(TNS) —If Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are going to reclaim the Pittsburgh Penguins, their bid is going to have to increase.

That’s the word from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. During his most recent “32 Thoughts” podcast, Friedman said if Fenway Sports Group wants to sell majority ownership of the Pens — and there is very little evidence that they do — Lemieux and Burkle are going to have to step up their offer.

“Everything I’ve heard about that is that they are well below what Fenway would want to be the number (to sell),” Friedman said.

This speculation dates back to a pair of reports from “The Athletic” in recent months, suggesting the Lemieux-Burkle group may want to reacquire the franchise they sold to FSG for $900 million in 2021.

FSG has attempted to lure some buyers in for minority ownership stakes, but has balked at any suggestion that principal ownership of the franchise is up for bid.

“I’ve got to think ($1.8 billion) is about where the Penguins would want to be, and from what I understand, (the Lemieux Group) isn’t close at this point in time,” said Friedman.

That $1.8 billion number was the closing price tag for the Tampa Bay Lightning in October.

“We’ll see where else it goes. That’s probably a story that doesn’t go away for a while,” Friedman said.

“I can understand why Penguins fans would be excited about the possibility of Lemieux. He’s a god there. Everything he touches turns to gold.”

Or, in the case of the Stanley Cup, silver. He captained the Penguins to two Cups on the ice in 1991-92, and was in the owners’ suite with Burkle for three more in 2009, ’16 and ’17.

Friedman’s right in terms of Lemieux’s status here, and in his prediction that this speculation won’t die down until it happens or is somehow quelled by FSG.

One way to do that for the current owners would be for the Penguins to start winning again. They are a long way off from that, though, and what’s wrong with the team on the ice right now, ownership can’t fix. Fenway can’t spend the team back into competitiveness at this point.

Whenever the club does improve, there hasn’t been any sign that FSG would be reluctant to add payroll in order to help the cause.

As we’ve mentioned in this space before, this doesn’t feel as much like Super Mario swooping in with a cape and his broad wingspan to carry the Penguins away from financial oblivion yet again. This would be him swooping in with his checkbook.

And it doesn’t sound like he’s exactly swooping.

I’m getting the impression that FSG would need to have its doors blown off by an offer to sell a majority share, and that hasn’t come close to happening.

That’s it. It’s Lemieux saying “I want to buy the team with Ron,” but without FSG putting it up for sale yet.

At least not all of it, anyway, and maybe more of a minority ownership doesn’t interest Lemieux. Similarly, you can understand why FSG wouldn’t be interested in turning more control over to a group that wants as much as it can get with a public profile that high.

So, yes. To Friedman’s point. We might be here a while on this story.

Or FSG can shut it down by selling its minority interests to someone else. Maybe that will make the speculation go away.

Maybe.