NHLPA Holding Ad Hoc Conference Call Today About Kelly Ouster

The NHLPA today will hold an "ad hoc players conference call" open to all members, according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the BOSTON GLOBE. NHL player sources indicated that it is possible "one or more NHLPA members will insist on an immediate, thorough, and independent investigation of not only the process that led" to former Exec Dir Paul Kelly's dismissal last month, "but also of those who perpetrated it." It is "about to get more interesting" for the union, and those who "orchestrated the firing could begin to feel the heat in the coming days and weeks." The "question remains whether union leadership," including interim Exec Dir Ian Penny, Ombudsman Buzz Hargrove and Advisory Board Chair Ron Pink, "would permit such an internal investigation to take place or, if they do, agree to be subject to it." Dupont wrote the NHLPA execs "should welcome it, as they did a supposedly independent review of Kelly's job performance in that same office in the weeks leading up to the August coup." Meanwhile, another conference call on October 4 "will have all union reps on the line for an annual start-of-the-season meeting of the executive board." Penny, Hargrove and Pink are "expected to be part of it, along with the half-dozen divisional reps that were handpicked" by former NHLPA Ombudsman Eric Lindros. Annual voting for NHLPA player reps will be held during the next two weeks, and "word around the league is that respected veterans, some of them disturbed and frightened by Kelly’s ouster, will run to be union reps" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/27).

CALL TO ARMS: In N.Y., Larry Brooks noted the "pounding the PA is receiving in the media is sure to be a topic of conversation" during today's conference call, but the union is "limited in what it can reveal." NHLPA attorneys reportedly told the Exec Board to "remain silent immediately following the Chicago takeout of Paul Kelly in order to avoid exposure in potential litigation." Brooks wrote it is "important that the league's marquee players become invested in their union, for they have the most to lose through the next round of collective bargaining." If existing contracts were "discounted by 24[%]" last season, "what's to stop the NHL for going for 30[%] this time?" (N.Y. POST, 9/27). A source said of today's call, "It could get ugly." Meanwhile, ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun noted on either today's call or during Sunday's, the player reps will "likely discuss what kind of person they should look for when replacing Kelly" (ESPN.com, 9/27).