The players are fed up. This is the third time in a row he’s resorted to a lockout without bargaining beforehand in good faith and even trying in any way to make a deal. The strategy is ‘lock the players out, force them to miss paychecks, soften them up and then see if they’re willing to surrender. And if they are, make a deal in November or December on our terms and if they’re not, we’ll just cancel the season and start again in the summer and see if they’re softened up then’. This is the players’ livelihood and it’s more than just the paychecks. The players truly love the game.

When you get to the point we’re at now, after three consecutive lockouts, I think the players are ready to take a stand. The players that I talk to and I do it on a daily basis – our agency represents approximately 100 players in the NHL right now – and what we’re hearing is Bettman cannot continue in his job. I think one of the things that’s going to come out of this lockout, whether we make a deal this year or not, is that Bettman will be gone because the players will refuse to deal with him going forward.

-NHL player agent Allan Walsh when basically asked by Tom Love of SportsPro what the future of Gary Bettman is. Read more Q & A at SportsPro.