PHOENIX - The Detroit Red Wings can win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year on Tuesday night but their clash with the Pittsburgh Penguins may not even be the biggest game of the day in the hockey world.
Hours before the puck drops in Game 6 of the final, the latest battle over the future of the Phoenix Coyotes between the NHL and Jim Balsillie, who is seeking to buy the insolvent team for US$212.5 million and move it to Hamilton despite the league's opposition, will play out in an Arizona bankruptcy court.
It's unclear when Judge Redfield T. Baum intends to rule on what has become a bitter court fight or how it will turn out, and it's also uncertain if his word will be the final one.
Both sides can appeal his decision, potentially extending the matter for months if it comes to that.
"You've got an experienced judge, who I'm guessing wants to create enough uncertainty that people try and make a deal," said Eric Schaffer, a senior partner at Reed Smith who worked on the Penguins' bankruptcy a few years back.
"Balsillie may be the odd man out, but the league could try and enhance the offer of someone else to try and make it better for the creditors, and an experienced judge may try to create enough uncertainty that it drives some sort of consensual resolution."
Either way, Tuesday shapes up as a drama-filled day for the sport, with Hamilton, like Detroit, trying to win its championship by finally landing its very own NHL team, and Phoenix, like Pittsburgh, attempting to stave off elimination to play another day.
The arguments both sides intend to make were spelled out in documents filed with the court ahead of a midnight Friday deadline and dissected publicly over the weekend.
The NHL pulled out the biggest surprise with commissioner Gary Bettman, who will head to Pittsburgh once court adjourns in case he needs to present the Cup to Detroit, declaring in his brief that four potential buyers intent on keeping the team in Phoenix, including Toronto Argonauts owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon, had filed preliminary applications with the league.
While that created a buzz, the NHL's main argument will be that Balsillie's bold bid is a "scheme" to circumnavigate the league's by-laws and constitution preventing him from unilaterally deciding to move the squad to Hamilton, and that all of the club's creditors "will be satisfied if the Coyotes are sold to a purchaser committed to operating the team in Glendale."
Lawyers for Balsillie, who is in his third attempt to buy an NHL team, disagree, saying the Coyotes are "worth considerably more if relocated than if kept in Glendale, Arizona, and would enable a substantially greater recovery to the debtors' creditors."
The Balsillie camp also argues that it has already met all of the NHL's criteria for both approval of the co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion as an owner, and for the team to move to Hamilton.
They dispute the notion that Balsillie must pay the league a relocation fee for moving into Hamilton and the right of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres to compensation.
Their court brief also states that the Maple Leafs hold veto power over the entry of a another team into their territory and that such a veto and other relocation restrictions contravene antitrust laws.
The NHL denies such a veto exists and says a forced relocation without proper study and board approval would wreak havoc on its schedule and divisional alignment, causing harm to the other 29 teams.
Signalling that the gloves are off, the NHL also raised Balsillie's settlement of misconduct complaints by the Securities Exchange Commission and Ontario Securities Commission as a reason why its board needed the proper time to hold "full and proper investigation" into his background.
That aside, the NHL contends Balsillie's offer is really worth US$165 million to creditors once US$25 million due to the league for its cash advances and US$22.5 million owed to Wayne Gretzky, the team's coach and minority partner.
The league also says the offer doesn't contemplate payments due to the City of Glendale, where the Coyotes lease their arena, or to the NHL "and/or it's members for unilaterally usurping the Hamilton NHL franchise opportunity."
