Buried early this morning in a four page report entitled "Pain Staking Approach Works Well for Recchi" is a rather disturbing report on several fronts regarding the sale of the Dallas Stars and involvement from the league. Says Boston.com [Kevin Paul Dupont]:

A league source with direct knowledge of the negotiations reports that the sale of the Dallas Stars would have been concluded a month ago to Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi, but for commissioner Gary Bettman insisting the selling price ($175 million?) was too low. Gaglardi, majority owner of the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League, subsequently bowed out of the process.

He WHAT?

Now, just in case you're getting your Canadian billionaire businessmen with last names that start with G mixed up, this is the one we were under the impression was still in on the bidding. Bill Gallacher was the one we've been told walked away from the process several months ago after being frustrated.

Gaglardi was supposedly still in (and still could be), though we weren't sure who else was a potential suitor. If this report is true then it begs the question: Is anyone still trying to buy this team?

This is all unconfirmed speculation at this point and should be taken with several grains of salt. Usually when a report like this comes out, the fan-base goes into a tizzy and real journalists like Mike Heika go to work on it, usually shooting most of it down by the end of the day, so just hold on a bit. At least Ken Campbell, king of the erroneous sale reports [THN.com] is not involved this time.

More after the jump...

This is just what everyone needed after a game like that last night, btw, right? A nice kick in the crotch on a Sunday morning?

Let's entertain the possibility that this report is accurate: $175 million is WAY low compared to what we've heard all along. Logically we might infer, if this were true (doubt it?), that if the lenders were willing to sell that low, it could be taken as a sign of simply wanting to get out and wash their hands of it. Right?

Even the $175 million part of the speculative report has a question mark on it, so be especially wary of that.

Next, how do you feel about the parties supposedly reaching an agreement and the league, wishing to protect the values of many other franchises for sale, saing "No, you can't sell for that low." Extraordinarily frustrating IF true for this fanbase.

The Stars are the most valuable of the franchises reportedly for sale not named the Los Angeles Kings. The Thrashers, the Kings, Hurricanes, Predators, Stars, Blues and Coyotes are said to be on the block, but the Stars and Kings were supposed to attract offers north of $200 million, which is why this $175 number sounds fishy, but you can also see how the league would see this that as a SERIOUS blow to the value of those other franchises for sale.

For my part, I am skeptical. This could be just a little blurb buried in a Sunday paper somewhere that comes and goes. Let's wait for the people we trust to comment.