The Hoffmann Family of Companies has a vivid portfolio of brands from A to Z, quite literally.
From Admiral Signs — which manufactures signs of all types for everything ranging from churches to restaurants — to Ziglin Signs — another entity in the same exact field — the Hoffmann group, which refers to itself as HF Companies, is involved in seemingly just about every walk of life.
Those walks include:
• A cruise boat that tours the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
• Plastic moldings for car parts
• A marina
• An air ambulance service
• A vineyard in Missouri
• Medical beds
• A chocolate factory in Louisiana that claims to be the “second-largest heart box manufacturer in the country”
• Inflight headsets
• A lumber provider in Michigan
• Newspapers
• A distributor of organic herbs and greens
• Truck trailers
• E-bike tours
One holding stands out from the others, if only because it has a spectacular name.
The Florida Everblades.
That is a professional hockey team based in Estero, Fla. that competes in the ECHL. And ever since HF Companies bought them in 2019, the Everblades have been one of the model franchises of that league, which is essentially hockey’s equivalent of Double-A baseball.
HF Companies, founded by David Hoffmann, purchased the team from Peter Karmanos Jr., the former owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
Hertz Arena, the Everblades’ home, was also part of the transaction.
“We’ve been looking to buy a professional sports team for probably three or four years,” Hoffmann said in an interview with the Naples Daily News in 2019. “We got close with an NBA team and we got close with an NHL team. I live in Naples, so I’m a resident. I went to a few Everblades games with my kids and grandkids. We got kind of jazzed up about it.”
Hoffmann, 73, is in the process of singing a similar tune with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Friday, it was announced HF Companies agreed to purchase the Penguins from Fenway Sports Group.
Speculation of negotiations between the Hoffmann and Fenway parties came to light over the summer, then on Wednesday, word broke that an agreement was reached. Two days later, each party announced the agreement.
A spokesperson for David Hoffmann declined to comment to TribLive on Thursday.
How Hoffmann might steer the Penguins remains to be seen, though in Friday’s statement, it was revealed president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas would remain in his post.
Any transaction is subject to approval by the NHL’s Board of Governors, typically a formality that faces little objection.
Hoffmann’s stewardship of the Everblades offers some insight as to how his group might helm the Penguins.
Upon purchasing the Everblades and the arena, Hoffmann almost immediately began renovating Hertz Arena.
“When the deal closed, it was on a Thursday,” Everblades president Craig Brush said to TribLive by phone. “I have home in Michigan, so I went back for the weekend. And I came back on Monday morning and all the suites had been gutted. Literally down to the cement and put back in 30 days.
“Anything he sees that can enhance the fan experience, he’s anxious to do it.”
Portions of the building — 21 years old at that juncture — were upgraded “to the Hoffmann standard,” David Hoffman boasted to the Naples Daily News at the time. “We have 29 buildings in town and every one we bought we’ve renovated. That’s kind of what we do. This is kind of in our wheelhouse.”
What exactly is the Hoffmann standard?
“We had to learn the Hoffmann standard,” said Brush, who helped found the Everblades in 1998. “He finally explained to me, ‘I want this place to look like a Ritz Carlton.’ There were a few anxious moments because we thought we were doing what he wanted but that standard is very high. He wants people to eat off the floors and nothing out of place. We’re constantly painting and doing things just to make sure it looks the way he likes it.”
Those changes have led to a fairly full house most nights at Hertz Arena. Last season, the Everblades had an average attendance of 6,758 people per game, the sixth-best figure in the ECHL, which had 29 teams during the 2024-25 campaign.
In contrast, during the 2018-19 season, the final campaign under the Karmanos regime, the Everblades averaged 5,586 people per game, the ECHL’s seventh-best figure at that time.
The fan experience was upgraded under Hoffmann, but perhaps the best way to entice someone to buy a ticket is to have a winner.
A reliably competitive entity in their first 21 seasons under Karmanos, the Everblades missed the postseason only once during that time and won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup in 2012, reaching the final series on four occasions.
But once Hoffmann purchased them, they began to make history.
After the final months of the 2019-20 season were canceled due to the pandemic, the Everblades became the first ECHL team to win the Kelly Cup three consecutive seasons between 2022 and ‘24.
YOUR FLORIDA EVERBLADES ARE 3 TIME KELLY CUP CHAMPIONS pic.twitter.com/H6kdFib6Hl
— Florida Everblades (@FL_Everblades) June 9, 2024
The architect of much of that success on the ice was Brush and Brad Ralph, who serves as head coach and general manager.
When Hoffmann took over, he retained Brush and let him run the club.
“Dave’s a good luck charm,” Brush quipped. “Everything Dave does turns out well. When he came in — we built the arena in 1998 — it was ready for improvement, which he noted right away. He started spending money and really upgraded the arena to today’s standards. I think that has an overall bearing on the fans. They’re more excited to come to the building. Our team noticed that. We’ve had a good coach for along time and a goalie that’s been with us for a number of years as well. And it all just started to come together for us.
“Certainly, Dave was the catalyst to this all.”
The ECHL has a salary cap and that figure was $14,600 per week for the bulk of the 2024-25 season. So the Everblades couldn’t just outspend other ECHL teams for the best talent available.
But they directed their financial resources in other ways.
“We have a salary cap in our league that applies not just to salaries and things that you do for the players,” Brush said. “We do everything we’re allowed to do. When a team goes on the road, we’re going to eat meals in good places and stay in the best hotels we can, things of that nature. Playoffs, if we need to fly to a game, we’re going to do that. We’ve gone on private planes too. Two years in the finals, we’ve rented private planes. He’s prepared to do that to help the team win.”
And Hoffmann is willing to reward winning.
“He owns a golf course,” Brush said. “And the first year that we won, he gave lifetime memberships to all the players on the team.”
To be certain, the ECHL and the NHL operate at decidedly different levels, particularly as it pertains to compensation for players, coaches and front office management. Spending the money necessary to help the Penguins remain one of the NHL’s model franchises is challenging, even for someone with an estimated worth of $2 billion according to Forbes.
Assuming its pursuit of the Penguins is finalized, the Hoffmann group will be expected to maintain, if not improve, the lofty station the Penguins inhabit as one of the NHL’s model franchises, not only by the team’s fans but by league leaders.
It’s fair to wonder if the Hoffmanns — including wife Jerri as well as sons Geoff and Greg — can accomplish that at the NHL scale. But they have certainly demonstrated fierce ambition in steering the Everblades, much like their other holdings.
The brands HF Companies has acquired are “good businesses or good properties, with really good people behind them — all with the potential and drive to be better” as stated on the group’s website.
“They’ll die trying to be the best team they can be,” Brush said of the Hoffmanns’ NHL aspirations. “They’re committed to doing that. The NHL has got a (salary) cap, a draft and everything to maintain the parity within the league. But they’re going to do everything that they can to make it a success.
“It’s just the only way they look at things.”
