PORTLAND — Brian Petrovek has a well-deserved reputation as a cagey businessman.

For the last 10 years, that business has been the Portland Pirates, and the Portland part of that will remain just so for at least two more years, thanks to the two-year extension of the team’s current lease to use the Cumberland County Civic Center, which was announced Wednesday.

The agreement, struck between Petrovek and the Civic Center board of trustees, buys both parties a little time for each to figure out their next move.

For Petrovek, that means waiting to see what Cumblerland County will do about renovating the 33-year-old Civic Center.

But not waiting too long.

After all, he’s got the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, with whom he recently extended his player development pact, to keep satisfied.

As well, he’s got a legion of Pirates fans, and business supporters, too, to keep happy.

“It’s a question of moving efficiently,” Petrovek told the Journal Tribune, Wednesday, “to figure out what I need to do in the long term to satisfy the player development needs of the Buffalo Sabres. That’s my No. 1 objective. “That involves my practice and training environment. It involves our venue. I’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’m committed to doing it here.”

The question is, “where is here?”

The answer, he said, might be found in Saco.

Petrovek had been in discussion with the Maine Hockey Group about utilizing the 2-year-old skating and dry land training facility on Lund Rd.

The arena houses the Portland Jr. Pirates (which licenses that name from the AHL club), and former Pirates Brad Church and Kent Hulst have recently been hired by MHG to run its junior and youth programs.

However, those talks got waylaid during Petrovek’s recent flirtation with Albany, N.Y., and the possible move of the Pirates there.

Now, with the new commitment to Southern Maine, Petrovek said that the talks with MHG can get going again.

“That’s certainly now a conversation that we want to have in a more aggressive way, I guess,” he said. “We’ve had some good progress towards making a decision to partner with the folks that own and operate that facility. We’ve kind of gotten sidetracked over the last couple months because of this. Now I certainly want to revisit where we left off. That’s very much a part of our option set.”

Petrovek has eyed the MHG set up as a possible training home for the Pirates.

The club has held at least one practice at MHG, and space has already been allotted  for a complete locker room and offices for the club.

However, the Pirates’ presence in Saco could be much more extensive than that.

If a make over of the Civic Center becomes unlikely, Petrovek said that a new arena capable of housing his team could be built on the 23-acre MHG site, which is adjacent to Exit 36 off the Maine Turnpike.

“That could very well be an option to want to consider on the venue side” he said, “depending upon what happens with the renovation of the Civic Center.”

That, said Petrovek, wouldn’t be his first choice. But it could be an acceptable second.

“We’ve made it clear that our primary focus is to work on renovating the Civic Center,” he said. “But at the same time, I’ve got a very short window. We’ve got to make sure we cover our flank. (I want) to look at Buffalo a year from now and say “We’ve got a plan in place. This is it what it is, and that we’re in a much better place because of it.”

By better place, he didn’t mean Albany.

“We made a decision that this is the best place to develop players,” he said. “I’m confident I made the right decision. But I’ve got a couple of holes to fill. I’m anxious to get to work to do that.”

— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.