Shooter Strikes Again: Don’t Count on the Wild Going Anywhere Except the WCF

Yesterday, there was a blog post over on Kukla's Korner that caused quite a stir. The post was basically a hook, line and sinker post about a newspaper article that Charlie Walters aka “Shooter” wrote in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

The article is still causing some blow back to day on twitter today. Check out Bruce Ciskie's twitter feed for the fire works.

Apparently, the story in question just keeps disappearing, or someone at the Pioneer Press edited the story after it created an unneeded fire storm. Why? Because there is no actual evidence provided in that story at all, sure anyone can say that the Wild are moving, but you might want to actually prove that you have some hard evidence in your article in question before you submit it, or at least ask someone other than a little blue bird. Like most of us suspected, Shooter put an article in the paper and it wasn’t based in any fact what-so-ever, probably got called on it and took it down or the paper took it down.

Former Editor B.Reynolds, who’s decided to retire from hockey blogging and move off of the Minnesota Wilderness beat, came out of his self-imposed retirement to respond to this fallacious rumor.

Are the Trashers going to Winnipeg?

First off it appears that a whole day of posts that were posted on Goon’s World after 05-11-2011 are now gone, toast, índice de, acabado, pasado and or flashed into hyper space, because of a Blogger.com screw up or glitch or whatever happened... I am not a techie, don’t pretend to be a techie so I have no clue what happened to two blog posts of mine. None-the-less, Goon's World is moving forward because this really is just a minor inconvenience and I am not going to spend a lot of time ranting and raving about it.

The new buzz around the “twitter world and the Internet” is that the Atlanta Thrasher hockey team is now rumored to be the next NHL team “that could be headed” to Winnipeg, Manitoba; I am not holding my breath waiting to see what happens, I applaud the effort by some to get an NHL hockey team in Winnipeg again but it does appear that this is going to be a tall order and we may or may not see it happen anytime soon. The prospects of a team landing in Winnipeg are more possible than they were in 1997.

Chris Vivlamore; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution --- It is unclear this morning if the Thrashers have been granted permission by the NHL to begin negotiations with True North Sports and Entertainment, the entity that would purchase the franchise and move it to Winnipeg, or if those talks have already begun.

However, it does appear the situation is headed in that direction. All attempts to find a buyer with the intention – and wherewithal – to keep the franchise in Atlanta have not moved past the preliminary stage. After signing a non-disclosure agreement for an initial look at team financial records, a prospective buyer must provide proof of the financial assets to complete a sale. No interested party has done so to this point. Time is running out.

As I was told and reported this week, things could move quickly in regard to a sale and relocation. Although, contrary to reports, it won’t get done by this weekend.

There is also no timetable on the possible completion of a deal with True North. It is also not known if such an agreement could be reached in time for next season. The structure for a deal could be in place as True North had first hoped to acquire the Phoenix Coyotes, owned by the NHL, until a resolution was reached to kept the team in Arizona for another season earlier this week. The Glendale City Council voted to pay $25 million to the NHL for operating expenses to keep the team at least for next season.

NHL bylaws require that an owner seeking to relocate a team submit a written application to the commissioner by Jan. 1 of the year preceding the proposed move — “unless a majority of the [clubs] consents to a later filing date.” That clause and caveat leave open the question of whether a move, if a deal is reached, would be for the 2011-12 or 2012-13 season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking on NHL Live radio Thursday, said the situation in Phoenix differs from Atlanta.