The NHL told a U.S. federal bankruptcy court that it has controlled the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team since November and wants the court to reject the team's bankruptcy filing.
Bill Daly, the league's deputy commissioner said Thursday that Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes had signed documents giving the NHL control.
Those documents specifically prevent Moyes from taking the franchise into bankruptcy, he told reporters.
The Coyotes filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday.
Concurrent with that development, technology magnate Jim Balsillie offered to buy the team for US$212.5 million -- contingent on moving the team to southern Ontario.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman opposes moving the team from Arizona. The league has said it is negotiating with a potential ownership group that includes Jerry Reinsdorf. He owns the Chicago White Sox baseball team and the Chicago Bulls basketball team.
Daly also took some shots at Balsillie, telling The Canadian Press that the prospective owner is breaking league rules.
"He makes his own decisions and he's making a decision that this is the way he wants to get into the National Hockey League. We don't usually like to pick fights, but we end them," Daly said.
Daly also suggested that Balsillie won't find many friends at the governor's level.
"Well certainly to the extent he's attacked virtually every rule that's in existence in the National Hockey League, I don't think the governors will look kindly to the posture he's taken in this proceeding, that's for sure."
Hamilton's hopes
The NHL's counterattack on Balsillie's attempt to wrest control of the team doesn't stop Hamilton from daring to dream.
"We're clearly making arrangements to bring NHL hockey here in a responsible way, without significant expenditures to our taxpayers," said Hamilton's Mayor Fred Eisenberger.
The mayor said he has had discussions with Balsillie, the co-CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the highly successful BlackBerry wireless communications device.
The city has an existing arena, Copps Coliseum, which could house an NHL team. But there are concerns it could need a makeover to bring it up to current standards.
"Any additional dollars that would have to be spent to make the facility ready for the NHL would, I assume and I believe, be the responsibility of the owner," he said.
Fans in Hamilton told CTV Toronto that it would be good for the city and the economy. One laughed he was "sick of the Leafs," referring to the Toronto NHL team that hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1967.
"This is a great market," Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters. "This is still our game. This is the strongest and most committed fan base on the face of this planet."
Both Hamilton and Balsillie have been left at the altar before.
Balsillie has previously tried to purchase the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins with an eye towards moving them to Hamilton. In both cases, the NHL wanted the franchises to stay put.
Some analysts believe the NHL doesn't want a team in Hamilton because it could draw support away from both the Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. Nor would it help build a television audience in the United States.
The NHL's Daly did have discussions with a Toronto group that wants to bring a second team to the GTA.
The proposal would see an arena built on land in Vaughan, just north of the airport.
However, the league didn't do much to raise hopes a second team was coming any time soon.
"There is no consideration of bringing a second franchise to Toronto. We have no intention to expand in the foreseeable future, and there is no desire to relocate any of our existing franchises," the league said in a statement issued on April 23.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Reshmi Nair and files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
