NHLPA Reaches Tentative Settlement With Former Exec Dir Kelly

Union Will Pay Kelly $1.5M Plus $200,000 In Attorneys' Fees In Tentative Settlement

The NHLPA has reached a “tentative settlement with Paul Kelly in which the union will pay its former executive director $1.5M plus $200,000 in attorneys’ fees,” according to Larry Brooks of the N.Y. POST. The agreement was outlined on an NHLPA conference call Sunday and is “subject to ratification by a majority vote of the 30 player reps.” The e-mail vote will be conducted over the next couple days and "is expected to gain unanimous approval.” The settlement contains a “confidentiality clause in which Kelly, who was fired last August less than two years into his five-year contract, and members of the NHLPA are prohibited from discussing his dismissal and the issues leading up to and surrounding it.” Meanwhile, players on the conference call were “informed that the league is experiencing an overall two-percent decline in hockey-related revenue prior to currency conversion.” Also, 10 teams are “experiencing a double-digit revenue increase while the same number of teams are suffering double digit” declines. The union “focused on Tampa Bay and Phoenix as trouble spots.” Players were also told that escrow deductions “will remain at 18-percent for this quarter, the same rate as the first two quarters of the season” (NYPOST.com, 1/25).

NEXT ORDER OF BUSINESS: The GLOBE & MAIL’s David Shoalts cites sources as saying that the NHLPA’s constitution committee is “getting most of the attention now because the union would prefer to have most of it in place so that candidates for executive director will know the parameters of the job.” The sources added that former MLBPA Exec Dir Donald Fehr, who “has said he is not a candidate to replace Kelly, might develop an interest in the position.” Fehr has been advising the NHLPA since Kelly’s departure, and he “handled most of the conference call” on Sunday (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/26). In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont reported it is a "good bet the NHLPA ... won't be ready to name its next boss until early summer" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/24).