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Pipe dream? NHL still hoping to sell Coyotes to local buyer

Bill Daly

NHL deputy commissioner of the Bill Daly prepares to announce the top pick in the NHL hockey draft to the Edmonton Oilers, during the draft lottery in Toronto on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

AP

Not breaking news: The Phoenix Coyotes are still up for sale. Also not breaking news? There doesn’t appear to be anyone eager to buy the team to keep them in Glendale. That isn’t stopping NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly from holding out hope that the situation will change.

Daly tells Dan Rosen of NHL.com that he’s still hopeful that the Coyotes will bring about someone with deep pockets to both buy the team and keep them locked in at Jobing.com Arena. Daly says they’ve got a couple people interested in doing just that.

From the sound of that, it looks like the NHL just wants to have someone that can take the team off the NHL’s hands and get the Coyotes out of the canyon-sized financial hole they’re in.

As it is, Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and former Sharks vice president Greg Jamison have been mentioned as potentially interested parties.

The Coyotes situation is one that’s not going to get any easier as the league can start looking around at other bids after the start of the new year. That’s not to say that they will, just that the option is there. If this is the Coyotes’ final season in Arizona, expect that things will move lightning fast to sell and relocate the team just the way the league did with the Thrashers over the summer.