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Sabres deny report saying a letter of intent to sell the team has been signed

Buffalo Sabres v Toronto Maple Leafs

of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Buffalo Sabres at the Air Canada Centre on November 6, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.

Bruce Bennett

On Sunday, we told you about the news that things are rumbling in Buffalo about the potential sale of the team. Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe reported that Sabres owner Tom Golisano was looking around to see if there was anyone interested in buying the team. Dupont mentioned specifically that founder of the Penn State University varsity hockey program, Terry Pegula, was someone of interest that could be involved.

This stirred up quickly this morning when Ken Campbell of The Hockey News dropped news of a report saying that Pegula signed a letter of intent to buy the Sabres and that the wheels were well in motion to get things done in Buffalo. The buying price for the franchise? A cool $150 million.

As is typical in these situations when news breaks out of the blue about something that would be a very big deal, Sabres managing partner and minority owner Larry Quinn released this statement to throw a bucket of water on everyone.

“Reports regarding the sale of the Buffalo Sabres tend to surface from time to time. There have been several inquiries in the past few years regarding this subject. Our company policy is we do not comment on them because people make inquiries all the time. Some of these inquiries are serious, some are not, some make the media and others do not. The report that a $150 million letter of intent has been signed is simply not true.”

Well that’s unfortunate to hear. Not because Tom Golisano is a bad owner, he’s not. He’s the guy that essentially saved the team after going through hell being owned by the corrupt and prison-bound Rigas family in the 1990s. It’s a downer because Terry Pegula is a rising star in the wealthy person game. After all, donating $80 million to get your alma mater’s varsity hockey program started is a good way to win friends and influence people when it comes to hockey. Pegula is a big fan of the game and with his wife being a Buffalo native, maintaining that local ownership angle to the front office sure looks nice.

All that aside, this is the second report in three days discussing the Sabres and the potential sale of the team. That’s an awful lot of smoke for there not to be a fire and with the same name being mentioned as a lead candidate, you have to think that we’ll see real news of the sale of the Sabres sooner than not.