Madden Monday: 'Extremely slim' chances of selling Penguins back to Mario Lemieux are 'a tempest in a teapot'

After a week off, the “Madden Monday” podcast is back at “Breakfast With Benz.” One topic of discussion that cropped up while we were gone was the potential sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

On Wednesday, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun mentioned he was hearing that former Penguins owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux — along with former team president David Morehouse — are “investigating the possibility” of buying back the hockey club from Fenway Sports Group.

Hearing from sources that the group of Ron Burkle, Mario Lemieux and David Morehouse are investigating the possibility of buying back the Penguins from Fenway Sports. Burkle and Lemieux sold the Penguins to Fenway in 2021. Fenway has been looking to sell a partial share. Will be…

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 11, 2025

Given Lemieux’s legendary status within the organization, as well as the team’s on-ice failures since FSG acquired the franchise on New Year’s Eve of 2021, that report generated a lot of buzz within Pittsburgh.

Both Lemieux and Burkle still maintain a minority interest in the Penguins. But Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X says there may not be much to it.

“I think this is a tempest in a teapot in relevance to the chances of it actually happening, which are slim,” Madden said. “I mean, extremely slim.”

FSG has been pursuing selling a minority share since early 2025 in order to raise equity in the franchise. The corporation is insisting that’s as far as any sale may go.

The report came as a surprise for many reasons. First of all, why would FSG want to dump the Pens after securing the purchase less than four full seasons ago?

“I think Fenway didn’t understand, and still doesn’t get — well, they’re disappointed by — how hockey’s revenue streams really don’t expand, and they can’t be added on to, as with Premier League Soccer (Liverpool FC) and Major League Baseball (the Boston Red Sox). And there’s a salary cap to deal with too,” Madden said. “In short, I really don’t think they got hockey before they bought in.”

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Second, after cashing out so recently, why would Lemieux, Burkle and Morehouse want to get back in?

“I’m not sure they do,” Madden said. “I think this may have been casual (interest). I don’t know. I do know that the first I heard about it was when Pierre LeBrun broke the story. And if it was really serious, let alone imminent, I can’t believe I wouldn’t have heard about it earlier.”

Madden also thinks fans may be overestimating the on-ice results if Lemieux and his partners regained control.

“People act like Lemieux owning the team again would be the instant fix and make the team great on the ice again,” Madden said. “It’s frustrating, because I don’t think Fenway has done a perfect job. But I think they’ve been far from the reason the team isn’t what it was. It was just a natural regression, because their key players got older.”

Also, during the podcast, Madden gets into some aspects of Dan Muse being hired as the franchise’s new coach. We talk about Aaron Rodgers showing up for the Steelers’ minicamp while T.J. Watt stayed away. Plus, we discuss Paul Skenes, the Pirates’ lack of offense and the U.S. Open.