Opportunity Lost
Ron MacLean had player agent and former NHLPA executive Ian Pulver on the Satellite Hotstove last night. Unfortunately, he let Mike Milbury set the tone of the segment and, as a result, we didn’t learn very much. Pulver spent his time defending the player decision to fire Paul Kelly, denying that he was part of the Ian Penny faction and claiming that the players were trying to move forward. There was nothing new in the discussion.
I would have liked to see MacLean move beyond Paul Kelly – he’s not coming back and it no longer matters whether the player’s decision was wise or not – and focus on getting Pulver to describe exactly what he meant in terms of moving forward. It is time for the media and the few of us who are interested to move forward, too. That sets up an obvious series of questions.
Okay, the players hire a new executive director. What do they expect him to do differently? How does anyone unite the membership? How does anyone generate interest among the membership? What can the NHLPA do to change the CBA now? Why is it important for the players to have a strong union? What does the NHLPA do for the players? Why does it exist except to benefit the dorks who own the league?
I don’t think there are good answers to any of those questions. I’d much rather I had heard Ian Pulver take a stab at a few of those than hear him dance around with Mike Milbury.
Postscript: Pulver did get a chance to talk about revenue sharing and confirmed that the program has problems. Several marginal teams will see their revenue sharing cheques cut (again in some cases) this season putting them under financial pressure. Teams that pay into the plan are – unsurprisingly – tired of it. The players are stuck in the middle. On the one hand, the only thing they get out of the CBA is job protection, but on the other, they are also getting tired of subsidizing marginal teams as escrow continues to rise.
It is surely becoming clear that the Gary Bettman business model is not working for the league. How it can be fixed is anyone’s guess. The only thing I would bet on is that Gary’s “solution” will be to get more from the players.
Milbury continues to ruin Hotstove. How anyone can take the guy who ran the Islanders into the ground serious is beyond me.
I don’t like Milbury either but I’m glad he’s on the Hotstove. He can relied on to express an extreme version of the NHL policy on a given issue and I find that to be useful. For example, I liked what I saw of Paul Kelly and I thought – and still think – the players were nuts to dismiss him without letting his contract run out. The last thing they needed was another internal scrap.
The fact Milbury has been so vociferous on this issue gives me pause because I think he’s saying what (he thinks) Bettman wants him to say. If the NHL management is upset about Kelly’s departure, the player’s decision gets a lot more reasonable. I think it would still be wrong, but at least it would be understandable.