Time after Gary Bettman?

[edog37]

Not as a proper commissioner no, but splitting some of the commissioners duties into two roles would be a great idea for life after Gary.

Things that Gary was great at:
-Fighting the PA
-Making the league more standardized and less prone to severe conflicts of interest like the Eagleson situation. Having a legal background was important for this.
-Expanding the league's operations quickly across new markets without any embarassing fiascos.

Things that Gary was anywhere from bad to dogshit at:
-Running league ops where understanding anything about hockey is required. Gary literally named Brian f***ing Burke as a DOPS head. Enough said.
-Making public appearances and generally representing the league in the media. Bettman might literally be the worst public speaker I have ever seen, and he insists on doing a cringeworthy 5 minute slog of a speech in person, before every single cup presentation, every year. He's similarly poor in everyday interviews, and he has a tendency of doing unethical things like black balling media members who ask difficult questions. It would really be better if he wasn't involved in that side of the league operations at all, but he's the commish, and nobody can stop him when he's insistent on making a fool of himself.
-Setting long-term goals and agendas for growing the league that are more ambitious than min-maxing the franchise fees at the next round of expansion. Having three prolonged lockouts, missing the worlds biggest stage at the Olympics, and letting major league issues like the DPE, the enforcers/CTE crisis wait for decades instead of years to be fixed damaged the long-term growth of the sport around the world. Gary thinks small, as in the next four financial quarters small, and it shows very clearly in the lack of growth in anything other than short term revenues.


With that in mind, having some sort of checks and balances by spliting the role of commishioner into two parts would be a great idea, something like Daly as commisioner, and Shanahan as the public face of the league with the ability to veto the worst hockey related ideas from the commisioner

Name me one other pro league that splits its commissioner like that. And why would you want a meathead like Shanahan anywhere near it? If you think Brian Burke was bad, Shanahan was 10x worse.

Bettman took a backwater league & turned it into a multi billion revenue outfit. The problem for the league is that they’ve employed dinosaurs like Burke & Shanahan for way too long. Before then, you had guys like Harold Ballard who were even worse.

 

[CokenoPepsi]

Gonna be crazy to get a new voice in there.

I remember during the 04 lockout there was alot of speculation Gary would be retiring in a few years

 

[dj4aces]

Bettman took a backwater league & turned it into a multi billion revenue outfit. The problem for the league is that they’ve employed dinosaurs like Burke & Shanahan for way too long. Before then, you had guys like Harold Ballard who were even worse.

I think this is exactly the reason why the league will grab an outsider once again. The league was spinning its wheels in every way in the 70s and 80s. While the league is still a distant fourth our of the big four in some ways, in others it was made more modern and successful under Bettman, and everyone profited. If only they could figure out how to get marketing down pat, perhaps the league could become a regular part of the sports conversation

 

[Oleksiak]

Name me one other pro league that splits its commissioner like that. And why would you want a meathead like Shanahan anywhere near it? If you think Brian Burke was bad, Shanahan was 10x worse.

Bettman took a backwater league & turned it into a multi billion revenue outfit. The problem for the league is that they’ve employed dinosaurs like Burke & Shanahan for way too long. Before then, you had guys like Harold Ballard who were even worse.

They really need to do a different approach from another career criminal like Bettman getting free reign though. Addressing the open corruption and officiating problems needs to be a priority.

 

[edog37]

They really need to do a different approach from another career criminal like Bettman getting free rein though. Addressing the open corruption and officiating problems needs to be a priority.

Officiating has been a problem since the beginning of the sport

 

[Oleksiak]

Officiating has been a problem since the beginning of the sport

Continuing to employ Colin Campbell after written proof of his corruption surfaced shows all you need to know about how much respect has for the integrity of the sport. Something really needs to be done before a judge forces the league to clean up its act.

 

[joelef]

They need someone that understands marketing .

 

[kaiser matias]

My uninformed guess is the next commissioner is not working in hockey, likely in the NBA, NFL, or in the sports business world. I think it would smart to get an outside perspective to get the league into the modern and innovative way.

That is what they did for Bettman. The previous presidents all had prior connections to the NHL.

 

[edog37]

Continuing to employ Colin Campbell after written proof of his corruption surfaced shows all you need to know about how much respect has for the integrity of the sport. Something really needs to be done before a judge forces the league to clean up its act.

There isn’t a judge anywhere who would even touch that.

 

[Oleksiak]

There isn’t a judge anywhere who would even touch that.

Wait until someone sues the NHL for a career ending injury that could have been avoided with honest officiating. It's matter of when, not if.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Wait until someone sues the NHL for a career ending injury that could have been avoided with honest officiating. It's matter of when, not if.

I mean, somebody may try, but don't think that would ever succeed before a judge. It's more about the player that did it.

For instance, Steve Moore is probably the most extreme example of this in the league's history. He sued Bertuzzi and the Canucks, but not the NHL. And the Canucks could only really be involved because it was known that they were looking for blood after Naslund. This kind of thing doesn't really happen anymore, and on the rare occasions that it does, the league puts out their little BS "You better not get out of hand" statements to cover their own ass.

This is also probably more of a DoPS issue than referee issue, as one has the benefit of hindsight. It'll be a sick joke the day somebody gets their coconut split wide open on the ice from a dirty slewfoot and the league throws out a 20 game suspension and a statement that "The league takes these incidents very seriously and this type of play has no place in the game." Really? Because you never suspended for it before?

Kinda like when it was suddenly a problem that Jamie Benn cross checked Stone in the throat, but the league didn't give a shit when he nearly broke Dylan Larkin's neck and then did the same chicken shit play to Pinto the next season.

 

[dj4aces]

Wait until someone sues the NHL for a career ending injury that could have been avoided with honest officiating. It's matter of when, not if.

I would ask why something like this hasn't been done by now, rather than say it's an inevitability.

You'll find no argument from me against fixing the league's officiating and disciplinary standards to ensure players are properly held accountable for their actions. However, I suspect a lot of this stuff is outlined in the CBA. If that's true, then it should come as no surprise why it hasn't -- and won't -- happen.

 

[edog37]

Wait until someone sues the NHL for a career ending injury that could have been avoided with honest officiating. It's matter of when, not if.

Bro, injuries have always been a part of the sport. It’s a contact league. “Honest officiating” is a subjective term.

 

[Oleksiak]

Bro, injuries have always been a part of the sport. It’s a contact league. “Honest officiating” is a subjective term.

So you have no issue with dirtbags like Kelly Sutherland openly rigging multiple playoff series? Don't see how putting career criminals in charge of the game endangers player safety?

 

[PistolPete]

Two weeks ago Gary was asked when he plans to retire. Without hesitation wants to stick around as long as owners want him. The day will come for sure but for now mind remains very sharp. Hopefully those occasional shakes are not much of a concern.

Hasn't he always had that?

 

[Mr grumpy]

Bettman is a robot, they just need to change his batteries