Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

Despite Ice Edge's problems in buying the Coyotes, don't expect the team in Winnipeg anytime soon.

So if the Ice Edge group bidding for control of the Phoenix Coyotes can't get a deal done with the city of Glendale, are we supposed to believe that the Coyotes next stop is Winnipeg?

Memo to NHL fans in the small, but very fine city that the NHL did its best to forget: follow the money.

I'd like to believe that Winnipeg is first up on the short list of re-relocation cities and that the NHL is leaning that way when it carefully touts the advantages (without making any iron clad promises) of going back to a hockey town in a Canadian city where the game was relatively successful.

The problem is the NHL hasn't truly declared unbridled love for the "Peg" and one can't help but think that all the carefully worded statements from the Commissioner on down, don't amount to anything unless there's a signed commitment from the league.

Has anyone seen that yet? There have been hints and lots of "code words" and mushy feeling about undoing a wrong, but the reality is seemingly as real as Ice Edge's ability to come up with the necessary cash to make it's dream happen. So far at least it has all been word of mouth, nothing written in stone or even on paper.

Most of us know the latest updates. Ice Edge has been unable to come to terms on a renegotiated lease with the city of Glendale. Ice Edge has recently lost it's window of exclusive opportunity to negotiate said deal. Ice Edge denies there are any problems now, just like they've denied there have been any problems all along.

But it's pretty close to put up or shut up time for a group that's been kicking at the 'Yotes for almost as long as the Toronto Maple Leafs have been promising to be a playoff team and so far at least they have neither put up or shut up. They just keep mumbling that all is well while stopping well short of waving a cheque, blank or otherwise.

"We have been at this since June 8 when the Glendale City Council approved the memo of understanding and seven weeks later, we are making great progress," wrote Ice Edge spokesman Robert Johnson in responding to a series of tough questions put forth by writers at the Winnipeg Free Press. "Our focus is on buying the team from the NHL and we remain confident in our ability to complete the deal. We are in constant communication with all parties involved in this process and are committed to a successful outcome."

I believe that's what former owners of the Tampa Bay Lighting used to say every time they were asked if they were close to scraping up enough funds and burying enough animosity between themselves to hold onto their franchise last season. There's a pretty good chance that one can say the same thing about the times William "Boots" Del Biaggio used to tell Nashville ownership that the cheque is good and will be in the mail soon. If we can say anything with certainty about Ice Edge it would be that they at the very least do not appear to be positioning themselves to be hauled off to jail.

Ice Edge has been careful and somewhat cautious, but never fraudulent. Who can forget the statement Daryl Jones, Ice Edge's CE0, gave to media near the end of the 2009-10 season when he stated: "It's hard to gauge the probability of this deal closing. Realistically, there has been a great deal of financial turmoil in the world over the last 45 days, sovereign-debt issues and stock market corrections, which are going to make it harder for us, or any group, to close this transaction. That being said, we do remain optimistic."

Hardly the statement of a bloviator and besides, what's wrong with cautious optimism?

I remain optimistic that I will someday own a Porsche 911 and I have held that optimism for the better part of 40 years. But truth be told I am no closer to driving down the highway with six speed in hand and 300 some horses under my control than I am to owning the Montreal Canadiens, the all-time home run record for a person never having used or abused steroids, or the territorial rights for NFL football in Toronto.

Hey, we all have dreams; it's just that most times reality has a way of getting in the way.

Yet still I can't quite bring myself to believe the former Jets are destined to land back in Winnipeg in part because the entire Phoenix fiasco seemed to have the goal of allowing the NHL to bide time until a legitimate buyer could be found.

It's clear now that Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of a number of sporting entities, isn't going to be the one and it's becoming clearer every day that the Ice Edge boys aren't likely to persevere despite their appearance as the last potential owner standing.

But that doesn't mean Winnipeg is a lock.

Even when dealing with a man who turned out to be a crook and an ownership situation so unstable as to make one think that yet another bankrupt franchise might be right around the corner, Gary Bettman bought himself enough time in Nashville to get ownership there restructured and to get the shares that Del Biaggio had fraudulently obtained back into control of the new Board of Directors. He did this with quite a bit of negative publicity and at a substantial discount regarding the value of said shares, but in the end it appears things have stabilized in Nashville.

The same can be said of his efforts to keep the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tampa Bay, complete with new ownership that appears to have the financial clout to operate the team in a manner most any franchise would be happy to have. It's a new era with the relatively inexperienced, but exceedingly high-profile, Steve Yzerman as the new and considerably more stable general manager.

In truth, Tampa Bay seems to be the model by which Bettman and the NHL hopes to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. Buy enough time, even in a still weakened economy, to find an owner willing to take a chance on what may well be an up and coming team in a market that perhaps doesn't love hockey, but is willing to support it. If it shows any tendency toward winning and winning with an ownership group that is committed to keeping it in Phoenix.

If that's the case, that would leave the good people of Winnipeg very much resembling something of a stalking horse. Used, not necessarily abused, but feeling at least misused in ways that hockey fans in Hamilton, Ont. know only too well.

It's not a given by any means. There are people in Winnipeg with the money and the wherewithal to bring the franchise there and make it reasonably successful despite having a relatively small building (by NHL standards) a relatively small population base and relatively small per capita income. There's also something to be said for pride of ownership and the commitment of a city and fan base that puts hockey on a level something akin to being within the grace of God. Simply put a small market can be every bit as sustaining as a large market providing there is precious little in the way of competition and a great deal of pent up emotion for regaining something the region once had and forever wants to regain. Civic pride has sustained the Green Bay Packers, the Buffalo Bills, the Edmonton Oilers and even the Calgary Flames in that regard. There's little reason to doubt that it can't also happen in Winnipeg.

But until that day comes to pass, one can't help but think - and largely because of past NHL practice - that the NHL hasn't completely given up on the idea of a new owner with deep pockets having a go at keeping a franchise alive in Phoenix.

It's something Bettman and his deputy Bill Daly have done in Nashville and Tampa Bay and in working through bankruptcies in Buffalo, Ottawa and Pittsburgh.

There's a blueprint there and until there are crossed t's and dotted i's in an "agreement" with True North Sports and Entertainment or some other entity in Winnipeg people there need to be cautious.

Ice Age may not be able to do what they've promised but then the NHL hasn't signed any document that guarantees the Coyotes are going back to Winnipeg either.

This has until at least December to play itself out. That's a long time for anyone, even the good folks in Winnipeg, to be holding their breath.