Forbes: NHL to take over Devils; $230M in debt and team owner Jeff Vanderbeek missed the first payment on a recently restructured bank loan
— Eric Macramalla (@EricOnSportsLaw) August 8, 2013
Maybe Ilya Kovalchuk dipping out for Russia wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
After years of financial issues the NHL is stepping in to save the New Jersey Devils until they can find a new owner. Devils’ owner Jeff Vanderbeek has missed the first payment on a bank loan and the NHL has decided that they will take it from here.
This isn’t the first time, and most likely not the last, that the NHL has taken over a team to help keep them afloat. They did the same for the Coyotes in 2009, saving them from relocation.
Despite playing in the northeast and having a lot of success over the past 20+ years, the Devils have never really had a lot of money so the move doesn’t come as that much of a shocker.
