More On The Strange Case of the Phoenix Coyotes, Part The Continued

And in my quest to bore you out of your mind with the Phoenix Coyotes situation -- which I find fascinating because, well I'm a lawyer and I don't like Gary Bettman -- I bring you some more info on what actually happened yesterday.

According to the Canadian media, who were actually present at the hearing, the judge appeared to side with Jerry Moyes on the whole control of the team issue and doesn't quite think the NHL is being quite truthful regarding Moyes signing a proxy to surrender control of the team -- I know, the NHL lying is a rather shocking development. That said, the judge still refused to rule on the matter and punted it over to a mediator to try and get the parties to settle the matter.

The mediator has until May 27 to get this matter settled, at which point the parties will return to the bankruptcy court. At that point, it's expected that, if the mediator hasn't gotten a settlement in this matter, then the judge will actually make a ruling as to who has operating control of the franchise. And even scarier for the NHL is that the judge made it clear yesterday that he doesn't care about their internal franchise relocation rules and that he considers the franchise to be a movable asset if it turns out that relocation is the best method of increasing franchise value and raising money for the creditors.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that Jim Balsillie gets the franchise should that occur. If the judge so rules, he probably put the franchise up for auction and accept the highest bid. Balsillie's bid is the highest, but if there's a chance of moving the team out of Phoenix, then there's no telling what kind of bids might actually come flooding in. But -- and again but -- the judge probably won't even hold hearings on the whole relocation aspect until the end of June.

So there are two issues to be decided: control of the team, and whether the team can be moved without NHL approval. The judge indicated in arguments yesterday that he thought the NHL was a loser on both points, but until there are hearings and actual rulings, no one knows for sure what the judge will do, and who knows, maybe all of that will force the NHL to listen to some logic about the viability of Phoenix.

But another problem is that the Judge might not even get around to ruling on these issues for several months, which might end up meaning that, by default, the Coyotes are forced to play in Phoenix next season.