A Decade Later, Screening Process for NHL Owners Still Isn't Working

After hearing the news this week, you might be asking the same questions that I am. How is it that crooks and hooligans such as William "Boots" Del Biaggio and Henry Samueli are allowed into the exclusive NHL Owner's Club and a seemingly stand up guy (unless you're from Nashville/Pittsburgh) who actually has money thanks to Blackberry, Jim Balsillie, is not.

Yes, Balsillie tried to grab the Predators and run to Hamilton. Yes, he tried a similar escapade with the Penguins. Patience is obviously not something in his vocabulary. But when you look at what some NHL owners have done in recent days, you begin to wonder what in the world the selection process to become one entails. I imagine it's got a lot more to do with sweet talking NHL HQ and having the appearance of riches than what your management principles and moral values are.

Now don't get me wrong. There are a ton of great owners in the NHL (Charles Wang, Ted Leonsis, Mike Ilitch are just a few that come to mind). The majority are stand up guys and the two that have run into trouble are the small, small minority here. All I'm wondering is how, 12 years after John Spano managed to buy the Islanders with barely $2 million to his name and subsequently went to jail for fraud, that the NHL hasn't tightened it's approval process.

The NHL can be excused in the case of Samueli. You can't really have a finger on everything the guy does. If he's lying to federal regulators about his other company, there's not a whole lot you can do. Samueli's conduct as Ducks owner isn't in question. His action from atop Broadcom are.

When it comes to Del Biaggio though, the NHL can't plead ignorance. It doesn't fly. Del Biaggio was the seemingly handpicked the solution to keeping Jim Balsillie from owning a stake in an NHL club. And if I remember correctly, the Del Biaggio situation sounds eerily familiar. He claimed bank accounts that were not his, were, and took out loans that he was unable to repay.

The suit says the $3.3 million account Del Biaggio used as security for the loan "never belonged to Del Biaggio in the first place." Rather, it was someone else's account "doctored to make believe that the account statement belonged to Del Biaggio" with the intention of getting DGB Investments to make a $3 million loan to Del Biaggio.

On May 15, after the loan was due, Del Biaggio "admitted that he had significant issues and would be unable to pay," the lawsuit says.

This sounds really, really familiar. I can't figure out where I've heard something like this before. Wait ... Wait ... I think I have it!

[John] Spano had agreed to pay John Pickett, then the Islanders' owner, $165 million for the team and its cable television contract.

The problem was that he never had the money. He persuaded Fleet Bank to lend him $80 million by falsely claiming a net worth of $230 million. He boasted that a relative had set up a $107 million trust fund for him.

The scheme unraveled on the day the deal was supposed to close, when a $16.8 million wire transfer from the bank never materialized.

So, less than a year away from when Spano is to be finished serving his 71 months in prison, the NHL sees a very similar situation arise. Yes, there's a big difference between $3 million and $80 million but the premise is the same. It's money they don't have.

Maybe it's too much for the NHL to be watching every owner's conduct all the time. In fact, I know that it is. That's just ridiculous. But, when a new player comes into the fray, is a background check too much to ask for? A look over their history? All I'm asking is a little more research on their part. Would you hire an employee with sketchy finances? Probably not. And the NHL needs to make sure they don't let in owners with sketchy books either.