Well, by the time of the bankruptcy scam, the NHL had already blackballed Balsillie. Especially after he started selling season tickets in Hamilton for the Nashville franchise he didn't actually own. He went about things the wrong way, and that pissed the league's owners off.
That is part of why they fought him so hard in Phoenix. The other part is that Balsillie's scheme would have stripped the league's ability to control where its franchises exist. And that, in turn, resulted in the other three major leagues filing affidavits in support of the NHL. Because they all saw the danger the scheme represented.
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