McNall to Keep Only 28% : Kings: Revised sale agreement will cut owner’s share. Team president Mlakar leaves to join Penguins.

King owner Bruce McNall, plagued by legal and financial trouble, will operate the team for pending majority owners Jeffrey P. Sudikoff and Joseph M. Cohen under a revised sale agreement that will reduce McNall’s ownership of the club to only 28%.

The agreement coincided with an announcement Monday by King President Roy A. Mlakar, who handled day-to-day operations, to his staff that he is leaving the club for a similar position with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

McNall will direct the team’s operations as president of a newly formed Kings executive committee. He also will represent the team on the NHL’s Board of Governors. Although he will run day-to-day operations, sources say McNall will have to ultimately answer to Sudikoff and Cohen, who have been trying to close the $60 million deal for nearly five months. McNall, who is in Switzerland, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Sources told The Times that the restructured deal features two key changes. First, telecommunications executive Sudikoff and entertainment executive Cohen will own 72% of the team--up from 65% under the original plan--leaving McNall’s 28% to be held in some form of trust.

The second change involves reducing the amount of money paid to creditors of McNall’s financially strapped business operations. Sources said creditors are likely to get $1 million to $2 million a year from King operations, a smaller amount than under the previous agreement.

Sudikoff and Cohen hope to close the deal as early as Friday. The prospective deal still has one major risk. McNall’s other creditors could try to disrupt the deal by seeking to force McNall’s operations into involuntary bankruptcy proceedings. Indeed, several creditors are known to have complained Monday to McNall representatives after reading about the revised deal in The Times on Monday.

Sudikoff and Cohen cleared a major hurdle over the weekend in their effort to buy control of the team by arranging for Bank of America to finance the deal. In addition, NHL officials have been working to keep the deal together to prevent the Kings from being involved in bankruptcy proceedings.

The bank stepped in after Sudikoff’s lenders--insurance firms Allstate and Cigna--backed out when it became known that a federal grand jury is looking into whether McNall falsified loan documents. A criminal defense attorney representing McNall has said that McNall expects no action will be taken when the investigation concludes.

Had Sudikoff and Cohen dropped out, sources say the Kings probably would have been thrown into turmoil and likely would have ended up in bankruptcy proceedings. Sudikoff and Cohen are known to have spent $4.1 million helping the Kings meet payroll. The team’s payroll was not paid as expected on Monday, but is scheduled to be met today, Cohen said.

Sudikoff and Cohen also financed a $275,000 Rolls-Royce convertible that McNall presented to Wayne Gretzky in March after Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s NHL record for goals scored.

McNall, whose finances have become severely strained lately, is selling control to shed a $92 million loan owed to Bank of America, which is trying to recoup what it can.

The entire $60 million in proceeds from the sale is expected to go to the bank. Banking sources say the bank will most likely write off the remaining $32 million, although the bank in the future could become a 10% partner in a new arena that Sudikoff and Cohen want to build.

As for Mlakar, a news conference is tentatively set for Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Mlakar is scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh today with Penguin owner Howard Baldwin, who happens to be a good friend of McNall’s.

Mlakar was unavailable for comment.

Mlakar’s leaving comes as no surprise given the turmoil surrounding the Kings on and off the ice.

He has been the team’s president since June, 1992, succeeding McNall. Previously, he was the Kings’ executive vice president for four seasons and was largely responsible for convincing McNall to promote Nick Beverley to the position of general manager.

There also has been speculation Beverley might also leave .