HockeyBettman confident on a new Coyotes owner

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman remains optimistic that he will find a buyer for the owner-less Phoenix Coyotes by the end of the calendar year.

Bettman last week set a Dec. 31 deadline to lasso someone to purchase the Coyotes and keep them in the city of Glendale, Ariz. But if his wish is not realized at the end of 2010 the league will listen to offers from ownership groups that want to move the franchise.

The NHL commissioner did not delve into any detail as to why he's optimistic - isn't he always? - about a new Coyotes owner emerging in the next three-plus months, but Glendale officials divulged they recently have discussed a new lease for Jobing.com Arena with an undisclosed individual. That individual is believed to be Chicago investor Matthew Hulsizer, according to multiple reports.

Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, they just finished a few days of feeling good about its chances of one day returning to the NHL. The Stanley Cup-champion Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning played a preseason game at the MTS Centre on Wednesday.

A crowd of 14,092 almost filled the 15,015 seats of Winnipeg's six-year-old rink. They saw the Blackhawks drop a 4-2 decision. Winnipeg native Jonathan Toews and city-born, Thunder Bay-raised Patrick Sharp scored for Chicago. Winnipeg teenager Carter Ashton, the son of former Jets forward Brent Ashton, chipped in a goal for the Lightning.

To add to the good vibrations, both Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman and Chicago coach Joel Quenneville remarked they would like to see the NHL return to Winnipeg. Yzerman made his NHL debut there 27 years ago. Quenneville played many NHL and WHA games at the old Winnipeg Arena, including the night they retired Bobby Hull's sweater No. 9.

Even an Angus Reid poll that was published on Thursday reported that 62 per cent of respondents would like to see the NHL back in Winnipeg. The Jets departed after the 1995-96 season for Phoenix under Bettman's watch, a year after the Quebec Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche.

Since those relocations, Bettman has been reluctant to displace franchises. In the past decade or so the financial situations with the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins have become dire for one reason or another, but the teams stayed put and now are on solid footing.

"Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Ottawa, back eight, 10 years ago went through times where there were challenges, not unlike the challenge we've been facing in Phoenix," Bettman said on Thursday. "You only give up as an absolute last resort. From our standpoint, you don't give up unless you have to."

It will be interesting to see if the NHL has to give up in the desert dream later this year. The league has owned the team since Jerry Moyes filed for bankruptcy in May 2009 and intended on selling the franchise to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, whose Hamilton relocation scenario was quashed by the courts.

Bettman has admitted he regrets moving the Jets. But with a strong ownership group waiting in Manitoba with the Chipman family and its True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd. as well as Canadian billionaire David Thomson, the NHL commissioner should be optimistic about moving the Coyotes back to Winnipeg, too.

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