Ryan Reynolds is already a successful owner of a sports team, with football club Wrexham winning promotion to League Two from the National League in record-breaking fashion, and now the actor reportedly wants to try his hand at Hockey franchise ownership.
According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, a group led by Canadian-born Deadpool lead Reynolds is preparing a bid worth more than $1billion (£795m) for the NHL's Ottawa Senators.
Reynolds is teaming up with a real estate development company, the Remington Group, which is based in Ontario. The 46-year-old, who owns Wrexham alongside It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney, could take over from the Melnyk family.
Following Eugene Melnyk's death in March 2022, the Senators were made available for purchase, which would end over two decades of ownership having been originally bought by the family in 2003.
Final bids for the franchise are due by May 15 and the Remington Group has ambitions of building a new arena for the Senators in downtown Ottawa and would like a recognisable face to be the lead on their bid.
The report goes on to state that the Remington Group could order a docu-series following the purchase and build of the proposed new arena. Reynolds saw similar success with his hit show, “Welcome to Wrexham”.
Reynolds and his business partners would also write themselves into NHL history with a billion-dollar purchase. It would set a new record for the largest franchise sale in NHL history, squashing the record held by the Pittsburgh Penguins after their $900m (£716.5m) 2021 purchase.
The Senators joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1992 but are yet to win a Stanley Cup. They have, however, reached a final in 2007, losing to the Anaheim Ducks.
Last season, the Senators missed out on a Play-Off spot by six points. But they’re a team who appear to be on the up after increasing their points haul from 73 to 86.
