NEW YORK — The NHL has rejected a report stating the Phoenix Coyotes are headed back to Winnipeg after the playoffs.
The Fan 590, a Toronto all-sports radio station, reported the move Wednesday citing multiple sources.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly was quick to deny it, saying the league remains focused on completing a sale that would keep the team in Arizona.
“The report is untrue,” Daly said in a statement. “No decisions have been made at this point in time, and there has not been a timetable set for making that decision.
“We are still continuing in our efforts to effectuate a sale of the franchise in Glendale.”
The clock is ticking on Matthew Hulsizer as he continues to try and complete his purchase of the NHL team for a reported US$170 million.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman acknowledged over the all-star break the league has no desire to continue running the Coyotes into next season.
“We’ll hang in there as long as it makes sense and as long as we can,” Bettman said in late January. “But time is getting short. Make no mistake about that. This is not something that is of infinite duration.
“I have tried to be as careful as I could be not to raise expectations in Winnipeg.”
The Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996 and became the Coyotes. The franchise has never turned a profit in the desert.