A great many NHL governors think a 2nd team in Toronto makes perfect sense - and Jim Balsillie would be the likely owner.
Seldom in the annals of National Hockey League history has so much been said simply by saying so little, but if you want an up-to-the-moment insight as to the status of the "war" between Jim Balsillie and the NHL over a second team in southern Ontario, then take note of the following quote in Tuesday's Globe and Mail newspaper.
"I've heard bits and pieces of this scenario, although not in that kind of detail," Harley Hotchkiss told Globe hockey columnist David Shoalts in a front-page story about putting a second team in the Toronto marketplace. "Our priority is to have the existing franchises solid."
On the surface, it doesn't seem like much. In truth, the "heard bits and pieces" part is close to a throwaway line and not all that far removed from a "no-comment" comment about stabilizing existing franchises, long the league party line.
But the fact that Hotchkiss, co-owner of the Calgary Flames and a former chairman of the NHL board of governors, publicly recognized that there is talk among the governors about putting a second team in southern Ontario speaks volumes.
It speaks volumes about how Jim Balsillie, the co-owner of Blackberry maker Research in Motion, has succeeded in transforming himself from a perceived monster intent on running roughshod through the NHL's old boys club, to a potential partner that the governors would consider doing business with.
There has been talk for months that Balsillie has been doing exactly that. There are rumours of golf, dinner and business outings during which Balsillie has not only courted the governors on an individual and collective basis, but also took the time to recast his image, painting himself more as someone they could like, respect and work with rather than the renegade demon image that the New York office seems to cultivate.
It also lends credence to the long-whispered theory that there are a great many governors who think it makes perfect sense to have a second hockey team (and I would argue even a third) in a market that both wants and can support it, an argument their appointed leader, Gary Bettman, does not appear to embrace.
It makes a case, if you are inclined to believe other owners quoted anonymously in the same story, that the whispered rumours that Balsillie will help bail out the governors by helping one of their struggling southern franchises (Nashville being mentioned most often but there are other candidates) in return for access to the market he truly covets are, if not true, at least open to discussion.
It indicates - and this is perhaps the most important thing we can take from this story - that the governors are finally developing a set of stones about their business and the direction their appointed leader has been taking it and they are talking, at least among themselves, about doing something about it.
The Globe doesn't name any governor who says anything of consequence in the story. Nor does it cite how many it spoke to or even whether or not the ones it did reach represent a majority point of view, but when there's quote after quote from anonymous governors and an on-the-record acknowledgement from a prominent owner that such discussions exist, that says a lot.
It adds even more weight when Hotchkiss' confirmation is, in essence, not immediately dismissed or even said to be a threat to the Maple Leafs by none other than Richard Peddie, the president of the Leafs. You have to assume Peddie is at least listening to his corporate brothers. The reasons for that are many and varied and one could speculate they range from perhaps agreeing with them in principle to being a part of a movement to effect change as high as the commissioner's office itself.
The door is open to anything right now and where this all goes remains to be seen. Attempts to reach league officials and Balsillie were not successful at the time this column was posted and because of that it should also be noted that issues raised in the Globe and Mail story, including talk of placing a relocated or expansion franchise under the same roof as the Leafs in the Air Canada Centre, are way premature. It's also logical to assume that floating out a price in the $700-million range is little more than a governor engaging in wishful thinking. One could also argue that the idea the governors would never accept Hamilton because it is "a minor-league town" or because of its impact on the nearby Buffalo Sabres is nothing more than one governor playing with his own set of trial balloons.
But what's really in play here goes beyond all that.
The bigger issue is that not only are the governors talking among themselves about the relative merits of a second team in the Toronto marketplace, but they are also talking about what role Jim Balsillie might play in bringing it about.
Now it's always possible that the ever-pragmatic Bettman has himself come to that conclusion and could even be playing a behind-the-scenes role in it, but it certainly doesn't seem likely.
Sources I spoke to indicate that it's actually the opposite. They indicate the governors are upset about the quality of investors Bettman has brought to the NHL table in what is a perceived effort to keep Balsillie out and how those efforts have brought the league ridicule, chaos, more uncertainty and legal problems in Nashville. They are also troubled by the ongoing financing problems with the Tampa Bay Lightning, rumours of a possible bankruptcy in Phoenix, serious ownership and financial problems in Atlanta and south Florida and a collective bargaining agreement that has forced them to dramatically raise ticket prices in many markets in order to pay a surprisingly large payroll despite a collective agreement - which cost the owners an entire season of revenue via a lockout - the commissioner promised would bring cost certainty, sustainable profits and lower ticket prices.
Add it all up and it becomes clear that owners are at least talking about Balsillie's desire to operate a franchise in a market that can clearly support it as something that makes sense to them whether the commissioner likes it or not.
Harley Hotchkiss may not have chosen those exact words to say it, but he nonetheless confirmed it.
That's something you don't see in the NHL every day.
That may well be the biggest story of all.
