Report: Former NHL player leading group to buy the Ottawa Senators

In case you missed the news late last night, the Ottawa Senators announced that longtime owner Eugene Melnyk passed away at just 62 years old.

Melnyk had been privately battling an undisclosed illness for awhile, but the news of his health was never made public so the announcement was quite a shock to the entire hockey world. Sure, Melnyk wasn't the most popular owner in the NHL and the team's fanbase has been very vocal about replacing him for years now... but I don't think even the most hardened #MelnykOut supporter would wish death upon the man.

The fact of the matter is that hockey is just a game that we all love and make a bigger deal out of than we should. It's not life or death and it takes moments like this to reflect that we all need to take a step back every now and then to appreciate the more important things in life. RIP, Mr. Melnyk and thoughts go out to the entire Melnyk family and the Sens organization.

As for the Senators moving forward, it's unclear what will happen to the team's ownership structure. I have to imagine that the team is owned by Melnyk's estate but it could take years for that to be resolved. In the meantime though, Senators insider Shawn Simpson reports that there's no shortage of interested buyers, including one group led by a former NHL player.

Check it out:

Wow... now I can't imagine there's a former NHL player out there with the type of money required to buy an NHL team, but it's not unreasonable to imagine that a former NHL player could be part of a larger ownership group. In fact, former Senators captain and franchise icon Daniel Alfredsson has been outspoken in his desire to get into ownership and he obviously has ties to the organization. I'm just spitballing here, but Alfredsson seems like a natural to take over as the Senators' owner following Melnyk.

Of course, I could be completely out to lunch... 

Still, it'll be interesting to see how things get resolved in Ottawa following Melnyk's passing.