The bankrupt Buffalo Sabres received an additional US$15 million line of credit and approval to pay four players their deferred salaries on Friday.
There were no objections to the request made by Sabres attorney William Thomas in Buffalo bankruptcy court.
The request for an additional line of credit was expected. Judge Michael J. Kaplan had granted the Sabres up to US$25 million in debtors-in-possession financing when he approved an initial US$10 million line of credit after the team filed for bankruptcy protection last month. The Sabres are now expected to pay forward Curtis Brown, goaltender Ryan Miller, and defensemen Jay McKee and Brian Campbell a combined US$541,666 in deferred bonus money they were due last month. Without that payment the four could become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
Miller is owed US$250,000, Brown and McKee US$133,333 each, and Campbell US$25,000.
The Sabres, in jeopardy of folding or moving after the end of this season, owe their 40 largest creditors more than US$206 million.
The Sabres' future has been in limbo since the NHL took control of the team last June. The team's sale hit a major setback this week when prospective owner Mark Hamister suspended his bid after his majority partner Todd Berman withdrew his US$27 million share.
Rochester billionaire B. Thomas Golisano, whose bid was rejected by the NHL last November, has since re-entered the bidding process and could submit a new offer by next week.
Golisano, however, would likely have to restructure his initial offer to satisfy both the NHL and Adelphia Communications, one of the nation's largest cable television companies and the Sabres' largest creditor. Adelphia, which filed for Chapter 11 last summer, has considerable say in determining the Sabres' next owner. The company is owed between US$130 million and US$160 million that former Sabres owner and former Adelphia CEO John Rigas used to buy and run the team in the 1990s.
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