PHOENIX (AP) – The Phoenix Coyotes have not exhausted an NHL-approved credit line and are not on shaky financial footing, team chairman Steve Ellman said.

Ellman, reached by phone in New York, disputed a Globe and Mail story that suggested there was little equity left in the club for him and co-owner Jerry Moyes. The newspaper claimed the Coyotes had borrowed $60 million and cited an NHL source to support the statement that the amount was a high debt load for a hockey club.

“We’ve not utilized the full amount,” Ellman said.

“The NHL specifies the level of debt that each franchise is entitled to borrow on their team. They approved $60 million, so we have the capability to borrow $60 million, but we have not. So we have excess borrowing capacity available.”

Ellman also said the Coyotes’ debt burden should be viewed as part of Coyote Holdings’ consolidated debt. He declined to give that figure but said it was relatively low in relationship to the assets of the holding company.

Coyote is the holding company for the professional hockey and lacrosse teams based at the new Glendale Arena, as well as concerts, boxing matches and other special events held there, and the 6.5 million square-foot Westgate city center commercial development adjacent to the building.

Last month, the team responded with a letter protesting another story by the Toronto paper that claimed Moyes, who owns about 75 percent of the Coyotes, had hired an investment bank to find a buyer for the team.

Moyes denied the story then, and Ellman said he was puzzled by the successive articles.

“There is a very bright future ahead of this franchise,” Ellman said. “The fact is the team is not for sale, and as a combined holding company – and that’s what we need to look at in our business projections, more than hockey – our debt levels are relatively low.”

AP-ES-01-13-05 2009EST