TORONTO (March 22, 2023) While hockey fans are enjoying an exciting finish to the regular season, the National Hockey League Players’ Association today has unveiled its 2022-23 NHLPA Player Poll results on NHLPA.com. A total of 626 players took part in the NHLPA Player Poll this season.
To view the full results, click here.
from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
George Parros is useless in his job as senior vice president of the NHL’s ironically named Department of Player Safety. He acts as a human guardrail against prosecuting predators. That apparently was the job description when he was hired following a 474-game NHL career in which the Princeton product picked up 1,092 penalty minutes and engaged in 158 fights (per HockeyFights) while recording 18 goals and 18 assists.
If the NHL is going to go into contortions to excuse a prior offender such as Austin Watson after he charged Tyler Motte and simultaneously thrust himself upward to deliver a headshot with his elbow and shoulder, then the department should be disbanded.
It is as if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were working in concert with banks and credit card companies.
This isn’t the first time Watson has committed a similar offense. He was suspended for two games for an elbow and shoulder to Boston defenseman Jack Alcahn just last February. That was his second two-game suspension. Motte is all but certainly concussed.
Yet the Department of Player Safety, with full endorsement of the league and Board of Governors, finds a way to legitimize hits to the head by splitting infinitives between initial conduct and secondary conduct as if the brain knows or cares. Truly, it is beyond me why team owners authorize this type of woefully titled supplementary discipline system that increases the likelihood of injury.
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from Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News,
The Buffalo News spoke with Okposo about the hire, including Walsh’s ties to Delaware North chairman and Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, following the Sabres’ practice Friday in San Jose:
Q: What qualities did the search committee want in a new executive director?
A: Honestly, it morphed, a lot. I think, when we all set out on the process, we had a rough draft of what we had in mind. Being a good leader was at the forefront, and to have leadership qualities that were natural, that was a big one. That's one that really never wavered. And then, some of the other things, like experience and background. We interviewed a ton of different people from a lot of different backgrounds, and had a lot of different experiences in a lot of different industries. But leadership was definitely paramount.
Somebody who can bring our union together and bring our sport together, along with the NHL. It's going to be a collaborative effort to bring this game – I think this game has so much potential to go in a different stratosphere than it is now. We wanted somebody who had experiences leading unions, working with both sides, working with businessmen, working with people. That process, once we found Marty, it was a pretty easy decision.
Q: How did Marty Walsh separate himself from other candidates through the interview process?
A: I think it was just a knowledge and a presence and an experience that he had. Talking to him for 20 minutes, for me, I didn't really have much else to ask him. I had a bunch of questions prepared, and you feel like he covered a lot. It was very direct and very blunt. He had a confidence about him, because he's done it before, because he's led a union before. He's been a mayor. He's worked in politics. He knows how to work with both sides. He knows how to bring people together. Everything that we had been talking about for the last close to 10 months, he just nailed it. And it wasn't like he was giving an interview. It was just, "This is what I think, and this is what I will do," and that was it. So, it was just very natural and a ton of fun, to be honest.
INSIDER TRADING: #TSNHockey Insiders @DarrenDreger, @PierreVLebrun & @reporterchris on the #NHLPA & Marty Walsh, #StLBlues, Habs, Chychrun, #Preds and 'trade related' healthy scratches... pic.twitter.com/aaDIcMajNT
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) February 16, 2023
TORONTO (Feb. 16, 2023) The National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today that the Executive Board has unanimously appointed Martin J. Walsh as NHLPA Executive Director, following its player-led Search Committee’s recommendation of Walsh for the position after a nine-month effort.
Walsh, 55, comes to the NHLPA with a distinguished record of public service. Most recently, he served as the highest-ranking Labour official in the U.S. government, confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 29th Secretary of Labor for the U.S. Department of Labor on March 23, 2021. Prior to joining President Biden’s Administration, Walsh was the Mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021. He also spent 16 years serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, having first been elected in 1997.
from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
Listen, maybe Marty Walsh — who is leaving his position as President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Labor, after a rather underwhelming effort on behalf of union workers, to become the next leader of the NHL Players’ Association — is the right man for the job.
Maybe the former two-term mayor of Boston, known as somewhat of a tub-thumper back in the day, has exactly the qualities needed to energize and educate the NHL’s union membership that has grown more apathetic and ignorant with each passing year.
Maybe Walsh will become the first of the union’s executive directors since Bob Goodenow, who was overthrown following the disastrous outcome of the 2004-05 canceled season, to halt the steady progress by Gary Bettman and the NHL in collective bargaining.
Maybe.
But maybes are all we are left with, because Walsh was selected for the job by the 32-man executive committee, comprised of team player reps, without having articulated an agenda or a message to the group. At 55 and a career politician, he is a blank slate in this arena.
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from Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff,
Sitting U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh will be formally installed as the next Executive Director of the NHL Players’ Association in the coming days following Tuesday night’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, sources tell Daily Faceoff.
Walsh was unable to leave his government post until after attending the president’s annual joint-session speech in Congress. Walsh, 55, was presented as the NHLPA search committee’s top choice for the job during an executive board meeting held in Miami last Friday.
The former Mayor of Boston introduced himself virtually via Zoom to the 32-member executive board, which then green-lit Walsh to move to the next stage of the process, including negotiating an employment contract. Walsh is expected to earn in the range of $3 million U.S. annually and live in Boston with no requirement to move to Toronto, where the Players’ Association is headquartered.