NHLPA Exec Board To Discuss Contracts Of Penny, Hargrove On Call

By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

As the NHLPA Exec Board is getting ready to discuss the future of the union on a conference call Sunday night, the union’s Advisory Board has sent a letter to player reps, setting out its views of a number of issues which have been the subject of negative news stories, including the background and facts surrounding the extension of General Counsel Ian Penny’s contract, sources said. The Exec Board is expected to vote during the Sunday conference call on whether to review the five-year extension of Penny's contract. Penny was named interim Exec Dir after former union chief Paul Kelly was fired on August 31. The board of 30 player reps is also expected to vote on whether to ask interim Ombudsman Buzz Hargrove and Advisory Board Chair Ron Pink to step down from their posts. The conference call is set to begin at 5:00pm ET Sunday, sources said. Penny’s five-year extension as general counsel has been the subject of controversy in some press reports, as Kelly was not in the room when the extension was originally voted on by player reps in Las Vegas in June. The letter, which was sent to player reps sometime last week, states that Penny’s contract is not guaranteed, as has been represented in some media reports, according to sources with knowledge of the letter. It also said that player reps discussed on a conference call in March that Pink and fellow advisory board member George Cohen try to get an extension for Penny in order to lock down his institutional knowledge of the union and the CBA, sources said. The letter also spells out the terms of employment for Hargrove, who took over after the union’s first Ombudsman, former NHL star Eric Lindros, resigned earlier this year. The letter says Hargrove was hired at the same salary that was being paid to Lindros, sources said. One source said the letter suggests that player reps focus on finding a new Exec Dir and on preparing for talks for a new CBA. The current CBA expires in September '11, although the players have the option to extend it another year. Advisory Board members have not spoken up in the last two conference calls held by player reps, sources said.

MORE CONTENTS OF THE LETTER: The letter sent to the player reps also addresses the fact that Advisory Board members took a leadership role in working to get the overall business plan for the union completed, sources said. The business plan was presented to the player reps at their meeting in Las Vegas in June. Other sources said that Kelly, Penny, former NHLPA Dir of Player Affairs Glenn Healy and NHLPA Chief of Business Affairs Mike Ouellet, as well as two advisory board members, were involved in drafting the plan for the union going forward.

AGENTS GETTING INVOLVED: Powerful NHL player agents are continuing to meet and talk about the situation at the NHLPA, one agent said, adding that many are advocating that the players seek independent counsel to move the union forward rather than relying on information coming from within the NHLPA. But not all agents are on the same page. Another powerful NHL player agent said, “All these agents advocating burning the PA down and sweeping everybody out the door don’t know or understand what the real issues are or what is going on behind the scenes. They should say what they are saying on the record or they should just shut up.”