During the long off-season, NHL fans grab what headlines they can. From trades and signings to training camp start-ups, we take what we can get. Those that have been paying attention to these headlines have likely been following one particular saga since before summer started.

The story reads like a romance gone bad. On one end you have Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL and on the other you have billionaire Jim Balsillie. Stuck in the middle is their love-child, the Phoenix Coyotes.

With the pre-season pro-hockey set to start on Sept. 14, even a die-hard hockey fan has to admit that enough is enough already. Plagued with an uncertain future since filing for bankruptcy on May 5, the Coyotes have been in a world of trouble.

Balsillie has been an interested buyer. The billionaire from Canada and head of the Blackberry empire never made it a secret that he intends to purchase a team to locate in Hamilton, Ontario.

However, that’s just not going to happen. The NHL has conspired around a Canadian sale from the beginning.

Rather than see the team relocated to a Canadian market, the NHL made its own bid for the imperilled team, Tuesday, in what seems to be the biggest conflict of interest ever to hit the league.

The NHL is the administering organization that oversees its entire thirty team roster. The League cannot suddenly become an owner of a team without calling to question the integrity of the organization. It would be no different than signing my own paycheck. Who would be watching me?

It must remain singularly neutral and unbiased, and owning a team clouds this judgement. Canadian teams have been forced to relocate after being purchased for the league, just as the Coyotes should be required to do now. Balsillie has the means and the funds to own a franchise. He was even pre-approved as an NHL owner in 2006 when he tried to purchase the Penguins. It could be said this whole mess started back then. Before the deal could be finalized, stipulations arose preventing the team from being moved.

Even MLB Chicago White Sox and NBA Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf jumped ship Tuesday in his effort to purchase the Coyotes, which would have kept the team in Arizona. Tired of the current owner’s strategies and confounded by the NHL’s efforts, he’s gone.

And time is running out.

Now, we are talking about the Phoenix Coyotes here.

This is the same team that was originally moved from Winnipeg in 1996 — the former Winnipeg Jets. Where was the NHL then to step in and interject, preventing a major city from losing its team?

It’s also worth noting that the NHL did nothing to prevent the sale of the Quebec Nordiques in 1995, when that team was flown south to become the Colorado Avalanche.

Since that incident, owning a hockey team in Canada has been difficult to say the least.

Players’ salaries, even those in Canada, are paid out in U.S. funds. That makes competing with big-market American teams difficult, given the Canadian dollar is not at parity with the U.S. currency.

The Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames have all struggled for survival in the NHL under threats of relocation. They survived in large part because of convincing reorganizational efforts and the strong ties those communities have to their hockey clubs.

Phoenix tried it and it failed. Gary Bettman and the NHL are holding onto a dream that just isn’t viable.

Hockey doesn’t belong in Arizona and reinvigorating the league in the southwestern U.S. just doesn’t make sense.

Meanwhile, there is a strong support base for an NHL team in Hamilton, evident by the success of the Canadiens’ farm team, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Bettman lost his gamble in Arizona. Let the team move on, improve and grow on soil that will actually allow a club to flourish.

Hockey originated in Canada and it’s high time for the NHL to return to its roots.

– Erin Mastre is a graduate student in landscape architecture from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.