Evgeni Malkin snaps a picture of President Obama during a White House ceremony honoring the Stanley Cup champions.
(Jim Watson/Getty Images)
NHL notebook
A bankruptcy judge has raised the possibility of rejecting both bids to buy the Phoenix Coyotes.
Judge Redfield T. Baum made the comment yesterday as the two-day auction of the team began.
Baum called the possibility “more than theoretical.’’
Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie has made a bid contingent on moving the team to Hamilton, Ontario, over the overwhelming opposition of the NHL.
The other bid is by the NHL, which says it will resell the team outside of the bankruptcy process, either to an owner who would keep the team in Glendale or, failing that, to someone who would relocate the franchise. Balsillie and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman were in the crowded courtroom yesterday.
NHLPA contacts Fehr
According to TSN sources, the NHL Players’ Association reached out to Donald Fehr, who is retiring as the head of Major League Baseball’s Players’ Association. The NHLPA fired executive director Paul Kelly Monday. Sources say the PA’s executive board wanted Fehr’s advice on how the group should proceed in the search for Kelly’s replacement . . . The league and the players union announced that forward Theoren Fleury has been cleared to return to on-ice competition. Fleury, who in June, 2006 was placed in Stage 4 of the Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program of the NHLPA and the NHL, will continue to participate in the after-care phase.
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