Future of the Flint Firebirds remains in limbo Team owner Rolf Nilsen is gearing up for a potential legal battle with the OHL by hiring high-profile attorney and former NHL player agent Patrick Ducharme to serve as counsel

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

Three weeks after the Ontario Hockey League seized control of the club’s hockey operations, the future of the Flint Firebirds remains in limbo.

The OHL has gathered information, but commissioner David Branch said the league has not discussed any options or next steps for the franchise.

Meanwhile, team owner Rolf Nilsen is gearing up for a potential legal battle with the OHL by hiring high-profile attorney and former NHL player agent Patrick Ducharme to serve as counsel.

The clock is ticking. The Firebirds hold six of the first 45 picks, tentatively including the third and fifth overall, in the OHL Priority Selection on April 9.

Branch conceded last month that convincing players to report to Flint after this firestorm is “one of the real challenges.”

“We suspended owner Rolf Nilsen and the existing hockey operations staff indefinitely last month,” Branch said Tuesday. “We will reevaluate how to best go forward at the end of the season.”

The Firebirds have five games remaining after Wednesday’s trip to first-place Erie, with their schedule wrapping up on March 19.

It appears that Branch is armed with two options to get Flint back on track, both of which could have significant legal obstacles.

Branch could use the broad powers of the OHL by-laws to vacate Nilsen’s ownership of the franchise. Or, Branch could attempt to place a lengthy suspension on Nilsen and his associates from hockey operations, in the hopes that Nilsen would sell the franchise.

Branch declined to comment on potential remedies on Tuesday. He said those options have “never been discussed” and they are “not something even being contemplated,” reiterating that the league would evaluate all options after Flint’s season ends on March 19.

Either way, Nilsen is making his own preparations. Ducharme, a Windsor-based lawyer who has represented NHL players such as Bob Probert, Matt Cooke and Robert Esche, confirmed on Tuesday that he has been retained by Nilsen.

On Tuesday, player agents expressed fears that Flint’s suspended regime has already resurfaced in back-channels, with former general manager Terry Christensen telling people he is “running the show again.”

Branch said Christensen has been confined to heading up Flint’s scouting and draft preparations for the Priority Selection. He is not to be involved “directly or indirectly” with day-to-day hockey operations.

Nonetheless, Christensen — who has been fired and re-hired this season by owner Rolf Nilsen at least publicly represents a toxic link to ownership.

“What person in their right mind would send their son or client there?” one agent asked recently.

Another veteran agent with highly rated prospects in the upcoming OHL draft said he would not even contemplate sending clients to Flint “without drastic alteration to the setup.” The Carolina Hurricanes already navigated to have their two draft picks be traded out of Flint when the coaching staff was fired the first time earlier this season.

A litigious and expensive tug-of-war may be on the horizon.

Money is no obstacle for Nilsen, a Norwegian who has made a fortune as the world’s leading manufacturer of sliding watertight doors for the shipping industry. Nilsen reportedly paid $8 million (U.S.) to purchase and relocate the Firebirds from Plymouth, Mich., to Flint last year. He also owns the 4,000-seat Dort Federal Credit Union Event Center, and he has poured millions of dollars into making it a first-class arena with facilities for players that rival the NHL.

Through it all, including an internationally infamous water crisis, Flint has actually been a solid home for the OHL. Flint players attend good schools in the suburbs, attendance has exceeded expectations, and wonderfully supportive billet families have devoted both time and energy to make the fledgling operation go.

The weight now rests on Branch and the OHL to try and salvage it.

Frank Seravalli can be reached at frank.seravalli@bellmedia.ca.