 At the time, the NHL seemed to be committed to keeping a team in Denver.Gilbert had promised not to move the team, and league president John Ziegler said that he wanted to make the Rockies a model franchise.Finally in 1982, after a failed bid by an Ottawa-based ownership group intent on moving the Rockies to the Canadian capital, the franchise was sold in May to New Jersey shipping tycoon John McMullen, who also owned the Houston Astros.