Paul Kelly is an interesting guy. A lawyer from Boston, he is the fourth man to hold the job of executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. During a recent visit to Calgary, he talked about some of the current issues.
On the economy and its potential impact on the salary cap...
”There’s a little bit of concern about the state of the economy and how it may affect our game and them. There is a mechanism in place if (say) the Canadian dollar weakens and the cap declines a bit. It will be a problem for those clubs with a lot of long-term contracts. Edmonton, for example, I think, has seventeen players under contract for next year for a payroll of about $47 million. That won’t leave them with a lot of room to add additional players. At this point though, we’re reasonably optimistic we’ll weather this downturn pretty well.”
On respect on the ice and hits to the head…
”It starts with respect on the ice. The players have to show some respect to each other. You can make all the rule changes you want, but if guys don’t show respect for each other you’re not going to solve the problem. We’re also looking at some changes to equipment, softening up the shoulder pads, since most of these concussions occur when you get a hard shoulder hit to the head of another player. Finally, you have a small number of players who are repeat offenders. Frankly what comes their way may be deserved.”
On the issue of foreign players, particularly Russians, signing contracts to play in both Europe and North America…
”Our position is that the two leagues should respect each other’s contracts. We shouldn’t be taking players from the KHL and they shouldn’t be poaching players from our teams, even if those players are playing in the minors. The Radulov matter in Nashville has been the most prominent case. We would hope there can be some resolution but to date, all parties seem to be pretty stubborn.”
On the future of NHL participation in the Olympic Games beyond 2010 in Vancouver…
”We will have to negotiate another CBA between now and the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.
The owners have some legitimate concerns about continuing on in the Olympics. The players think it’s an honour to play for your country and that this is something that should continue. In Vancouver, you’ll probably see about 200 NHL players spread across ten national teams.”
One of the by-products of an NHL franchise in a community is the enormous amount of goodwill the players are able to generate for a wide variety of programs and causes. Fourteen members of the Calgary Flames are involved in various community programs. Newcomers Todd Bertuzzi and Curtis Glencross have jumped into the profile roles: Bertuzzi with Ronald McDonald House and Glencross with Special Olympics. And netminder Miikka Kiprusoff is putting up $10 for each save he makes this season with the funds to go to the Rainbow Society of Alberta: a very worthy organization which works to grant wishes to terminally ill or chronically ill children.
While the Flames tend to produce better results when they keep the shots against numbers down, we’d all agree that if Kiprusoff has to face a lot of shots in games, every save he makes is going to a worthy cause. |
