Implied Move to Seattle is New Ploy in Oilers Arena Issue

The latest story in the extended debate over a new rink for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers involves team owner Daryl Katz appearing in Seattle for “meetings” with unidentified parties. This included being a witness to the debacle between the Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL — another professional league where greedy, short-sighted owners are threatening the very fabric of a game loved by millions.

Like the Packers and their fans, the citizens of Edmonton and the Oilers’ supporters would have every reason to feel “jobbed” if a move of the city’s cornerstone franchise ever occurred. Most view this latest development as little more than the owner flexing his muscles and using his leverage to get the arena deal done in a manner more to his liking — meaning, of course, more concessions from the taxpayers of Alberta’s capital city.

Almost no one there would want to see the marquee legacy of what was once known as the “City of Champions” move to the Pacific Northwest, and Katz knows it. So instead of negotiating in good faith, he will do what the other NHL owners are doing right now to the NHLPA and the fans through their poxy proxy, league “commissioner” and full-time pursedog Gary Bettman: Katz will puff out his chest and proclaim that he’s the boss, dammit, and if he can’t have things exactly as he wants, everyone will suffer.

Even Wayne Gretzky finds himself dragged into the morass. The Great One thinks there is “probably zero” chance of the Oilers relocating to Seattle or another city, but before it happened, Gretzky probably couldn’t see himself being traded away from Edmonton either. Then he held a news conference filled with crocodile tears in 1988 after the club moved one of the greatest players in NHL history (along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski) to the Los Angeles Kings for the not-so-immortal Jimmy Carson, the occasionally helpful Martin Gelinas and several draft picks — which might as well have been bags of pucks — and lots of cash.

Of course, Gretzky made that deal happen after supposedly being promised the moon and the stars by Bruce McNall, the Kings owner at the time (and future jailbird). So even the unthinkable can happen.

Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel has taken a stand, saying all outstanding issues of the ownership group should be presented to city council at its meeting on Oct. 17. Will Katz lay it all on the line at that point? Will they stay or will they go? Stay tuned. There likely won’t be much else going on in the pro hockey world at that point, given that the current state of negotiations between the league and the players’ association is moving more slowly than a sloth with a hangover.