from Jeff Blair at the Globe and Mail,
The best thing the NHL owners could do for their fans, frankly, is get rid of Bettman. Yes, the NHL has seen revenues grow from under $500 million at the beginning of his tenure to over $3 billion. But Bettman has now forced three lockouts – and make no mistake, in each case it was 100 per-cent his and ownership’s call – and in some business schools that would be seen as lousy management. This most recent lockout was out of a playbook drawn up by the New York law firm of Proskauer, Rose LLP that guided the NBA and NFL into lockouts and provided the NHL with its legal counsel, Bob Batterman.
It will be shocking, frankly, if Fehr is head of the NHLPA in a year’s time. And when his book is written, his time in that position is going to be a chapter, at most. There will be other things for him to do; he can leave knowing the NHLPA has a much better sense of self than it’s ever had, as well as the type of professional governance that, hopefully, will mitigate against undue influence from some of its alumni who spent the last three months urging the current group of players to take whatever the owners are offering. No wonder these guys ended up being stuck with a salary cap.
It will be Bettman and his wrong-hand man Daly who are the personification of this lockout, and that’s how it should be.
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