The Devils "missed a deadline yesterday for repaying an $80 million loan that was originally due Sept. 1," according to Josh Kosman of the N.Y. POST. Bank lenders last month "agreed to give the team an extension while team owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek tried unsuccessfully to raise money to buy out co-owner Ray Chambers." While the team "didn’t get another extension yesterday, lenders did not declare the Devils in default either." Lenders "can’t make a move until after the hockey season is over because of a 'stand-still' provision." Lenders "have to wait 180 days before putting a team in bankruptcy, and if those 180 days fall during the season, which is going on now, they can’t make a move until after the last game is played." Discussions between Vanderbeek and the lenders "are continuing." Vanderbeek and Goldman Sachs are "trying to securitize the team’s long-term media contract, so he can use those proceeds to make the payment." He "will need NHL and lender approval" (N.Y. POST, 10/18).
SKATING FORWARD: TSN.ca's Bob McKenzie reported at "some point in the not-too-distant future, it's expected the NHL will endorse one of two groups that are currently showing some interest in the purchase" of the Coyotes. One group is headed up by former Sharks President & CEO Greg Jamison and the other by Bulls and White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf. Jamison's group "would appear to be the underdog; Reinsdorf's group the favorite." The aim "would appear to be to have a signed, sealed and delivered agreement by sometime early in 2012." But if "no agreement of that nature is in place in the New Year, there's every reason to believe the league will look at putting the franchise on the open market and, subject to league approval of course, entertain offers from ownership groups who would be buying it to move it elsewhere" (TSN.ca, 10/17).
