Business

Devil-ish deal for NHL team

In a stunning development, New Jersey Devils co-owner Ray Chambers has agreed to pay $25 million to unload his 47 percent stake in the team, sources close to the situation told The Post.

Team lenders will get the cash as part of a deal to refinance the franchise’s debt, and principal owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek will get Chambers’ stake in the team, sources said.

The strange deal highlights both the shaky financial condition of the Newark-based team and the caustic relationship between the two owners.

As the deal is structured, Chambers, who has been looking to exit the mostly money-losing franchise for about a year, appears to feel the equity in the NHL team is worthless.

It also means that the billionaire Chambers, through his Brick City operation, is tired of pumping money into the troubled team.

People close to Chambers said he was never interested in making a profit from his Devils investment — but simply to help re-develop Newark.

Under National Hockey League rules, Chambers is on the hook for any cash infusion the Devils might need as long as he’s listed as the owner, sources said.

The sale of Chambers’ stake in Devils Arena Entertainment also includes his piece of the company that operates the Prudential Center, the Newark arena where the Devils, Nets and Liberty play.

Devils Arena Entertainment has debt of roughly $180 million. So, presumably Chambers’ view is the team and arena operations are worth less than that amount.

Chambers and Vanderbeek are co-owners in Devils Arena Entertainment, but only Chambers has the funds to finance the team, as the two guaranteed in the owners’ support agreement they signed in 2004 when buying the club.

If the deal closes, it would add some clarity for Devils Arena management in making player salary decisions, and selling arena suites.

The co-owners need approval from the Devils lending group, and the NHL, to close the deal, which is no sure thing, sources said.

A Chambers spokesman and the Devils did not return calls.