Wayne Gretzky Blamed as Dark Phoenix Saga Continues Amid Coyotes Bankruptcy

Will the Phoenix Coyotes rise up like a mythical sacred firebird from ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Phoenician mythologies?

Or will the story about moving the team up north be more like "The Dark Phoenix Saga" with the X-Men from Marvel Comics Universe, ending badly for a former hero?

The saga takes more twists and turns each day than a soap opera.
       
The back-and-forth legal jousting between the National Hockey League and Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes continues, according to Darren Dredger of TSN.com. 
       
The latest, he says, is that the NHL filed an objection with the U.S Bankruptcy Court following Moyes' attempt to force the NHL to disclose other offers to buy the Coyotes.
       
According to Paul Waldie of the Globe and Mail, the NHL is trying to block that shot.        
Moyes wants a bankruptcy court judge in Phoenix to force the NHL to provide information about its discussions with Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, Waldie reports.
       
The league says it was close to a deal with Reinsdorf.
       
The NHL argues that the court has to first determine who controls the Coyotes.
       
This saga began with word the Coyotes were struggling financially and would miss the playoffs for the sixth season in a row.
       
When Moyes declared the team was bankrupt, Jim Balsillie made an offer to buy the team, if he could move it to Canada.
       
Balsillie's hunt for the Coyotes set up a faceoff with the NHL.
       
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman challenged the Coyotes bankruptcy, saying Moyes no longer controlled the team and the NHL did.
       
The NHL said Moyes gave up control for financial help and the NHL controls the Coyotes, so they want the bankruptcy filing denied.
       
The NHL said they had a rival bid for the Coyotes, but wouldn't reveal who it came from and would not reveal it without a fight.
       
The NHL balked at producing documents related to a rival bid for the franchise, according to the Toronto Star, and asked the court to dismiss the request for disclosure of information about the the sale of the Coyotes.
           
The Coyotes won a court motion that "will force the NHL to tell all it knows" to a Phoenix bankruptcy court about Chicago White Sox and Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf’s interest in buying the team, according to the Wall Street Journal.
       
You are now up-to-date on the legal issues. But this story has plots and subplots.

A national survey was carried out across Canada and discovered there was a lot of support for the idea of having a seventh NHL team in Canada.

Shortly after that, fans in Phoenix planned to rally in support of Coyotes.

However, according to Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal and Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic, Westgate City Centre said "no" to the rally.

They reported that rally organizer Greg Esposito said a rally will occur at a yet to be determined site near the arena on Saturday.

Westgate is owned by former Coyotes owner Steve Ellman.

Meanwhile, there are reports that coach Wayne Gretzky, ticket sellers, and more than 400 others have not been paid, including Keith Gretzky, Wayne’s brother, who serves as the Coyotes’ director of amateur scouting.

There is one more surprising twist: Mike Ozanian, national editor of Forbes magazine, says Wayne Gretzky stabbed Bettman in the Back and he is to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman what Brutus was to Caesar.

He says Gretzky shafted Coyote fans with a lousy hockey team and a bloated payroll packed with cronies.

"The NHL lent the money-losing team a small fortune to help keep them afloat," Ozanian wrote, and then while Bettman was busy working on the league’s credit facility, to help teams during the current recession, "Gretzky, along with majority owner Jerry Moyes, dumped the Coyotes into bankruptcy court without notifying the NHL."

Ozanian also says "the guy Gretzky wants to sell to is Jim Balsillie."

Until Ozanian's claim, there had been no word on where Gretzky stood on the issues in this saga.