NHLPA Votes To Settle With Kelly; Union Considers Other Fates
The NHLPA "conducted its fair share of business Sunday night, including an executive board vote in favour of negotiating a contract settlement" with former Exec Dir Paul Kelly, according to Allan Maki of the GLOBE & MAIL. Sources added that the 30-member NHLPA Exec Board also "voted on tearing up the five-year contract" of interim Exec Dir Ian Penny and firing Ombudsman Buzz Hargrove and Advisory Board Chair Ron Pink, "only to learn the vote didn't count since several players had dropped off the call because of its six-hour length." Other sources have said that the vote was "more a straw poll than an official vote." Maki notes the NHLPA constitution "calls for 25 players to form a quorum and 20 votes to pass a motion," and sources said that there were "votes on the future of Penny, Hargrove and Pink but that the 25 and 20 numbers were not reached thereby rendering the process meaningless." One source suggested that the agenda of the conference call was "deliberately set so that the key matters were at the end when players were losing interest." But the NHLPA "took exception to that," saying in a statement, "These are further examples that there is a campaign by unnamed sources to spread misleading and completely baseless information regarding internal business matters to the public through the media." The NHLPA will hold "another conference call in the weeks ahead to address these issues again." Maki notes Penny's role was discussed "in the wake of last week's embarrassing development," as he is "believed to have asked former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry for his opinion on Kelly's firing." But there was "no mention of McMurtry being an associate" of former NHLPA Exec Dir Alan Eagleson (GLOBE & MAIL, 10/6). Meanwhile, TSN's Darren Dreger reported the NHLPA on the call also "agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Stu Grimson following his departure" from the union in November '07 (TSN.ca, 10/5).
CONTARIAN VIEW: The GLOBE & MAIL's Bruce Dowbiggin notes the CBC's Ron MacLean Saturday on "HNIC" "played the contrarian," as he defended McMurtry "against a storm of opposition from Don Cherry and others." Cherry "lambasted the dissidents who unseated Kelly for not knowing McMurtry's conflicts in his lengthy ties to Eagleson," but MacLean "tried to play down the McMurtry conflicts." Later, during the show's "Hot Stove" segment, MacLean "persisted that the McMurtry ties to Eagleson were flimsy," but CBC analyst and former NHLPA Dir of Player Affairs Glenn Healy "scoffed at the notion." Healy: "There's 15 books on the shelves all about (McMurtry's conflicts)" (GLOBESPORTS.com, 10/6).
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