NHLer Kris Versteeg wants to buy the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes

Florida Panthers forward Kris Versteeg wants to buy the locally owned Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League.

The 27-year-old Versteeg, who is a Lethbridge native and Hurricanes alumni, wrote an open letter on why he wants to be a part of the major junior franchise with a group of partners to the Lethbridge Herald.

The Hurricanes need to look at every option thrown their way to get out of the red. They have been in serious financial trouble for a while – announcing a loss of $602,000 for the 2011-12 season and a combined loss of $1.25 million from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

The obvious reason for the Hurricanes’ financial woes is that they have struggled to ice a competitive team in recent years. Since 2008-09 when they made it to the Eastern Conference semi-final, Lethbridge has missed the playoffs four consecutive seasons, finishing either last or second last in the Central Division. This lack of on-ice success has ultimately taken a hit on their ticket sales. They sat fifth last in attendance the last two years, averaging 3,650 in 2012-13 and 3,283 the year before. The average between the two years equals out to more than 600-less people a game than in their successful 2008-09 season.

Besides attendance problems, the Hurricanes had a failed marketing campaign in 2011, which included selling season tickets at a 25 per cent discount, and their arena, the Enmax Centre, went through renovations during this time.

In terms of fixing the on-ice product, the Hurricanes board of directors made changes in the hockey operations last offseason. They fired head coach-GM Rich Preston, who held those roles during Lethbridge’s four-year playoff drought, and assigned his general manager duties to Brad Robison, who was formerly the assistant GM. Shortly after, Robison hired former NHL defenceman Drake Berehowsky as the team’s head coach.

Albeit it’s very early and too soon to judge Robison and Berehowsky, the Hurricanes’ on-ice performance hasn’t turned around yet. They have started the year off with an abysmal 2-11-1-1 record.

The powerhouse clubs in the WHL tend to have thick wallets behind them with private owners, just look to Bill Gallacher’s Portland Winterhawks for proof of that. But locally owned organizations can still thrive in the WHL. The locally owned Moose Jaw Warriors showed that last year with a profit of $343,888, which is believed to be a better profit margin than some nearby privately owned clubs.

All that being said, there’s precedents that suggest if the Hurricanes can turn around their on-ice woes, they could get the franchise back on track in the financial books as a locally owned team.

However, selling the franchise to Versteeg and his partners has a lot of merit. The organization would be going to a group of owners that wants to keep the team in Lethbridge and likely has deep pockets (Versteeg is on his second year of a four-year contract that pays him $17.6 million). This change could be exactly what the city of Lethbridge, which has a population of roughly 89,000 people, needs to revitalize their interest in the Hurricanes.

The sale of the Hurricanes would bring in a large chunk of change to the city. Although the Saskatoon Blades aren’t a fair comparable because they were a profitable business under former owner Jack Brodsky, their recent sale to Mike Priestner of roughly $9 million seems to put a ballpark value on the Hurricanes somewhere in between $7-8 million.

Update: Hurricanes president Brian McNaughton tells the Lethbridge Herald that the team isn't for sale.

Kelly Friesen is a Buzzing the Net columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellyFriesen