- Joe Yerdon of Pro Hockey Talk: From HNIC Hotstove: Glen Healy reports that if the deal with the City of Glendale doesn’t go through by July 2nd, the NHL would sell the team to Ray Bartoszek and Anthony Lanza for $220 million and then move the team to Seattle. Jeremy Roenick would be part of their hockey operations.
- Chris Daniels of King 5 News: The Mayor of Seattle, Mike McGinn, has confirmed that he had spoken with Gary Bettman two weeks ago about bringing a team to Seattle and Key Arena this fall. Ray Bartoszek and Anthony Lanza are looking at buying the Coyotes to move them to Seattle.
“I let him know of the situation here, and that we were supportive of bringing the NHL to Seattle,” McGinn said. “We have Key Arena, so we talked about the potential of them being in Key Arena, while we continue to work on a new arena plan.”
The NHL has given the City of Glendale until June 25th to work out a new lease agreement with the latest prospective buyer. Bettman has said that the team could relocate if a deal can’t be worked out by June 25th. A team in Seattle would play at Key West for two years, which would seat about 11,000 for hockey.
“I really want to bring down expectations. We are very clearly Plan B for the NHL and this team. I feel compelled to say this after the experience we had with Sacramento than the likelihood of us having a team here in a couple of weeks is low.”
- David Pagnotta: Behind all the talk of the Phoenix ownership talk is “expansion,” and it will come up more often in the near future. Seattle would be a candidate as well as Quebec City, Toronto/Markham. If the Coyotes were to move to Seattle, that would mean that Quebec City and Markham would be next on list for expansion. If the Coyotes were to remain in Glendale, Seattle and Quebec City would be at the top of the list. Other cities like Houston would get consideration, but that is awhile a way.
