Penguins Franchise Value Soaring, Per Sportico

The Pittsburgh Penguins might not be considered Stanley Cup contenders at the moment, but Fenway Sports Group’s investment is looking pretty $weet. Sportico, in releasing its value rankings of all 32 NHL teams on Wednesday, valued the Penguins at $1.47 billion.

That ranks 20th in the league, up one spot from last season, but the real eye-popper is that the Penguins’ value has risen 37 percent from a year ago. It’s also a huge increase from what FSG paid in December 2021, believed to be in the $900 million range.

Revenues certainly can’t be soaring, considering the team has missed the playoffs the past two seasons and hasn’t made it as far as the second round since 2018. In addition, the club let go 20 people on the business operations side in the spring.

But something apparently is going right since FSG bought the team from Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle and their minority investors. Lemieux retains a small stake in the club, and it seems to be a league thing.

According to Sportico, every NHL team’s value rose over a year ago, by at least 20 percent. The average value for teams in the rankings is $1.79 billion. The value of all 32 teams adds up to $53.7 billion.

The Toronto Maple Leafs top Sportico’s rankings at a valuation of $3.66 billion. Columbus brings up the rear at $1.06 billion. The full list can be found here.

Sportico derived its valuations from multiple sources, including “publicly available information and financial records—as well as interviews with those knowledgeable of team finances, including eight sports bankers and lawyers who actively work on NHL transactions. In the interest of accuracy, we traded candor for anonymity. This information was vetted with multiple team owners, team financial and operating officers, media relations personnel and former team executives, as well as industry experts and sports-focused economists.”