Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

If Ice Edge gets their hands on the Coyotes, the Oilers will likely get a trip to Saskatoon.

The NHL is willing to sacrifice logical scheduling in order to unload the Coyotes.

PEBBLE BEACH - We could take some time to explain what the average National Hockey League's governor really thinks about the prospect of the Phoenix Coyotes playing five home games in Saskatoon. But instead, we'll let an unnamed governor tell you himself:

"It's a (expletive) stupid idea."

But there is an idea that is more foolish yet, and the governors know exactly what that is.

Right now they have the Ice Edge Holdings group on the line to buy the team. Letting them get away would drop the Coyotes and their millions in operating costs right back into the NHL's laps - and that would be a lot worse than a February trip to Saskatoon.

So, with Ice Edge having filed their letter of intent to buy the Coyotes, we have already reached a contentious point in this would-be relationship.

Do the governors give Ice Edge their way on the Saskatoon games, just to ensure that the decimated Coyotes franchise can be offloaded with expedience? Or do they stand their ground against a franchise that, truth be told, has become far more trouble than it is worth to these guys.

Saskatoon got a frosty reception from Calgary Flames president Ken King.

"Whether or not that will ever come to pass if very highly speculative. Based on what we heard, it is not something that I think is likely to happen," he said.

Asked if it opens a Pandora's Box that teams like Florida and Nashville could use to relocate some home games, King was terse: "No. Because one team hasn't been allowed to do it. Nobody is doing it now, and there is no reason to believe at this point that they will."

Edmonton Oilers president Patrick Laforge admitted of the Saskatoon plan, "There were (governors) who didn't like it and said so, and there were people who thought it was supportive to doing the Phoenix deal. We're trying to do both, I think."

It is a slippery slope however, when you consider that the Florida Panthers already played their recent preseason out of Saskatoon. There are plenty of U.S.-based clubs that would love to sell some games to a neutral site, but is that what the league wants?

"I think that's the issue," Laforge said. "We want a plan. If we we're going to play in satellite markets around North America … Houston, Seattle, London, Ontario - good hockey markets, potentially - you have to have a plan so the fans in the marketplace can see what you're doing and can buy into it."

The Ice Edge plan is to remove five less favourable dates from their Phoenix schedule, mid-week games that would draw about 7,000 people in Phoenix could be turned into gates of 14,000-plus in Saskatoon. There the Coyotes would be the big show in town.

They would play Edmonton, Calgary, perhaps Vancouver and one of Montreal or Toronto, and perhaps schedule a Pacific Division foe on the end of a Western Canadian road swing.

"I don't know how the Alberta teams feel about it," said Toronto GM Brian Burke. "I'd have to imagine the junior team in Saskatoon isn't crazy about it."

As the facts begin to emerge about the Ice Edge Holdings group's bid to buy the Phoenix franchise, it sets our Spidey senses tingling something fierce.

Ice Edge CEO Anthony LeBlanc told sportsnet.ca on Monday that, providing they can negotiate some unnamed increased revenue streams with the City of Glendale to sweeten their lease at Jobing.com Arena, they were willing to lock into the remaining 26 years left on the lease. They would not require nor ask for an escape clause that would free them from the lease if, say, the Coyotes lost a certain amount of money in the first five years.

Unless their idea of a revenue stream involves the City paying the Coyotes millions of dollars simply to play at Jobing.com, it is hard to envision any type of lease that would justify locking into a ravaged market for 26 long years.

"Phoenix was a highly distressed and difficult situation that the league handled really well," said King. "I think they deserve great credit for it."

Fair enough.

But what is it we don't know about this Ice Edge deal? What could possibly be profitable about a team that has lost untold millions, has an arena miles from where the monied fans live, and hasn't seen the playoffs since 2002?

Why is LeBlanc saying, "Ultimately, we believe that hockey will work in Arizona," when there is seemingly zero evidence to back that up?

Or this one: "We are certain the franchise will be (in the black) in three years."

I am certain too. Certain that there is something we don't know about these guys and this deal.