(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Not much happening on the ice-hockey front now in the height of summer except in the courtrooms of North America. In the ongoing question of the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes' in the NHL, trainer and part-owner of the franchise, Wayne Gretzky, obliged the request of the city of Glendale in the bankruptcy hearings to hand over necessary document and make a deposition. The documents will only be those that have relevance to the Coyotes and the documents and the deposition will both be kept confidential.

The judge in the bankruptcy hearings had given a deadline of last Friday, July 24, for parties interested in keeping the franchise in Arizona to submit their bids to the court. One bid had arrived by the deadline as well as one letter of intent. The bid was submitted by a group of businessmen headed by Jerry Reinsdorf and apparently is worth $148 million while another group headed by Canadian-born Daryl Jones has promised a bid will be submitted before August 5, the date set for the sale of the team. If none of the bids are deemed satisfactory, a new timeline will be set and the issue thrown open to others, making it possible for Canadian billionaire Jim Ballsillie to resubmit his $212.5 million offer and move the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario. More is yet to come on this issue certainly, meanwhile the NHL has released next season's fixtures with the Phoenix Coyotes listed.

All the best.