from The Hockey News,

NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh spoke with Adam Proteau about growing hockey, best-on-best international competition, expansion, the Arizona Coyotes and more.

The Hockey News: I wanted to get your initial thoughts on the lessons that you’ve learned in the short span of time you’ve been at the NHLPA.

Marty Walsh: One of the things is, this is a labor organization, and our concerns are no different than other labor organizations – quality of work, collective bargaining, wages, benefits, work conditions, things like that. Also, the players that I’ve met, the players I’ve come across – they’re a very humble group of people, very focused on their career, very focused on their families, the ones that are married and have kids.

A lot of players now in the off-season are focused on their families and moving forward. We saw at the NHL award ceremonies last week, almost every person that received an award was thanking their spouse for raising their family and putting up with their hockey life. So it’s really been interesting, and it’s also been great to learn internally at the PA, there’s a lot of great people working behind the scenes and doing a lot of great things for the membership of the union.

THN: I want to know where you believe are issues that you can take up with the league and actively advocate for the players.

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