Rodier Still Able To Represent Balsillie For Now...

Here's the highlights of David Shoalts article from Tuesday's Globe and Mail getting us all revved up for the next round of Balsillie and the NHL going at each other's throats...

Basically, judge Redfield T. Baum hasn't ruled on the idea that the NHL wants Jim Balsillie's lawyer, Richard Rodier, as far away from the courtroom when depositions and cross-examinations begin- since Rodier is on the cross list himself.

We get that... but it's the NHL's fault for putting Rodier's name on the list in the first place. A sneaky ploy, but those of us at OSG HQ don't see it working...

Balsillie still wants to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario for the 09-10 season, but NHL associate commissioner Bill Daly has a point about travel and violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement. If Balsillie is awarded the Coyotes in court, he needs to take the victory and the write-off for one season.

If MakeItSeven made a point to let the Goldwater Institute in on some of the details of the bidding process and the NHL documents, that's good on the first part and not-so-good on the other. We know Goldwater is a public watchdog, but FOIA requests should take care of those details...

((HT: GlobeSports/Shoalts))

Judge Redfield T. Baum did not issue an immediate ruling on whether Jim Balsillie’s chief legal strategist, Richard Rodier, would be barred from taking part in the questioning of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and other league executives but the league kept the pressure on the would-be buyer of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Late Tuesday afternoon, after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing about Rodier ((pictured, thanks Nathan Denette/CP)) and about the NHL’s request for a large amount of documents from Balsillie and Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes, the league asked the court to rule that no matter who wins the auction for the Coyotes on Sept. 10, that the team cannot be moved from suburban Glendale for the 2009-10 season.

The NHL’s lawyers told the court “the NHL schedule has been finalized and released; previously ‘open dates’ in NHL arenas have been filled with other events; television schedules of both the league’s national broadcast partners and the other 29 member clubs’ local broadcast partners have been finalized; travel and hotel arrangements have been made; and ticket packages have been created and are being marketed and sold.”

The argument was backed up by a lengthy statement from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. He argued against the move on a number of fronts from scheduling problems to television contracts to travel bookings. For example, Daly said, the league would be in violation of the collective agreement with the players if it allowed the move because of the problem of back-to-back games switching from Glendale to a city thousands of miles away.

The collective agreement, Daly said, “precludes teams from having to travel more than two and one-half hours on the day of a game, and from having to travel on Christmas. The Los Angeles Kings are currently scheduled to play the Coyotes on December 26. If this game were moved to Hamilton, the Kings would have to make a transcontinental flight on the day of the game in violation of the [agreement].”

Earlier, the NHL asked for a large volume of documents and e-mail messages concerning a wide range of issues, going back to Balsillie’s aborted purchase of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006. Balsillie’s lawyers complained this was too broad and that the “NHL is obsessed with finding documents establishing that [Balsillie] and [Moyes] ‘conspired’ to use the bankruptcy laws to suit their respective purposes. This court has already told the NHL that ‘financially challenged sports teams’ have the right to utilize the bankruptcy laws.”

The NHL argued that Rodier should not be allowed to attend any depositions of its personnel because he himself will be examined by the league’s lawyers. People who are being examined can be excluded from sitting in on the examinations of others under U.S. bankruptcy law, the league’s filing said.

Bettman, Daly and Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs are scheduled to be questioned by lawyers for Balsillie and Moyes beginning Thursday. Rodier will be examined next week.

On the documents issue, the league is apparently trying to prove suspicions that Balsillie and his lawyers were helping The Goldwater Institute, a conservative watchdog group, in a potential lawsuit against the City of Glendale. It requested a long list of e-mails between Balsillie, Rodier, Moyes and others.