OTTAWA -- Ottawa Senators majority owner Rod Bryden and a co-investor met a Tuesday deadline to submit an offer to buy the bankrupt hockey team and its arena.

Bryden filed the offer -- backed by an unidentified New York-based corporation -- at the NHL's offices in Manhattan. Reports have placed the value of the bid for the team and the Corel Centre between $80 million to $100 million.

"We submitted it because I would expect that it is an acceptable bid, but the lenders will make that judgment," Bryden said at a Corel Centre news conference before Ottawa played Tampa Bay.

The Senators filed for bankruptcy last week; another team, the Buffalo Sabres, sought protection from creditors Monday.

Bryden met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and representatives of Covanta Energy Corp., a bankrupt U.S. firm owed $60 million by the Senators and $136 million for the Corel Centre.

A decision on the bid is expected within 10 days.

"I think we shouldn't play games with this market," Bryden said. "The only reason for not making a bid now is if our view was that the lenders' expectation of value was out of line with what we thought the market could support in the sense of delivering hockey to it."

Should the bid be accepted, a period of about 30 days will be required for the co-investor to demonstrate ability to finance it.

"I cannot tell you anything about (the co-investor) except that it is a very well-funded organization that certainly will not be scrambling about to see where it will find the money for its bid," Bryden said.

Bryden was given a five-day window in which to make an exclusive bid to buy back the team when the Senators filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Senators have built up about $104 million in debt since they were granted an NHL franchise in 1990.

"All of the debt structure will be eliminated," Bryden said. "There will be some debt on the combined assets -- a fraction of the current debt and a very modest level of debt as a percentage of the total sale price of the new ownership."

The Senators' players, who waited more than a week to receive paychecks due Jan. 1, will get their next checks on time Wednesday, team president Roy Mlakar said.

Meanwhile, Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, said Tuesday that his team is not owed money by the Sabres.

When the Sabres filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, they listed the Canucks among their 40 largest creditors, citing an unspecified contract valued at $442,000 of their more than $206 million debt load.

Burke said that likely related back to a payment Buffalo owed Alexander Mogilny after a 1995 trade sent him to Vancouver.