  (AP Photo/Paul Connors, File) |
The Phoenix Coyotes might not be ready to pull up stakes and move to Winnipeg after all.
A report on ESPN.com suggests that both potential lease agreements (put forth by representatives for Ice Edge Holdings and Chicago White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf) have been accepted by Glendale City Council and could be approved as early as Tuesday.
That would seem to be the next step in securing the Coyotes’ future in the desert and prevent a move back to Winnipeg, a theory that received plenty of support during the past week.
However, the same ESPN.com report said that accepting a new lease doesn’t necessarily mean that all the loose ends will be tied up in time and that the NHL might still opt to sell to another local and allow relocation.
Even if the city of Glendale votes to accept one of the two new lease agreements, a source told ESPN.com that the issue could be put to a public vote, something that would draw the process out further and leave the future of the franchise up in the air.
A second report in the Phoenix Business Journal, which raised the possibility of the NHL having an agreement in place with Toronto billionaire David Thomson to move the Coyotes to Winnipeg should the franchise need to be relocated, said the lease issue will be reviewed at Tuesday meeting and might be voted on by city councillors on Apr. 13.
The NHL has maintained throughout the ordeal that its main objective is to find a new ownership group that wants to remain in Arizona.
