Stillman’s Group Revealed & the Return of Brett Hull

Yesterday it was reported that the sale of the St. Louis Blues was finished and needed final approval by the NHL before closing on Wednesday. Today grants us an opportunity to look a bit more closely at Tom Stillman and his group to see exactly who the new owners of the Blues are and what businesses they are tied to. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a familiar name – Brett Hull – is set to be named to a management position once the new buyers take over.

Tom Stillman – Minority owner of the Blues since 2007, Stillman has been making efforts to purchase the team with his group since Dave Checketts announced the team was for sale back in 2010. Stillman is the CEO of Summit Distributing here in St. Louis, a company that is the second largest beer distributor and the largest distributor of import beer to the St. Louis area.

The rest of Stillman’s group is as follows, though it’s unclear if each member has an equal stake or percentage in their new purchase.

John Danforth – This name should sound pretty familiar. Aside from being Stillman’s father-in-law, Danforth was a United States Senator from Missouri between 1976 and 1995. He then went on to serve as a United States ambassador for the United Nations. Danforth was born in St. Louis.

Steve Maritz – This is another name that should ring a bell for St. Louis residents. Maritz is the CEO of the marketing/PR company of the same name which is located in Fenton.

Donn Lux – CEO of Luxco. Luxco is, according to their site, a leading producer, bottler, importer and marketer of alcohol products. It’s fairly obvious to see where Lux and Stillman have a relationship on the business side of things. Luxco is headquartered in St. Louis.

The Taylor Family – The Taylor family is the final name mentioned in Stillman’s group. They own Enterprise Holdings, the group behind rental companies Enterprise, Alamo and National. Enterprise Holdings originated in St. Louis.

As you can see, Stillman and his group all have ties to the St. Louis area. This is an overwhelming positive. This group knows the St. Louis area and knows how important the Blues are to the fans that live here. It was unlikely the Blues would leave the area regardless of which party bought the club, but the fact Stillman’s group emerged as the buyers ensures the Blues won’t be going anywhere.

We didn’t forget about Brett Hull. Though Hull isn’t involved in Stillman’s group, he will be a face of the franchise once the new group takes over. Hull is expected to be involved in the team’s management though a specific title hasn’t been released yet. It’s safe to assume it will be as an adviser to player development and probably won’t involve Hull taking one of the assistant coaching position.

It’ll be nice to see Hull involved in the organization again. It’ll also be nice to see him back involved in hockey. The past several months have seen Hull gain some notoriety over his … interesting … Twitter account. Now he’ll have a chance to return, albeit off the ice, to the game he loves.

Brett Hull photo courtesy of the team’s official site.