New York Islanders Draw Ownership Interest

The New York Post reported that Minnesota Wild owner Phil Falcone may be seeking ownership of the New York Islanders.  Falcone reportedly is at odds with majority Wild owner Craig Leipold, and is friends with fellow Harvard alum (and former Capitals owner) Jon Ledecky.  Ledecky and London financier Scott Malkin are awaiting NHL approval to purchase a minority stake in the Islanders from current owner Charles Wang.

What makes this report intriguing is that it states Ledecky and Malkin are only buying a 10% stake in the team at this point, apparently with the hopes of lining up others to provide the capital to take majority ownership within the next two years.  If Falcone and Ledecky are friends as the report states, and if Falcone is not happy with how the Wild deals with its revenue losses, than he may be a strong candidate to join the Islanders ownership group.

We’ve all seen how willing the Wild have been to spend money recently.  Considering the fact that Zach Parise and Ryan Suter both inked deals with Minnesota worth $98 million each in 2012, along with the $47.5 million in contracts handed out to Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville it would be a welcome change in philosophy from what Islanders fans are used to.  One of the many knocks on Charles Wang has been his inability to attract free agents to the island, yet Falcone and Leipold had no issues attracting big names to Minnesota.  Hopefully the move to Brooklyn will be intriguing to talent from outside the organization, but keeping the young talent that is already here needs to be a priority as well.  Kyle Okposo will be an unrestricted free agent after next season, and John Tavares will reach free agency after the 2016-17 campaign.  If the Islanders are going to be serious contenders year in and year out, it’s obvious that both Tavares and Okposo will need to be extended, and those extensions will not come cheap.

Only time will tell how this will all shake out, but Islander fans have every reason to be excited about this seemingly imminent sale.  Stay with eyesonisles.com for updates all season long.