We all know that Alexander Medvedev is on a mission. As president of Russia’s KHL, he’s trying to put together the best possible league he can. Medvedev’s mission is the same as Gary Bettman’s is in regards to the NHL: build a brand that is successful and popular.

In order to achieve his goals, Medvedev is courting a number of big ticket NHLers. The KHL offers money, lots of it, that NHL salaries don’t even compare to. And what’s more, KHL players don’t pay any taxes on their salaries so their take-homes are often pretty gargantuan. KHLers also don’t pay escrow like NHLers do.

A player like Ilya Kovalchuk, whose days with Atlanta seem to be numbered, could make a whole lot more money in the KHL than he could in the NHL. After all, Medvedev’s league sprang for the rusted-up Sergei Fedorov and paid him an obscene $14 million this season. Yes, $14 million this season alone.

If that’s what the KHL is willing to spend on Fedorov, how much cash will they sling for Kovalchuk? Even better, how much would Medvedev be willing to pay for Ovechkin?

Before you consider the possibility of Ovie suiting up for a KHL team to be a pipe dream, consider his stance on the Olympics. He’s said, on more than one occasion, that any attempts to block NHL players from participating in future Olympics will result in his bolting the league. Put simply, Mother Russia has more lure to Ovechkin than does Father Bettman.

Add to Ovie’s natural loyalty to his country the fact that he could be among the most highly paid sports figures of all time should be bolt to the KHL and you’ve got a recipe for disaster that Bettman’s NHL had better start taking seriously. Then there’s the rumour floating around the Ovie is pissed at having to pay 18% of his salary to escrow and that he may leave the Caps after this season.

There’s nothing stopping Medvedev from piecing together one heck of an exciting league. He’s got the money and, as a result of having the money, he can certainly have the players.

The Kontinental Hockey League is even beginning to be a bit of a draw to Canadian players. Chris Simon is the current captain of Vityaz Chekhov, for instance, while Kevin Dallman leads the Chernyshev Division Barys hockey club. Some of the other players currently skating in the KHL include Alexei Zhitnik, Andrei Nikolishin, Sergei and Fedor Fedorov, Richard Zednik, Duvie Westcott, Byron Ritchie, Sergei Zubov, Alexei Yashin, and Danny Markov.

The KHL also has good relationships with NHLers that suited up there during the lockout. The Ak Bars Kazan club featured a roster that included Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards during the 2005-2006 season.

So is the lure of the KHL too strong? It darn well could wind up being that way. Bettman’s NHL, if it continues to struggle through bad TV contracts and if it continues to arrogantly stumble through putting hockey clubs in poor markets, may wind up facing more competition from the KHL than they ever thought possible.

And, as far as I’m concerned, that may be the kick in the rear The Commish needs to get things moving in the right direction.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

QMI Agency is reporting that Quebec premier Jean Charest is more than a little confident in his province’s prospects for getting a new NHL team. Charest met with Gary Bettman during the Montreal Canadiens game last Friday and it was reported that the NHL commissioner is “sincere” and wants to see a team back in Quebec City.

“I think it’s going to happen. I say that by intuition. With these issues, [it's possible] to only see obstacles, but when you realize that the people who are directly concerned are looking for reasons to do it. And that’s what I felt with Mr. Bettman. You can feel that he’s optimistic and very open to there being a team in Quebec City,” Charest told QMI Agency.

The city, as many know, is currently in the process of building a brand new facility to house the team. There is the minor hurdle of needing to find an owner, but the premier didn’t seem to think that would be a very big deal.

Bettman, who has already spoken with Quebec City major Regis Labeaume, has continually said that a new team in the province of Quebec was a real possibility. A timeline has yet to be put in place, but with the government of the province more than fully on board and the proper arrangements seemingly falling into place, it looks like this could really happen.

“They’ve established rules (like relocation) that give a better chance to cities like Quebec City,” Charest said. “They’ve put a framework together that allows a club to be operated with predictable costs.”

Of course, Bettman would be foolish to consider expansion at this point and time and it is almost a given that relocation is the answer here. The Phoenix Coyotes clearly have to be at the top of the list, with the Thrashers in Atlanta not far behind in terms of possible teams relocating to Quebec City. Still, any move will probably be a long way off yet and fans would be best served to bide their time.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

According to the Globe and Mail, the current co-owners of the Toronto Argonauts are interested in making a pitch for the beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes franchise. Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon are planning to meet with Glendale city officials next week with a plan to put together a bid that can be tabled for the Coyotes.

Sokolowski and Cynamon were part of the Ice Edge Holdings that pursued the Coyotes in the summer when they were under the tutelage of Jerry Moyes, but now that Moyes is (soon) out of the picture it looks like Cynamon and Sokolowski are back in business. They have clarified that this offer is not a part of the Ice Edge Holdings group, however, and that they are not approaching the Phoenix Coyotes ownership situation as a part of Ice Edge Holdings.

Instead, Cynamon and Sokolowski have put together a different group of about a dozen investors.

Arizona bankruptcy court is expected to grant approval to the NHL’s $140 million bid to buy the Coyotes on Monday. Meanwhile, the Cynamon/Sokolowski group will be meeting in Glendale with city officials to table a bid that will have to include an offer on the lease of the Jobing.com arena.

To add another tidbit to this case, as if anything else was necessary, the original Ice Edge Holdings group, represented by Keith McCullough, has claimed their own interest in bidding on the Coyotes. “We have submitted a letter of intent to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes if, in fact, the NHL is successful in buying the team out of bankruptcy,” McCullough said.

So it seems that, now that Balsillie’s bid is out of the way and the fray has opened up to simply involve the NHL and its selection of approved bidders, the Coyotes will be under new ownership soon. Bettman has expressed a desire to have the team remain in Glendale, but something tells me that his desires are a lot less “written in stone” this time around now that he’s more satisfied with the crop of investors.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

According to TSN, Paul Kelly has been fired as the executive director of the NHLPA. Many in the industry speculated that this move was going to happen sooner or later, but it looks as though the hammer has finally fallen on Kelly.

The general feeling is that Kelly didn’t “do a good enough job getting to know the players” and that he played a little too close to the NHL for many of those in on final assessment.

The decision to fire Kelly came from a player’s association executive board made up of 30 player reps.

Some also considered the relationship between Kelly and commissioner Gary Bettman (along with Bill Daly) as being “too close.” In other words, a lot of the players were uncomfortable by what they saw as divided loyalty. They wanted someone to be on “their side,” but here was Kelly forming a tighter and closer bond with Bettman than he was with the players he was supposed to represent.

Kelly’s replacement is, at this point and time, unknown.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Gary Bettman finally made an appearance at the NHLPA player meetings, waiting nearly 16 years to do so and breaking with a lot of his own traditions just by speaking to the players. Perhaps the meeting reflects a changing time in the National Hockey League or perhaps it symbolizes Bettman reaching out to the players, finally. Regardless, it looks as though some progress was made.

“It was a big move on his part to come in here,” said Detroit Red Wings defenceman Chris Chelios. “It was a respectful meeting. We weren’t going to do anything that was unprofessional. It took a lot for him to go out of his way and address the players.”

Bettman addressed roughly 110 players and spoke for almost two hours, facing questions from a variety of players after the address. He spoke about the business-end of the sport, too, and dealt with direct questions from Chelios, Kevin Weekes, Georges Laraques, Manny Malhotra, and others. In doing so, Bettman broke with years of his own established tradition. Years ago, such a meeting wouldn’t have happened.

NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly commented on the promotion of an open conversation between the Commish and the league’s players. “In our business we have to strike the balance between working together in a professional, constructive manner and digging in to represent our respective sides,” he said. “My view is that we should be talking to each other, we should be listening to each other.”

One of the issues brought up during the meeting was the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. While Don Cherry might find the notion of players taking drugs to be against the natural order of things, the league does need to impose a policy that works and sends a proper message. Bettman wants to utilize the World Anti-Doping Agency’s long list of banned substances. He is also in favour of year-round testing.

“In the drug testing business, there are false positive (tests),” said Kelly. “We don’t want guy’s reputations or careers to be ruined by those instances. There has to be a mechanism to corroborate what appears to be a positive test. And then there has to be a system in place to make sure that player’s rights are protected, that he’s not going to be exposed to some type of criminal prosecution.”

Bettman also talked about U.S. television contracts, fighting, the Phoenix situation, NHL participation in the Olympics, and the league’s current economic situation.

Players seemed to approve of his overall conduct at the meeting.

“A lot of criticism flies towards Gary, but you can’t knock him for being a bad businessman,” said Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. “He’s a very strong businessman, he’s a smart man. It’s good for guys to sit there and listen to his opinions and to learn. Of course, he has the interests of the NHL in mind and we have to have our best interests at heart.”

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

It was a victory of sorts for the National Hockey League, as Judge Redfield Baum rejected Jim Balsillie’s bid to move the Phoenix Coyotes franchise to southern Ontario.

The co-CEO of Research In Motion Ltd. had imposed a deadline of June 29 to clear the sale, a move that may have proved to be his undoing in bankruptcy court Monday.

“This court is unconvinced that it should order that the NHL must decide the relocation application to meet the June 29 deadline,” Judge Baum said. “Simply put, the court does not think there is sufficient time for all of these issues to be fairly presented to the court given that deadline. The motion is denied, without prejudice.” Baum made the ruling in a 21-page document.

The NHL protested the way in which Balsillie proceeded from the outset, protesting against his intentions to move the team to Hamilton without proper league consent.

By making the deadline demand, Balsillie may have undone the deal unnecessarily. Most analysts suggest that there really was no reason to make such an ultimatum and that it may have proven to be somewhat akin to holding the judge’s feet to the fire. In fairness to Balsillie, he may have felt that the judge was being indecisive in deciding the case and in what issues should take precedence, so he might have added the deadline was a way of moving forward.

The NHL will probably trumpet the ruling as a future example to similar cases, suggesting that Baum and the courts have sided with them in terms of their relocation policies. This isn’t necessarily the case, however. The decision was largely made because of a lack of time to pursue the process effectively.

Indeed, Bill Daly offered a statement that seemed to suggest the league was pleased that the judge “sided” with their policies. “We’re pleased the Court recognized the validity of League rules and our ability to apply them in a reasonable fashion,” Daly said.

With the ruling based largely on a pragmatic issue and not on a “league rules” issue, Daly’s comments are probably a little off-base. The ruling doesn’t establish any sort of precedent in these issues, as nothing was really decided. We do not know if league rules can override the bankruptcy, process, for instance, or how the NHL should proceed in future cases. In other words, we know nothing other than the fact that Judge Baum didn’t think there was enough time to properly issue the full details of the case.

From this point, the NHL will doubtlessly move forward with the issue of finding a buyer or group of buyers to keep the team in Phoenix. At the moment, Bettman and Co. no longer have a problem with Jerry Moyes putting the team into bankruptcy, as they’ve gotten Balsillie cleared away and can move forward with their real intentions of keeping things in Arizona. The four potential buyers are still in the so-called exploratory process, so it will be interesting to see how things play out from here.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Through a court filing, Gary Bettman has revealed that there are four potential buyers interested in the Phoenix Coyotes franchise and, what’s more, they’re interested in keeping the Coyotes right where they are.

Among the four potential buyers are Toronto Argonauts owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon.

The four parties submitted background applications this week in order to seek league approval to make the purchase. Two of the four applications are already linked to the Coyotes club, with Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf partnering with John Kaites and Coyotes minority owner John Breslow. The offers from Sokolowski and Cynamon were unexpected.

The fourth applicant is a Phoenix businessman who requested anonymity for the time being.

If these applicants fail in their attempts to keep the club in Phoenix, the NHL admitted that it would look into the value of moving the club. Judge Redfield T. Baum will hear arguments on whether Jim Balsillie can move Coyotes in an Arizona bankruptcy court Tuesday. The aforementioned court filings were brought to the attention of the court on Friday ahead of a midnight deadline.

Bettman says that he expects even more buyers will line up to help keep the team in Phoenix. The filings essentially argue that maintaining the league’s consent rights in a sale would not have a negative impact on creditors. The argument continues from Bettman and the NHL that moves to find additional buyers were cut short by Jerry Moyes’ “rush to Chapter 11.”

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

As has become tradition in the National Hockey League, boss Gary Bettman offered his vision of how things have gone throughout the past season and looked ahead to how some of the issues facing him and the league will be solved. As one might imagine, the major focal point of the address was the situation in Phoenix.

Year after year I continue to question the validity of this “address,” partially because it’s difficult to believe any word that comes out of Bettman’s mouth and partially because I find it disrespectful that he utilizes his league’s most important part of the year to make his feelings and thoughts known. The addresses typically drip with pure ego, exposing the charlatan’s true colours and motivations to a national audience as though they needed more proof.

Nevertheless, Bettman did touch on some important issues.

The boss used the existence of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Finals as evidence of the notion that teams on the brink of leaving markets can be saved and can be revitalized.

“Truth be told, it’s probably fair to say that the Pittsburgh Penguins — during their bankruptcy period — were in worse shape. Because they didn’t even have at the time the prospect of a new building. And look at where they are today. We didn’t walk out on Pittsburgh, we fought to fix their problems. We’re fighting for Phoenix because of our covenant with the team and the fans there,” he said.

Bettman went on to explain that he had no personal problem with Jim Balsillie, reiterating his thought that the team should only be allowed to move as termed by league’s bylaws.

The commissioner also addressed the problem with drug-testing in his opinion. He stated a desire for more substances to be included on the banned list, adding that he believed the drug-testing program could and should be more comprehensive. Meanwhile, Don Cherry continued to ramble about how hockey players are the greatest people on earth and would never, never, never, ever take drugs.

Bettman noted a few other interesting points, including a surprise comment about the possibility of another team in Toronto (but not Hamilton?). He also noted the lack of decision regarding the 2014 Olympics in Russia, touched on the lack of a IIHF transfer agreement, and noted that the decision to start the Stanley Cup Finals on consecutive nights was something that was decided a year ago.

The season according to Bettman was a strong one. He cited 4% revenue growth and added that next season’s salary cap will end up somewhere between $54 million and its current spot at $56.7 million.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

As established in last week’s bankruptcy hearing, Jim Balsillie filed his formal application for ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes Monday.

A representative of Balsillie’s confirmed the Monday application with the NHL seeking an ownership transfer. This effectively would let Jerry Moyes off the hook for the team and would shift ownership over to Balsillie, getting the ball rolling on his acquisition and a possible move of the team to southern Ontario.

Moyes filed for Chapter 11 on May 5 with the intention of facilitating the shift of team ownership to Balsillie, but we all know how that worked out when Gary Bettman and Co. rolled up with the suggestion that something wasn’t quite right with the transaction. The league attempted to prove that they, in fact, had control of the beleaguered Coyotes. Stating that they had removed Moyes as owner, the NHL tried to block the sale of the franchise.

Judge Redfield T. Baum, who is presiding over the bankruptcy hearing, ordered mediation between Moyes and the NHL to determine who is in control of the team. He is expecting a progress report by Wednesday, so the move for formal application comes as no surprise if there is to be any expressed intent on behalf of Balsillie. Progress is good news, in other words.

Bill Daly says that there has been no meditation, however. “The parties have exchanged ideas. Nothing has been finalized to this point,” he said. Daly seems to struggle with what “mediation” actually refers to if he suggests that there hasn’t been any prior to adding that the “parties have exchanged ideas,” but I suppose that’s beyond the point.

The central focus of this entire situation continues to be on establishing who or what owns the Phoenix Coyotes. If Balsillie’s formal application is treated seriously, we could be seeing an answer to the question sooner than we think and the subject of transferring the team can finally be decided by grown men in suits acting like children.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Obviously the Jim Balsillie angle has been played out all week in the media and his desire to move the Phoenix Coyotes franchise is no secret. It’s also no secret that this has divided opinions around the hockey world, with some feeling Balsillie has not endeared himself to the ownership structure and others thinking differently.

Now it appears that another group is proposing a move to Hamilton. This time it’s the Atlanta Thrashers and a group interested in making a deal with that franchise. Reps of the group led by Vancouver developer Tom Gaglardi and former NHL owner Nelson Skalbania will be meeting with Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger on Monday to discuss possible provisions for a team. The Mayor is already negotiating with Balsillie, so it appears that Hamilton is hot property for an NHL team.

Balsillie has given the city a deadline of May 13 to come up with an answer to his query, but recent reports have indicated he may be more flexible on that deadline than originally reported. The Hamilton Mayor, on the other hand, is certainly in no rush to hammer anything out that’s too concrete.

“By next Tuesday (May 12) we will have a clearer picture of where we are,” Mayor Eisenberg told The Hamilton Spectator newspaper. “We’re in the middle of discussions with Mr. Balsillie and his group and I will be meeting with the second group. We need to understand their intentions. It’s fair to say I will be talking to that second group.”

According to media reports, Gaglardi’s deal involves moving the team to Hamilton by 2010-2011.

This is, like the Balsillie deal, far from over and far from done. Gaglardi and his group have an uphill climb with the Thrashers in the midst of a long court battle for control of the franchise. Minority owner Steve Belkin is doing battle with the rest of the Thrashers’ owners over what his share in the company is worth. The owners want to buy him out, but there is no agreement on a price.

The Thrashers also have to figure out a way to get out of their arena deal, just like the Phoenix club does, and this could also be time-consuming.

Regardless, it certainly does look at though there will be one franchise on its way to Hamilton. The move could even happen in the near future, but there are many hurdles for both potential ownership groups to overcome first. The key is general league acceptance and Bettman’s general approval. This could prove difficult, naturally, as both groups have considerable issues with the NHL boss.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.