Melnyk opens up about Murray's future and offer to buy his team Eugene Melnyk is going to sit down with Bryan Murray later this month to figure out if the Ottawa Senators general manager wants to stay on the job beyond this season. Speaking to TSN 1200, Melnyk confirmed he plans on meeting with Murray to firm up the future plans for the club’s hockey operations department.

Eugene Melnyk is going to sit down with Bryan Murray later this month to figure out if the Ottawa Senators general manager wants to stay on the job beyond this season.

Speaking to TSN 1200 on Tuesday evening, Melnyk confirmed he plans on meeting with Murray in the middle of February to firm up the future plans for the club’s hockey operations department.

“I plan to meet with him on the 15th or 16th of this month and have a sit down with him and see if he’s made a decision. If he hasn’t, that’s fine. We’ll wait as long as he wants to,” Melnyk said. “But he’s been very good about it. He’s got a succession plan in place already. He’s just got to tell us what he wants to do and he’s got an open ticket with me.”

The 73-year-old Murray – who is undergoing regular chemotherapy treatments for Stage IV colon cancer – is in the final year of his contract as general manager. It was expected he would be elevated to an advisory role for next season, but prior to the start of this season, Murray didn’t rule out the option of returning as general manager for the 2016-17 campaign.

The Senators owner stressed there is no timeframe on a decision from Murray – provided the Senators are in good position heading into the off-season.

“We have to do something before the draft – that’s the main thing,” added Melnyk. “But we’ve got until June. It could be four months from now – or it could be in the next four weeks.

During Tuesday’s radio interview, Melnyk was also asked about a story that broke on Monday evening about a potential suitor for the franchise. CTV Ottawa’s Graham Richardson reported that the Devcore Candarel DLS group – one of two groups who submitted a multi-billion dollar bid for the redevelopment of Ottawa’s LeBreton flats – appears to have interest in buying the Senators from Melnyk as part of their proposal.

Melnyk said he has not had any formal or informal communication from the prospective buyer and instead dismissed the story as a PR spin by the rival group.

“They keep hammering at it and I keep saying ‘No’”, said Melnyk. “What their motivation is, is to maybe take away the discussion about our bid and talk about their wanting to buy the Sens. So I’m going to ignore it from now on. I have no interest – zero interest – in selling the team.”

When asked if he was presented with an above-market offer for the hockey team, Melnyk balked at the suggestion.

“I love the team and I love everything about hockey. It’s always been my dream to have it and money just doesn’t replace it. But there are some things you can’t buy and one of those things is a hockey team,” he said.

The Senators owner said he has not had any discussion about this latest development with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Melnyk added that he also had no interest in forming a partnership if the Devcore Candarel DLS Group ends up winning the LeBreton flats proposal through the National Capital Commission’s process.

If that scenario were to unfold, Melnyk said he would simply re-invest in the current Canadian Tire Centre and its surrounding area in Kanata. The owner was adamant there would be no threat of the team leaving the nation’s capital if he doesn’t win the LeBreton Flats bid.

“We’ll continue on. We’ll have to do a pretty substantial kind of a rebuild of the stadium to bring it up to par with current technologies,” Melnyk explained. “Probably $50 million worth of stuff we’d have to do. Plus we’ve got a ton of land out there for developments, so we’ll do it. We’d have to develop this site in Kanata.”

The NCC is accepting public feedback on the LeBreton Flats projects until February 8. After that, an evaluation committee will review the two proposals and make a recommendation to the NCC’s board of directors at some point in the spring. It’s expected that negotiations with the preferred bid will take place over the next few months and a public announcement will be made in early 2017.