Marty Walsh, the new executive director of the NHL Players Association, has shared his mandate for the upcoming season and his first term in charge. The NHLPA has been essentially rudderless for years under Donald Fehr as the union has been getting bodied on issues from Olympics to salaries by the NHL owners. The new mandate for Walsh should be a highly popular one for players, fans, and the business of sport. Greg Wyshynski has the story on ESPN. [ESPN]
I’m going to break down the issues brought up and where Walsh and the PA stand on them.
Olympics and International Tournaments
NHL Players have not participated in an Olympics since 2014 in Sochi, missing both 2018 in South Korea and 2022 in China. They have not played in an international tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, hosted and rostered exclusively by NHL players. Considering the leagues around Europe, like the SHL and the rapidly growing Swiss league, I wouldn’t consider an NHL-only tournament as best-on-best.
The next Winter Olympics are in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The NHL players want to be there, the fans want the players to be there, and the international stage — whereupon NHL players have lost a generation in the spotlight — want the best players at center stage.
The question from the NHL owners, represented by Gary Bettman, will be the same as it was at the end of the 2010 Olympics. How can they make money marketing and selling the fact that the Golden Goal by Sidney Crosby from Jarome Iginla on Ryan Miller was completed by NHL players that fans should go see. Bettman over a decade ago wanted the rights to show that goal, and it’s been a sticking point no NHLPA director has been able to argue against.
If I’m being completely honest to Gary and his billionaires, that goal sold itself. It didn’t need shitty commercials and press releases, or whatever the NHL calls marketing these days. What the NHL has lost has been two, potentially three more Olympics where those moments couldn’t happen again. Not for Steven Stamkos, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, David Pastrnak, or Elias Pettersson. Lots of players like Stamkos were robbed of their Olympic dream, and the players as a collective are upset and fiercely ready to negotiate on it.
Last thought on this very long first topic: no one cares if you stop the season in January, Gary. The players barely play in those months anyway.
The CBA and the Salary Cap
In short, the NHLPA doesn’t have a plan yet on what they want to do when it comes to the salary cap. The system is set up currently can either benefit high salary players — low escrow, which is an equalization cut of each contract to reach the CBA’s 50/50 — or low salary players — high escrow leading to higher salary caps leading to higher salaries.
Walsh says he doesn’t have a plan on what he would like to do with what the players give back, but one thing he mentioned was the franchise valuation for many teams has been rising massively into the billions, when before on three teams could kiss a billion dollars in total franchise worth. That money, which all goes to the owner, is something they want to see if they can get a piece of the pie for the players.
I don’t know where this is going to go, but it’s a very interesting question and another area in the sport the players are now tackling the owners with that didn’t exist before.
Expanding Regular Season and Playoffs
The math is simple for the NHL — more games, more broadcasts, and more tickets sold means more profit.
Gary Bettman says he hasn’t gotten a push from the owners over expanding the schedule.
Marty Walsh says he hasn’t polled the players to see where they stand on the issue.
All hands hold stations.
Relocating the Arizona Coyotes
At some point the novelty of playing in a college hockey rink wears off, the players get tired of playing in temporary locker rooms, and people will start asking if the equalization payments will be enough.
ESPN“Walsh said he has met more with Arizona players than with anyone else in the NHLPA. He has called NHL players competing at a college ‘just not right’ and ‘not good for the game.'”
This is a clear issue the players have a clear stance on. While last season they tried to put on a brave face, to their leadership it’s been a much more blunt story. It’s embarrassing, and it needs to get resolved. Logan Cooley knowing he’s going to play in an NCAA rink next season no matter as good for the NHL’s image as F1 bragging Sergio Perez can make up 12 positions a race only because he can’t qualify in the top 10 being in the fastest car by a mile.
Banning Speciality Warm Up Jerseys
The NHL has been working to ban speciality jerseys from warm ups after the messy controversy last season. Marty Walsh had a lot to say on the topic, but his main point was that less than 1% of the players refused to wear certain jerseys. The vast vast majority of players do support initiatives like Pride, and it’s his job to make sure they are heard.
He also said this, which, yeah, no kidding.
“The day before I got voted in by the [NHLPA] executive board [was when] the first player said they weren’t going to wear the jersey,” he said. “It just kind of caught me by surprise a little bit. I realized quickly that we have some education to do here.”
ESPN
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