"In checking out a few things on the sale this weekend, it appears that Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi is no longer officially inside his "exclusive'' negotiating window, but that he still is the favorite to put in the "stalking horse'' bid on the Stars, and that the bid could come as soon as this week.

Gaglardi entered his 30-day exclusive window in late April, and the lenders and the NHL extended that window once, but they declined to do it a second time. However, for the purposes of the process, Gaglardi still is miles ahead of any other potential bidder. What the lenders, the NHL and the Stars would like is an official ``signed purchase agreement,'' that they can use either as the starting point in an auction or as a document that will be taken to a pre-packaged bankruptcy hearing.

Getting that purchase agreement is complicated for many reasons. On one hand, the bidder wants to put forth a price that will win him the team and that will hopefully not send the bidding process into an auction. But, he also doesn't want a bid so high that it's a bad deal. The lenders, meanwhile, want to agree to a price that would not be disappointing if it's the sale price of the team. While the lenders are hoping for an auction, if they sign a purchase agreement, there is the chance nobody bids over that original price.

And that's one of the reasons this is taking so long.

The other is that the sale price of the Stars will likely be between the $227 million that Forbes has them valued at (ranking 10th among 30 NHL teams) and about $250 million. Now, you can get to that figure in a lot of different ways _ including assuming debt, restructuring debt, and actual cash payments. So determining which bid is better than another is very difficult."