Dallas Stars Daily Links: Coyotes Move Closer to Staying in Phoenix, Seattle Emerges as Latest Plan B

The Phoenix Coyotes, Gary Bettman and the city of Glendale, Arizona. How will we ever pass these dull summer days in the hockey news cycle when the situation comes to its long-sought conclusion, probably by July 2nd of this year?

The real news about the Coyotes is the probably lease agreement reached Friday, via the Canadian Press...

A person familiar with the negotiations says a "framework" is in place for a lease agreement that would keep the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona.

But while the person characterized the developments as positive, the Glendale City Council still must study the proposal and vote on it. The next council meeting is set for June 25 and the NHL Board of Governors meets two days later.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposed agreement hasn't been made public. [TSN]

And Dave Tippett will then re-sign and huge, yearly financial losses will then be transferred to the RSE group from the league.

But all anyone really wants to talk about, because it's the sexier story, is this...

Plan B for the NHL and Coyotes [...] is to sell the team to investors Ray Bartoszek and Anthony Lanza, who previously engaged in discussions to purchase a 49-percent stake in the New York Mets in 2011. According to Glenn Healy, if those two do not get what they want by July 2 from the city of Glendale, then they would move the team to [Seattle].

KeyArena would be a temporary home until a new facility is built, something Chris Hansen has been working on in his quest to bring basketball back to Seattle. [Puck Daddy]

A move to Seattle would be much cleaner for the league where the new alignment is concerned, and would potentially provide much more convenient travel to all on a "Pacific" road-swing through San Jose and Vancouver. Still, it would be a horrible defeat for Gary Bettman, who may be remembered in the long run as much for this fiasco as he will be for three crippling lockouts.

The smart money says the Coyotes stay in Phoenix. Still, what would a good Seattle moniker for a relocated group be?

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Mike Heika captures how many felt about Alain Vigneault's spurning of the Stars: "There is a perception out there that the Stars lost out on this one, that they still are eating at the kids' table in the NHL, and there's some truth to that." [Dallas Morning News]

The extent to which the Bruins were outplayed in period one of game two was astounding. Puck Daddy runs down how the Bruins won that game despite the gross 19-4 shot margin in the opening frame. [Puck Daddy]

Also from Puck Daddy, via reddit, someone wrote down all the synonyms Doc Emeric used for "pass" the other night. Its length is legendary, and they present to you Emeric Bingo as a result. Someone needs to make a list of common Razorisms like this for similar purposes. [Puck Daddy]

George Malik with an interesting post here about the shortened off-season and how it affects the hockey world: "teams beset by cap problems, like the Flyers, can't even begin to engage in contract negotiations with UFA-to-be Mark Streit until they have the tagging space under the dropping cap (from $70.2 million to a "summer cap's" worth of 10% over $64.3 million) to spend next season's money." Interesting. [Kuklas Korner]

We celebrated the day Ilya Bryzgalov went East. It was wonderful. A thorn in our side soon to wreak havoc elsewhere. Except he didn't, and now sources say they buy him out of that horrible contract. Evidence of the greatness of Tippett, or at least the goaltender coach now tutoring Mike Smith? [CSN Philly]

The Province contemplates the Canucks' coaching search: "John Stevens will be framed as too underwhelming. John Tortorella, too overwhelming. Dave Tippett, too defensive. Glen Gulutzan, too WTF?" Laugh out loud. [The Province]

List of Seattle team names, just for fun. [Seattle Sports Central]

From "The Guardian Express" - The NHL Playoffs are "annoying". He posits that officiating is the reason, and while there are definitely some issues there it's not enough to back up his opinion that the regular season is in any way better. There's a lengthy mention of Brett Hull's winner in 1999, just for kicks. [Guardian Express]