Report: Billionaire businessman a 'serious contender' to buy Penguins

A billionaire businessman who owns an ECHL hockey team in Florida has emerged as a “serious contender” to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins from Fenway Sports Group, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.ca reported Monday.

According to the report, David Hoffmann and his family are trying to buy the team for about $1.75 billion, significantly more than the reported $900 million Fenway paid for the Penguins in 2021.

Hoffmann, 73, is worth $2 billion, according to Forbes. He owns the Hoffmann Family of Companies, which runs dozens of businesses in a wide variety of fields, including local newspapers. He started to make his fortune with an executive recruiting company and bought the ECHL’s Florida Everblades from former Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos in 2019.

Freidman reported earlier this summer that former Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle were interested in buying the team from FSG. His most recent report, in August, indicated Lemieux and Burkle hadn’t made a large enough offer to entice FSG to sell.

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Fenway has not publicly indicated the team is for sale, instead saying only that it is seeking minority investors.

“The focus is on identifying a small, passive partner, and that is the current framework under discussion with potential investors,” the company said in a statement in June.