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Money & Power 2019
The Hockey News inaugural Money & Power special edition is 124 pages packed with features exploring the financial side of the sport. Inside, you’ll find our annual Top 100 People of Power and Influence, NHL team reports including a profile of every team’s owner, how the business of the NHL works, the latest on CBA negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA, and much more.
FLORIDA PANTHERS
IF VINCENT VIOLA appreciates one thing, it is speed. The Florida Panthers owner built his self-made empire through speed trading in stocks and dabbles in thoroughbred racing. Getting involved in the fast-paced sport of hockey was the perfect fit for the native of Brooklyn, N.Y. Viola and minority partner Doug Cifu purchased the Panthers from Cliff Viner in September 2013 for $250 million. The ownership group has proved generous. In each season under their ownership, Florida has spent no less than 90 percent of the salary cap. On the same day the NHL announced Viola’s purchase, GM Dale Tallon received the OK to sign veteran goaltender Tim Thomas. Viola’s attitude has remained constant throughout his ownership tenure – when Tallon approached him about acquiring three-time 25-goal scorer Mike Hoffman, Viola’s response was,…
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
FOR BETTER OR Wirtz, the Chicago Blackhawks have been strictly a family enterprise since 1954. Since William Rockwell ‘Rocky’ Wirtz – the third generation of the clan to own the team – has been chairman, things have been mostly better for the Original Six member. Chicago missed the playoffs in 2017-18, but in making the post-season the nine previous years, the Blackhawks captured three of their six total Stanley Cups and reclaimed a position as one of the league’s flagship franchises. Had the Wirtz family not had deep pockets from assets including real estate and liquor distribution, the team might not have enjoyed its recent run led by Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews & Co. Years of questionable management by Rocky Wirtz’s father, William ‘Bill’ Wirtz, left the Blackhawks bleeding money and teetering…
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
JOHN H. MCCONNELL’S rags-to-riches life is a well-told story in central Ohio. As Columbus Dispatch columnist Michael Arace wrote upon the death of the original Blue Jackets majority owner in 2008: “He was raised in a home without electricity, and died in a hospital in which he’d donated towers.” It could be said that McConnell left his son, John P. McConnell, with a billion-dollar steel empire, a fledgling NHL franchise and some impossible shoes to fill. John P. McConnell has mostly carried on with his father’s approach to club ownership, which is to say that he’s passionately interested in the day-to-day operation of the Blue Jackets, but not so closely that “hockey people” are burdened by his presence. The elder McConnell used to make an annual speech to Blue Jackets fans after the…
HOCKEY AND THE TAXMAN
IN DECEMBER 2017, there were sweeping tax changes in the United States, many of which took effect in January 2018. Some NHL players will be better off with the changes, but a few of the new rules aren’t as advantageous. Before understanding the changes, however, we must first understand the basics of how cross-border tax works for NHL players. The U.S. taxes on citizenship and residency. Residency is based on having a green card or if an individual is present in the U.S. for at least 183 days in the current year, plus one-third of the days in the previous year and one-sixth of the days in the year prior to that. For Canadian residency, immigration status isn’t the deciding factor but rather the days present in Canada (again more than 183)…
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