Michael Russo: Leipold Buys Out Hulsizer; Becomes ~95% Wild Franchise Owner

[Minnesota]

Russo confirmed the deal is done and re-posted his previous article from August.

Wild majority owner Craig Leipold has begun the process of buying out Matt Hulsizer’s 27 percent share of the team.

Leipold said he and Hulsizer are departing on friendly terms. The decision is driven by Leipold’s desire to keep the Wild in his family long-term and Hulsizer’s desire to eventually own a larger chunk of the franchise and be more involved in hockey decisions.

The transaction, which could take months to consummate, will bring Leipold’s stake of the Wild to nearly 95 percent.

Craig Leipold:

“He continued to have a higher interest level in being involved in the hockey side like the draft and trades, but I wasn’t willing to give that up,” Leipold said. “That’s not my style with [General Manager] Chuck [Fletcher], so I certainly wouldn’t let a minority owner have that kind of input to Chuck.”

“We would not be as far in the analytics if not for Matt Hulsizer,” said Leipold, referring to the recent hirings of war-on-ice.com co-founders Andrew Thomas and Alexandra Mandrycky. Leipold said Hulsizer “challenged our hockey ops to use analytics more in our play, scouting and drafting.”

I see positives & negatives to this...

1.) I'm glad Leipold allows Fletcher to do his job without interjecting; doesn't plan on changing that strategy moving forward.

2.) Sounds like Hulsizer pushed for our franchise to consider new-age analytics, etc. which might have not been a bad thing.

Thoughts? Comments?

Click to read more...

 

[Wabit]

Hulsizer wanted to be more hands on with the team. He really needs to be the majority owner of a team somewhere. The minority owner role doesn't suit him.

 

[Al Lagoon]

Leipold seems the ultimate doofus to me. Any time the Wild lose, I take some small satisfaction is seeing his sorry [MOD] butt get handed to him.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Leipold seems the ultimate doofus to me. Any time the Wild lose, I take some small satisfaction is seeing his sorry [OT] butt get handed to him.

Where in the world did this come from?

 

[Minnesota]

Hulsizer wanted to be more hands on with the team. He really needs to be the majority owner of a team somewhere. The minority owner role doesn't suit him.

Russo's article mentioned Hulsizer has been in talks with Arizona and St. Louis about becoming a part-owner. Since he seems to favor analytics, I could see Arizona being a good fit. Maybe Vegas?

Leipold seems the ultimate doofus to me. Any time the Wild lose, I take some small satisfaction is seeing his sorry [MOD] butt get handed to him.

As long as attendance is up, I have a hard time believing he cares whether they lose. Long-term, I'm sure there's an impact, but the Wild aren't in that position; they're a competitive team.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

Leipold is a huge fan...he talks about how he goes crazy watching the games sometimes in the suite. And yeah, not sure where that comment came from...I think it's a good thing that the owner wants to win just as much as the fans do.

 

[57special]

Leipold seems the ultimate doofus to me. Any time the Wild lose, I take some small satisfaction is seeing his sorry [MOD] butt get handed to him.

Tough crowd.

I wonder what you would've thought of Harold Ballard?

 

[Goose312]

I'd rather have an owner that realizes that having a lot of money doesn't make you an expert in the sport than one who thinks they should be involved in drafting and trades just because they are cutting a check.

 

[Minnewildsota]

I'd rather have an owner that realizes that having a lot of money doesn't make you an expert in the sport than one who thinks they should be involved in drafting and trades just because they are cutting a check.

Not to mention you get into the situation the Vikings were in a while ago, with the triangle of trust. There's no one party at fault for anything so who do you blame?

 

[Engebretson]

Tough crowd.

I wonder what you would've thought of Harold Ballard?

Or Bill Wirtz?