Basillie Out?

You have to wonder what is going in Nashville now that Leipold is putting the brakes on.

Does anybody believe him when he says that he had no idea that Jim Basillie wanted to move the Predators? Does this guy live in a cocoon or something?

Considering that during his tenure as NHL Commissioner that Gary Bettman has approved an owner he never met (Tampa Bay) and an owner who couldn't pay (New York Islanders) you have to wonder just what somebody has to do in order to be rejected as an NHL owner. While I disagree with putting another team into Canada (especially a very small Canadian market) that shouldn't disqualify the guy from owning a team.

The worst case scenario is that this flub leads to further expansion. The NHL already has too many teams and expanding to 32 would only make the already diluted talent base even worse.