New owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning should look at Phil Esposito to run team

TAMPA – If you believe in karma then this is for you.

He is a diehard hockey fan who grew up in New Jersey rooting for the New York Rangers before becoming a Boston financier. Jeff Vinik will become the new owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning in short order and has already taken over cutting checks for the organization. Neither snow nor hail not dead of night or even the most skeptical of NHL owner will keep this man from moving into his office at 401 Channelside Drive.

This man made his mark in Boston and has his hockey sweater number hanging from the rafters at the new Boston Gardens after it was retired by the Bruins. Phil Esposito would finish his playing career with the New York Rangers before he and his brother, Tony, led a consortium (including a limited partner named George M. Steinbrenner) that was awarded a National Hockey League expansion team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Is there any doubt these two men cannot find common ground to return the Bolts to their Stanley Cup days then somewhere the point is being missed.

Vinik, while being a newcomer to the Bay area, is the sole operator of Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment, LLC, quite similar to Palace Sports and Entertainment who owned the Lightning when they captured their only championship. The common ground seems to be sports and entertainment.

Sandwiched between PS&E and TBS&E was a feuding group called OK Hockey which was never really okay as far as the team was concerned. OK Hockey was known more for drama, a staple of the TNT Network, than sports or entertainment.

The daily soap opera caused massive layoffs of quality people, the hockey team run like it was in a fantasy league and the entire organization was put in a huge hole by going on an unwise shopping spree once they were handed the keys to the kingdom. To say that power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely was grossly understated when it came to Oren Koules and Len Barrie. Each thought they were absolute and it broke down to the point of magnets repelling each other.

Finances aside – Koules and Barrie thought they were playing with Monopoly money – Palace Sports was so desperate to unload a team outside of their Detroit base they even financed the bulk of the note just to get it off their hands. For whatever reason, the NHL accepted this marriage even after the first group of buyers, Absolute Hockey which included Koules, failed to stay together long enough to go through with the purchase.

Barrie, on the other hand, was banking on a large revenue stream from his Bear Mountain resort which never materialized and even with the investments of current and former NHL players, he was never able to keep up his end of the bargain as Koules was covering him on payroll issues.

So now that the undynamic duo is being shown the door by Commissioner Gary Bettman, who negotiated the complicated sale, the Lightning are getting a fresh start – again – and what better way than to meld the man with the money with the man who may be the most qualified to become President and Governor?

Esposito, the founder who became the first president and general manager, still has connections within the league and still serves as color commentator for Lightning radio broadcasts. He has the drive, determination and love for the game and team so it would be fitting if the Hall of Famer was to return to an executive position with the team he helped to establish.

Mr. Vinik, the puck is yours to shoot.