The NHL has suspended Doug Cifu, minority owner of the Florida Panthers, from any involvement with the team or the League, following a series of offensive social media posts.
Cifu will have to meet in person with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at a later date.
The offensive messages stemmed from an exchange with a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, the Panthers’ current playoff opponent, which led to statements about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as a reference to Canada becoming “the 51st state”.
Cifu is the vice chairman and alternate governor of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment (SSE), the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League, FLA Live Arena, and other SSE operating entities. He is also the chief executive officer of Virtu Financial, a financial technology services company co-founded by Florida owner Vincent Viola in 2008.Two days ago, I posted regrettable and inflammatory comments on social media. My behavior does not reflect the standards of the Florida Panthers organization and the Viola family. I sincerely apologize to everyone affected by my comments. I am committed to working with the NHL to amend my actions.
Doug Cifu
The offensive messages were part of an exchange on X with a Toronto Maple Leafs fan with the user “Dr. Grizzo” on May 11, the night of the Panthers’ Game 4 victory to tie their series with Toronto.
The series has featured several hard hits from Florida players on Leafs skaters, as well as a collision between Florida center Sam Bennett and Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz’s head, which contributed to Stolarz leaving his series in Game 1.
Grizzo wrote: “What’s worse, using head blows to win a series or using hunger as a weapon to win a war?”Cifu’s X account contained messages of support for Israel and had five Israeli flags in its biography, along with the statement “all tweets are mine”.
Cifu responded to that message with: “Actually, being a crybaby antisemite is clearly worse. Loser”.
“Dr. Grizzo” responded: “Doesn’t disapproving of the use of hunger as a weapon make me a fanatic?”, before adding comments about Cifu’s stock market prowess and his political leanings.
That prompted Cifu to write: “Eat a s***, antisemitic loser from state 51. Israel now and forever. Until the last Hamas rat is eliminated”.
The next day, Cifu set his X account to private before deactivating his feed.
The NHL was informed of the messages and suspended Cifu.
“The NHL has concluded that Mr. Cifu’s X posts were unacceptable and inappropriate,” the League said in a statement. “As a result, Mr. Cifu has been indefinitely suspended from any involvement with the Club and the NHL. An in-person meeting with Mr. Cifu and the Commissioner will be scheduled at a date to be determined.”
The Panthers are the current Stanley Cup champions and are tied 2-2 in their second-round series with Toronto. Cifu has his name on the Stanley Cup.
