Fenway Sports Group formally takes over Penguins

Thomas Werner picked a good night to catch the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Wednesday’s contest at PPG Paints Arena against the St. Louis Blues had a listed 17,921 fans in attendance, a few busloads shy of a sellout.

With the pandemic still a daily reality, there haven’t been many nights this season the Penguins could boast a figure that high.

As the chairman of Fenway Sports Group, the new majority owners of the Penguins, Werner was happy to see that on a lot of levels.

“These fans are here for a night of great hockey,” Werner said while talking with a group of local reporters during the first intermission. “I really care very much, personally, about the experience these fans have. … We, obviously, hope the Penguins win tonight, but we hope when they go home, that they have had a good experience that was easy to come here. … We care about the total experience. We are very appreciative of people that come out. I’m also aware that the television ratings for the Penguins are the highest in the National Hockey League.

“That’s one of the reasons we were excited about this franchise is that we know the fanbase is loyal and intelligent.”

Fenway Sports Group officially took over stewardship of the Penguins on Dec. 31 and is in the embryonic stages of looking over what it has acquired.

On Tuesday, Fenway’s leadership met with the Penguins’ leadership, including a lengthy meeting with coach Mike Sullivan after practice in Cranberry.

“We are very happy with the team right now with the play on the ice,” Werner said. “I think Mike Sullivan is one of the great coaches in the NHL. I told him that to his face yesterday, and (president of hockey operations Brian Burke) said, ‘You know he’s going to ask for a contract extension.’

“We look at this very differently than when we got involved with the Red Sox. When we got involved with the Red Sox (in 2002), they hadn’t won a World Series in 84 years. This is a team that is an outstanding team on and off the ice. It’s got a great role in the community. I care very much about our relationship, not just to the fans but the community in Pittsburgh. We are just lucky to be stewards of the franchise right now.”

Part of those custodial duties include entrusting the hockey decisions with those already making them.

“We give a lot of responsibility to the people who are involved day-to-day with these clubs,” Werner said. “As I said, we’ve got great confidence in (Burke) and (general manager Ron) Hextall and Mike Sullivan. We’re going to be in communication with them. We certainly expect to have daily discussions with them. We’ve got great confidence in them. It’s not up to me to decide who’s the forwards and who’s the goalie.”

One thing Werner and company already have decided is that the Penguins will remain a team that spends to the upper limits of the NHL’s salary cap.

“Listen, if you have money and you have brains, hopefully, you’ll be successful,” Werner quipped when asked about the payroll.

It remains to be seen if any future success will involve forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, each franchise icons who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this upcoming offseason.

“We’ve got great confidence in the three people running the hockey operations,” Werner said. “I believe the Penguins have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this year. There’s no dominant team that I think is the class of the field. We’re on an eight-game winning streak. As it relates to Letang and Malkin, we know they want to stay here. And we’d like them to stay here. We know what they mean to Pittsburgh. Beyond that, I’ll leave it to Hextall and (Burke).”

One potential transaction Werner is a little more bullish on is the development of the site the Civic Arena sat on. For most of the past decade, it has been little more than a collection of parking lots.

On Wednesday, Werner along with Penguins chief executive officer and president David Morehouse as well as chief operating officer and general counsel Kevin Acklin met with Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey to discuss the site.

“We’ve had some good conversations today with the elected officials,” Werner said. “We know that there’s an opportunity here. We’re going to work with the community groups. One of the things that I said is we like to under-promise and over-deliver. So we don’t have a timetable right now. But we think that if you look back that development parcel in a few years, it will be quite different than what it is right now.”

Time will tell how different the Penguins will be under Fenway Sports Group. But it’s apparent their leaders have a great appreciation for what they’ve acquired.

“This is an iconic club with a great history,” Werner said. “We are privileged to be involved with the Penguins.”