The man in the Islanders cap and sweatshirt partying with a dozen or so fans outside Nassau Coliseum last January was a specter from the team’s weirdest and maybe darkest days. It was John Spano, the businessman-turned-felon from Dallas who had nearly bought the team 16 years earlier, even though he never had the money to pay for it.

Spano had gone to jail and vanished publicly in the intervening years, but now he was back in Uniondale, munching on snacks and swapping stories about the Islanders’ lean years and their comparatively bright future.

One of the fans had invited him through Twitter — Spano had just joined — to the home opener of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Spano, who now lives in Ohio, where he works as a salesman, was, to them, a curiosity, the owner who wasn’t, the guy who had nearly pulled off an astonishing scam.

“He’s like this folklore hero no one had heard from,” said Eric Kiperwasser, who invited Spano to the game. “We treated him to some drinks and food. He was nervous. I told him no one would recognize him, but if they did, the bunch of us would have his back.”