CALGARY -- Until the other day, the National Hockey League Players' Association had been of two minds: Its new executive director should be a well-heeled businessman with acumen aplenty, a guy who can trump up the bottom line; or, its new boss should be a battle-scarred negotiator with a titanium spine, a guy who wouldn't trust the NHL and its owners as far as he could throw them.
Well, after a weekend of revelations and developments, the NHLPA can be of only one mind: bring on the hard-liner. Bring on Paul Kelly, the former U.S. prosecutor who has never been afraid of going after authority figures, even one who used to run the NHLPA as his own fief.
The union's 30 player representatives will hold a telephone conference call tonight in which its search committee is expected to recommend the hiring of Kelly, a Boston-based lawyer who helped bring down former NHLPA head Alan Eagleson. That belief was cemented when published reports over the weekend detailed how Saskin went about his business as the executive director and just how chummy he appeared to be with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
We all know about the allegations of how Saskin accessed the players' private e-mails for his own gain and how that led to him being suspended without pay, then fired with cause. But here's what else Saskin was apparently doing: e-mailing Daly, which was fine, and using the NHL to help him fend off his adversaries within the NHLPA. Utterly inappropriate if true.
The leaked e-mail contact with Daly would seem to suggest the head of the players' union had become a shade too friendly with the very people he was paid to push and prod.
No one said Saskin had to be constantly lunging at the throats of Daly and commissioner Gary Bettman. For sure, former NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow had his NHL contacts, including Brian Burke at the league office and Doug Wilson before he became general manager of the San Jose Sharks.
But Saskin's e-mail messages showed he was getting information from Daly on which players and NHLPA staffers were trying to force Saskin out of office. The most notable player identified was Detroit Red Wings defenceman Chris Chelios.
Chelios is now a member of the five-man committee that has come up with Kelly as a top choice for executive director.
You could argue that Daly was just being shrewd by befriending the union's leader. The information Daly passed along wasn't damaging to the league and may have even helped it. From the NHL's perspective, the devil it knew at the NHLPA was better than the one it didn't, especially if the incumbent devil was open to a little assistance when it came to saving his skin.
But for Saskin, there are no rationales. Whatever the line between union and management, it would seem he crossed it, breaking the trust of the players in the process. Don't forget: he is also alleged to have used union money to defend himself against a lawsuit filed by Chelios and others in Illinois and later dismissed. The union wants the money back and is arguing that point in settlement negotiations with Saskin and his lawyer.
In light of the Chris Paliare report, which investigated the alleged accessing of player e-mail, and in light of the Sheila Block report, which said the players were right to fire Saskin, the NHLPA has come together in its want for a strong and reputable leader.
In light of its former boss's communiqués with the NHL, the players are now going to covet a tough-as-nails leader to ensure the NHL-NHLPA partnership isn't tilted in the league's favour. Already the players have abandoned their old ways of pursuing a former player agent to be their executive director. (Along with Kelly, the two other finalists are NFLPA lawyer Richard Berthelsen and Bill Gregson, the head of the Forzani Group.) As some insiders have pointed out, most everything that happens in the business of hockey these days is being measured against what to do after the 2008-09 season.
That's when the players have the right to reopen their collective agreement with the NHL.
Even if salaries have increased to the delight of the players, the NHLPA may revisit the collective agreement to gain wherever it can; to push and prod and flex its collective muscle because that's what it's supposed to do - keep everyone honest.
Kelly has the grit and smarts to do the job. If contract talks go well, he could be hired within a week.
Backed by a revived membership, the new executive director of the NHLPA will leave no doubt as to where his allegiances rest. Ted Saskin has seen to that.
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