they will be over the threshold in a “reasonable time”.
• As of right now, there has been no additional discussion of expansion.