According to Thomas Williams of Yahoo! Sports on Monday, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk of Toronto, Ontario passed away at the age of 62. We know at this time Melnyk passed away of an illness, but we do not know the type of illness at this time. In addition to owning the Ottawa Senators, he also owned the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League.
Melnyk bought the Ottawa Senators on August 26, 2003 for $92 million. At the time, the Senators were facing bankruptcy. During the Senators time while Melnyk was the owner, Ottawa reached the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals before losing in five games to the Anaheim Ducks. They also reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2013, and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. On each occasion, the Senators were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the Ontario Hockey League, Melnyk owned two teams. He owned the St. Michael’s Majors and the Mississauga IceDogs. Prior to Melnyk owning the IceDogs, the team was owned by the famous hockey broadcaster, Don Cherry of Kingston, Ontario. Melnyk was also involved in Canadian horse racing by owning several horses and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
In 2017, Melnyk was ranked as the 79th wealthiest Canadian with a net worth of $1.21 billion. Among the companies he owned were the Trimel Corporation (which was a medical publishing company he sold to Thompson Corporation in 1989), and was the founder of the pharmaceutical company, Biovail Corporation.
