White Knight Confirmed!Manitoba NHL Ownership Publicly Declared by DalyThe reaction has been swift to Bill Daly’s statement categorically denying that Winnipeg is the NHL’s exit strategy should the Coyotes run out of ownership options to remain in Arizona.The NHL is trying to position themselves to be able to say two things later. The first NHL position will be that all the media naysayers were wrong, that this young and exciting team will be just fine in Glendale and that they knew this all along, given the ownership receiving final league approval. The second position for the NHL is the scapegoat route. The NHL can say that Glendale council or even Goldwater Institute killed any reasonable hope that the team could remain in such a beautiful city, playing in such a great arena. It is highly unlikely that the NHL turns on either Ice Edge Holdings or Reinsdorf since the league has so many troubled teams and too few ownerships willing to take them off beleaguered hands. Either way, the NHL has put on its’ Teflon-coated suits as neither outcome to the Coyotes story will have any bad press sticking to them.So for the media to expect that the NHL will admit that it does have a backup plan could be easily twisted by some into thinking that the NHL will “run out of one of its’ cities”. This is the last thing the NHL wants to be perceived as, even as relocation may in fact occur and occur outside the US.The media OFFside if it truly expected anything else but the guarded yet categorically negative response Daly offered to any and all proposed exit strategies. Thus hope remains in Manitoba even in the face of Daly’s more than expected denials.However, NHL fans in Manitoba received a tidbit of news that might be lost given the hoopla over Winnipeg as a potential NHL-preferred escape route. Andrew Willis’ Globe and Mail article titled “Coyotes eyeing a Winnipeg den?” posted late last night on the newspaper’s website quoted among others, this portion of Bill Daly’s official statement: more »

The hockey media has started to turn some attention to hockey’s most rickety structure, not Ice Edge Holdings’ business plan, but the group known as the NHLPA. Reports have surfaced that the players association have completed their new constitution that would avoid the palace coups, public disagreements and blind side hits to leadership that are just as severe as any laid out on the ice in the past two decades. Simply put, it remains to be seen if the NHLPA will actually move away from this “divide ourselves and be conquered” and “devour your own leader” culture.The real news coming out of these reports is that the NHLPA just might hire former head of Major League Baseball Players Association, Donald Fehr. While other candidates are in the mix, the players will have a hard time not circumventing their brand new constitution by offering the job to Fehr instead of following their search committee due diligence.Some media outlets have already claimed that if Fehr becomes the new leader of the NHLPA then the NHL will have to scramble to ready themselves for the next CBA battle. Hockey writers are reporting that upon seeing their union combatant taking a more much aggressive stance in such a hire at the NHLPA that the NHL will be apprehensive at best.These same writers are OFFside in suggesting that the NHL is quaking in the boots while in Fehr’s midst. more »

Picture Courtesy Google Images Recently the media has latched onto a state "no gift" law that ensures no Arizona public money is flushed out to the private sector when deals are cut. As one supporter pointed out the Goldwater Institute has its' ear… more »

Glendale: Just Say No Subsidy!Lack of NHL Sustainability Means New Lease Will Throw Even More Good Money After BadYesterday on the Fan590, Daryl Jones, COO of Ice Edge Holdings, made the boldest statements yet regarding what his group needs from the City of Glendale in order for the Coyotes to tread water.In the interview he characterized his group’s financing contingent upon a favourable new lease from Glendale. Jones said that Ice Edge will need an extra $10 to $15 million annually in order for their sale to proceed. This is a crucial admission that the NHL on its’ own cannot work. Listen to the entire interview here: http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20100315_171408_12116So just what options exist for the City of Glendale? . . . more »

After a crazy week or so, when dubious radio announcers called out Manitoban NHL fans to stop, wait and listen for a March 4th TNSE press conference that did nothing for their credibility, we return to the situation as it stands after taking a collective breather from the many fan and media requests along the way.In this instalment, we are considering what's left on the "To-Do" List, if in fact the Coyotes may be ported North back to its' past city. As one WestJet first officer announced upon landing several years ago, "Winnipeg, the past and future home of the Phoenix Coyotes" to a raucous response from the cabin, we concur that the situation has ripened even post-Bankruptcy court.It is importnat to note that some or none of the following may have already been completed and not publicized. Potentially all haven't yet occurred.But at the end of the day, one would be OFFside not to conclude that very little stands between Manitoba's NHL aspirations and the reality of the failed Coyotes team.Assuming . . . more »