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NHLPA Stumbling Along As Usual
by PuckStopsHere on 10/30/09 at 11:43 AM ET
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The NHLPA is in bad shape. Is that even news anymore? Over the years I have written posts entitled NHLPA in bad shape, NHLPA problems, NHLPA in shambles, NHLPA shoots itself in the foot and others. The continuing story is that the NHLPA is always in bad shape. It is never strong. It doesn’t seem that the players are capable of creating a strong NHLPA.
Just when it looked like things were on the upswing under Paul Kelly, the players inexplicably fired him. No reasonable cause has been released for his firing. It doesn’t seem that one exists. The players don’t even seem to know what happened. This is shown by the four player committee set up to investigate what happened.
EDIT: A couple hours after this post, Ian Penny resigned from his NHLPA post. It is yet another case of somebody who did wrong being subtracted, but when there seems to be an unending group of such people, can it really be sited as yet another point where the NHLPA is trying to right itself?
Chris Chelios is leading this group - despite the fact he appears to be a former NHLPA member (having signed with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL). Also in the group are Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings, Rob Blake of the San Jose Sharks and Mark Recchi of the Boston Bruins. These players are all respected veterans who should wind up in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but they are all approaching the end of the line in their careers. This is a problem with the NHLPA. In general, the players don’t understand and they don’t care. Being an NHL hockey player does not make you interested in union affairs. Most NHL hockey players have done little to help them understand unions in their lives. They have devoted their lives to hockey and little else. They are unqualified to have any serious opinion on union issues and are not interested enough to find out.
Eventually, if a player has a sufficiently long career, he will see the union repeatedly do stupid things and realize that this negatively affects him and unless he tries to get involved, nobody will. He may lack the background, but he is the best chance the union has. He gets involved, learns enough to possibly become useful and then retires and is probably lost to the union. This story repeats on a regular basis and it is very rare that any player makes a serious positive impact on the union. The union is driven by other parties with other agendas.
It appears that Paul Kelly was fired because enough player agents and union organizers convinced the team player representatives to try to advance their causes that Kelly opposed. The biggest beneficiary is Ian Penny. He is provisionally in charge of the NHLPA with Kelly gone. He had hoped to take over the top job earlier, but lost out to Paul Kelly. He is attempting to consolidate power by marginalizing the few players involved in the union. He has accused Chris Chelios of spying on the PA front office. He has made accusations of player’s leaking sensitive union information (which Tom Benjamin laughs off). Penny’s goal is to take over the NHLPA - and that seems to be contrary to doing good for the players.
The NHLPA is in bad shape. The NHLPA is always in bad shape. What good is the NHLPA? Is there any way that the players can organize and bargain that would work? The NHL certainly hasn’t found it.
Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
Tags: Chris+Chelios, Ian+Penny, NHLPA, Paul+Kelly,
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