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Money & Power 2025
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
JIM VAN STONE
W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: I want to start with you. Where do you come from? What sports did you play? Where’d you go to college? JIM VAN STONE: I grew up in the Philly area, so I basically had a passion for sports all of my life. I majored in communications at a small New Jersey state college called William Paterson. I learned a lot of different interpersonal skills and really got an interest in sales. After graduating, I spent two years selling telephone systems, and then I found out about a great sports-management program at Temple University in Philadelphia. All these great sports-management programs required you to do internships, and I got my foot in the door at my first internship with the Philadelphia 76ers. I’ve been on the sales-and-marketing side…
BUFFALO SABRES
OWNERSHIP TERRY PEGULA THE BUFFALO BILLS, the NFL team Terry Pegula purchased in 2014, have established themselves as a perennial Super Bowl contender while winning five consecutive AFC East titles. Meanwhile, the Sabres, the team he has owned since 2011, have been a perpetually losing outfit with an NHL-record 13-year playoff drought. How can an owner enjoy so much success in one sport and so little in another? For starters, the NHL team has had much more stability. In Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott, the Bills have had the same GM and head coach for eight seasons. Pegula found the right people early and has stuck with them. Meanwhile, the GM-coach duo of Kevyn Adams and Lindy Ruff is the ninth combo the Sabres have employed in Pegula’s nearly 14 years of ownership. And…
DETROIT RED WINGS
OWNERSHIP CHRIS ILITCH IF CHRIS ILITCH can replicate with the Red Wings what he just did with his Detroit Tigers and get them back to the playoffs, the fan base’s opinion of him will certainly change. Currently, Ilitch is seen as a penny pincher by the Red Wings faithful. His parents, Mike and Marian Ilitch, on the other hand, owned well-earned reputations for spending whatever it took to put the team on track for the Stanley Cup. To be fair to the Wings’ current president and CEO, his parents’ spending wasn’t constrained by a salary cap. They could allow their GMs free rein in order to keep winning, which is part of the reason the Red Wings made 25 successive playoff appearances between 1990-91 and 2015-16. It’s also fair to say that when Chris…
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
OWNERSHIP JEFF VINIK FOR MORE THAN a decade, Jeff Vinik has been at the forefront of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s success while fulfilling his promise to turn the franchise into a world-class organization. The on-ice success has included two Stanley Cups, four Eastern Conference championships and seven trips to the East final under Vinik’s ownership. The Lightning have sold out every game since 2015, not including the COVID seasons, with a still-active streak of nearly 400 consecutive contests. Under Vinik’s ownership, the team has transcended the sports scene in the community through charitable acts and donations, most prominently the Community Hero program, which grants $50,000 each home game to a local charity organization or individual. During the recent storm damage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton – both of which affected the Tampa…
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