The New Jersey Devils are back in the penalty box.
The debt-laden, attendance-challenged hockey team missed a deadline yesterday for repaying an $80 million loan that was originally due Sept. 1, The Post has learned.
Last month, bank lenders agreed to give the team an extension while team owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek tried unsuccessfully to raise money to buy out co-owner Ray Chambers.
While the team didn’t get another extension yesterday, lenders did not declare the Devils in default either. Lenders can’t make a move until after the hockey season is over because of a “stand-still” provision.
Lenders have to wait 180 days before putting a team in bankruptcy, and if those 180 days fall during the season, which is going on now, they can’t make a move until after the last game is played.
“This is the calm before the storm,” a source close to the situation said.
Discussions between Vanderbeek and the lenders are continuing. The NHL declined comment, and the Devils did not return calls.
Vanderbeek and banker Goldman Sachs are trying to securitize the team’s long-term media contract, so he can use those proceeds to make the payment. He will need NHL and lender approval.
The Devils, which also collect proceeds from events at Newark’s Prudential Center, were barely profitable last year and very likely would be in the red without the TV revenue.
Also, Devils Arena Entertainment has an outstanding $100 million loan, and its lenders, many of whom also own pieces of the $80 million in team debt, need to decide whether the securitization impairs them.