Coyotes Crushed

According to the Associated Press, Judge Redfield Baum has rejected Jim Balsillie's proposal to buy the Phoenix Coyotes out of Chapter 11. The ruling will eliminate any chance of Jim Balsillie, the man in charge of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, obtaining an NHL franchise any time soon. The ruling also means that the Coyotes are staying in Phoenix (rejoice Coyotes fans!). Beyond that, it is a bit unclear what will happen to the Coyotes. As of right now, the options are three: 1. a sale to one of the other investors expressing interest; 2. no sale and the team is run by the NHL for a season; or 3. a knight in shining armor comes to the rescue, a la Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins during their bankruptcy.

More to come on this in the next few days, most likely through a post over on SportsJudge Blog as part of my regular column there.