Kukla's Korner Hockey
Afternoon Line
by Paul on 11/23/12 at 01:26 PM ET
Comments (6)
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.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHLPA, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: allan+walsh
Comments
I think the level of abject hatred right now amongst NHL players towards Bettman is such that he cannot continue in his current position.
....
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.
The interview was obviously conducted in early October, but I don’t think the players’ attitude towards the Garden Gnome have changed one bit. If anything, they (and an awful lot of the fans) probably hate him more today than they did a month and a half ago.
If the end result of this “process” turns out to be the elimination of Butthead as the Commish, then it all may have been worthwhile afterall.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids, MI on 11/23/12 at 03:35 PM ET
It’s all fine to take a stand but understand the full consequences. Unless Bettman makes a deal that pretty much resembles the old CBA, he’s still going to be here. If you refuse to work with him, fine, just understand the damage your refusal to work with him will bring. First, the record 3.3 billion in revenue may never been seen during the time period of the next CBA. That’s right, my guess, it goes back down to $2B from loss of the season and people not coming back in droves like before at the start of the next one and only modest or sub-modest growth from there on out. Then what will your escrow payments look like NHLPA?
Posted by phillyd from Southern New Jersey on 11/23/12 at 04:52 PM ET
Golly, I wonder if the luminaries who whined and yipped when I mused about the degree to which the players had allowed this to become a personal anti-Bettman thing, and how only a couple players had even made any anti-Bettman statements so how could I possibly think such thoughts were more than a mere footnote… I wonder if any of those guys will read and understand what Walsh is saying here.
The players aren’t trying to make a deal. They are trying to beat up Bettman. Those aren’t the same things.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 11/23/12 at 06:33 PM ET
Those aren’t the same things.
Yes they are.
At least, based on your insistence that a strike and a lockout are the same thing.
Posted by Garth on 11/23/12 at 08:21 PM ET
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another clown fart who would be at the opening of an umbrella if there were cameras & reporters
Posted by Evilpens on 11/23/12 at 03:26 PM ET