So, let me get this straight. Balsillie sees something he wants. He has the money to pay for it. Moyes wants to get out from under a money pit, so he accepts Balsillie’s well-above-market-value offer.

Therefore, both guys are bad people! And somehow, Moyes, despite the fact it’s HIS asset that’s for sale, shouldn’t be allowed to participate in this… right.

Usually, when person A sees something they want, and person B is selling that very thing, and they both agree to exchange cash for said thing, that’s called capitalism, and it defines how most of us get by day to day.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 08/19/09 at 08:00 AM ET

Agree with Nathan.  How absolutely un-American to want to sell your asset or business and make a profit!! 

If the NHL wants to have any chance of possibly controlling JB, they better let him into the club.

Posted by skooteri from Raleigh, NC on 08/19/09 at 08:26 AM ET

Sounds like bankruptcy fraud. If he wanted to sell it he should have sold it but instead he went into bankruptcy to get out of his arena lease.

Posted by Bo from FL. on 08/19/09 at 09:07 AM ET

Hey, look… the NHL is full of bleep.  Huge surprise.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 08/19/09 at 09:33 AM ET

Baldsilly has always been Slimy, He stole the Crackberry technology & now he wants to steal teams & Moyes wasn’t in control of the Coyotes when he tried to “sell It” The NHL was

Posted by Evilpens on 08/19/09 at 09:34 AM ET

Nathan, scooter;

Did you read the actual post or just jump on the soapbox?  The NHL is contending that Balsillie and Moyes worked together to circumvent the BoG and it’s regulations for transfer of ownership and relocation.  It wasn’t an above-board offer for the team from Balsillie to Moyes.  They worked together to drag the team and the league into bankruptcy court in the hopes that Moyes could hand the team to Balsillie, Moyes could make back some of his money, they could break the lease in Glendale without paying any penalties, and move the team to Hamilton without the NHL’s consent.  That’s the central plank in the NHL’s case. It was never just one rich guy offer to buy the team from another slightly-less rich guy.  Your anti-Bettman glasses are hurting your reading comprehension skills.

Posted by Mike @ MHH from Oklahoma City, OK on 08/19/09 at 11:24 AM ET

... and the reason Moyes did this is because he feared exactly what happened would in fact occur: that Bettman would rather give the Coyotes away to an owner his old friend David Stern liked and leave Moyes holding a 50+ million dollar bag of losses than actually allow Moyes to try and recoup some of the endless cash he dumped into the team.

Just look at the piece of bleep offer Reinsdorf has out there.

Again, what does being an NHL ‘owner’ mean if you can’t sell the team for the best price?

Posted by HockeyinHD on 08/19/09 at 11:32 AM ET

Evilpens,

Very bold words if you’re referring to the NTP patent infringement suit. RIM came across their prior art while involved in other patent litigation, and brought it to the court’s attention. RIM settled with NTP - a holding company that had no intention of ever developing any product - and the USPTO actually ended up invalidating NTP’s patent claims shortly thereafter.

Bo - bankruptcy fraud? A strategic business move, for sure, but fraud? Have you followed the auto industry over the past six months? Is there a material misrepresentation of the losses incurred by Moyes? Was Moyes obligated to keep losing tens of millions each year? Why would he alone not have the right to file for bankruptcy?

That said, I find Balsillie only slightly less detestable that Bettman and most of the other figures involved in the Coyotes debacle.

Posted by shazam88 from California on 08/19/09 at 11:54 AM ET

HinHD,

I have no beef with Moyes wanting to get the best price for the trainwreck he was largely responsible for creating.  My problem is that he was a member of the club, he knew the rules, he knew which way the wind COULD blow, yet he decided he didn’t want to play by those rules anymore and pulled the back-door bankruptcy out of his and Balsillie’s lawyers backside.  And now he acts like his feelings are hurt because the league wants nothing to do with Balsillie and is actively trying to take the team away from him and leave him holding the bag.

As far as I can tell, everybody on both sides of this could end up getting exactly what they deserve: Moyes = massive debt, Balsillie = no team, the NHL = running a turkey of a franchise with one of, if not THE, worst leases in the league.

Posted by Mike @ MHH from Oklahoma City, OK on 08/20/09 at 09:21 AM ET