Ryan Reynolds Wants To Buy The Ottawa Senators. Would You Want Him To Buy Your Team?

This headline was a double take and then a double search. Twitter and google to make sure it's real because I NEVER thought I'd see Ryan Reynolds and "NHL Owner" in the same sentence. NHL teams are BIG money. Even the little Canadian ones. Forbes says the franchise value is $525M. The sale price would probably be much higher than that because the Seattle Kraken kind of set the floor with the expansion fee of $750M and the Penguins sold for $900M in a smallish market. I know Deadpool was a huge hit, I just didn't think Reynolds had the strings to pull to pool together enough money to buy a struggling hockey team. This isn't cute little Wrexham where you can make your investment back with selling a reality show to Hulu. This is an organization that has been a mess for a long time with a rink that is an hour from anything and further from the Stanley Cup. 

I think I would HATE to have Ryan Reynolds own my team simply because he is too lovable. He's fucking charming his humor and his kind eyes. That is the last thing I want as an owner. I want to see some old white dude who only speaks once a year so when things are going bad I have an easy time pointing the finger at a mysterious beast. I can pin all of my frustrations on George McCaskey in a way that I would never be able to do with Reynolds. Eugene Melnik seems like he was HATED by Senators fans. I feel like Reynolds could do all the same things Melnik did, but he'd get up in front of the camera, smile, make a funny little facial expression and a joke and everyone would forget why they were mad. He's a very hard guy to hate. Have you seen the movie "Definitely, Maybe"? It's fucking adorable. Just a guy trying to sort out his life and even when that character is awful to the people who love him, you still root for him and forgive him. That's how Reynolds lives every day and that is a bad place for a fan to be. 

The situation in Ottawa is a mess. The current ownership group is currently in a lawsuit over land that was supposed to be used for a new stadium. The current arena situation is a big problem. I feel like this is the best chance ever for the Quebec Nordiques to come back if an ownership group wants to come in and pitch relocation, but within Canada and without the need for any geographical realignment for the NHL Divisions. I am not personally rooting for that, but Quebec has the arena in place that Ottawa can't seem to get built. But maybe that is where Reynolds comes in. He just charms the city of Ottawa into building him a downtown arena because he's just so god damn nice. 

I do hope we get a "Welcome to Ottawa" or even a TV show about the purchasing process. Can you imagine that TV? Reynolds sitting across from Bettman in a board room. The most likable guy on the planet sitting across from the least likable face in sports. Give me that for an hour per week.