Actually, It's All Good

There will be those who interpret today's announcement that Ian Penny has left the troubled NHL Players Association as the latest disastrous development for the union. Not really.

In fact, this is good news. It follows last week's news that a four-player committee had been struck to investigate all the nonsense that has occurred at the NHLPA over the past six months, a sign the players were finally cluing into the fact they'd been effectively hoodwinked by a coup d'etat thinly disguised as the supposedly necessary departure of executive director Paul Kelly.

Penny overreached. Emboldened by the support of figures like departed union ombudsman Eric Lindros and advisory board member Ron Pink, not to mention current ombudsman Buzz Hargrove, Penny decided as general counsel he could not or would not work with Kelly, and was part of the group that actively sought Kelly's ouster.

Once he found himself crowned interim executive director, he discovered the way in which Kelly was dumped (at 4 a.m. in the morning) brought all kinds of grief to the union, and he was poorly equipped from a public relations standpoint to either rally the support of players or deal effectively with the media storm. Getting booted off a crucial conference call last week, with Sidney Crosby the final voice, effectively destroyed Penny's authority and legitimacy.

He had to go, and Hargrove and Pink should follow suit as soon as possible. Only then, with a clean slate, can the union start to rebuild. The next step will have to be a tweaking of the union's constitution, which is filled with so many checks and balances that it was inevitable that power struggles would result. The advisory board needs to go, and the ombudsman position needs to be redefined. The union cannot function going forward without changes to the structure.

Once all this happens, and the four-man committee is able to explain to their colleagues what exactly happened, two very good choices will be available to the NHLPA.

One, they could bring back Kelly. There is a remote scenario at best, but a plausible one. The union would not suffer public embarrassment if the players decided Kelly was unreasonably dealt with and deserved a second opportunity. It's just common sense that judging the man on how he performed while surrounded by people dedicated to undermining his authority was unfair, at best.

Second, Glenn Healy could be the next leader of the association. He knows the union inside out, and perhaps it's time that the players select one of their own to lead them. Healy's not a labor lawyer, but you can hire those people at a hourly fee.

There will be those who will suggest the union needs a brand new face, and that may be true. What's unfortunate is that in Kelly, Healy and Pat Flatley, the players had excellent people and good leaders, but were somehow convinced to push them all out the door.

Changes Afoot

Only player apathy, it would appear, can save Ian Penny and Buzz Hargrove from losing their tenuous grip over the NHL Players Association.

A resounding majority of player reps voted last night by conference call to install a investigative panel of four veteran NHLers - Nicklas Lidstrom, Rob Blake, Mark Recchi and Chris Chelios - to look into the events of the past two months that have made the union the laughingstock of the hockey industry.

Included in those events was the early morning putsch in Chicago in late August that saw executive director Paul Kelly fired, and quickly resulted in the departure of senior executives like Glenn Healy and Pat Flatley.

However, while between 17 and 19 of the 22 teams represented on the last night's call voted in favour of the new committee, by the union's constitution the resolution did not pass because 25 teams were not involved and therefore there was no official quorum.

"It's really discouraging," said one player. "Guys have to understand this is important." Those in favour of the new committee have several days to try and get 20 votes in favour of the new committee, at which point it would be established. If more teams can't be persuaded to either participate or vote in favour of the new committee, it will die.

Penny, who took over as interim executive director after successfully leading the coup that resulted in Kelly's ouster, was asked to remove himself from last night's call and, after some discussion, he reluctantly did so. The players also declined to hear from baseball union boss Don Fehr, preferring instead to have a players only call.

Penny has made his opposition to this new committee known, and now has several days to try and sway the votes of various player reps. Still, this was the latest in a series of internal votes that have gone heavily against him, and it appears the five-year contract he received in June will also be reviewed.

Penny has declined requests for interviews from the Star.

Hargrove, the union's ombudsman and unofficial spokesman since Penny took over, appears on the verge of being dismissed, but he wasn't fired last night.

After allowing various more junior union members like Andrew Ference and Matt Stajan of the Maple Leafs to take influential roles in the firing of Kelly, it's noteworthy that the association seems to now be inclined to put its faith in the hands of more senior players like Chelios, Blake, Lidstrom and Recchi. Lidstrom's involvement is pivotal and there have been few influential European players involved in the union's affairs in recent months.

Ference was the loudest player voice in the room when Kelly was fired at 4 a.m. that infamous day in Chicago, but he has already announced he is stepping down as Boston's player rep. Stajan has consistently backed Penny and said the union was right to fire Kelly.

Chelios, meanwhile, was set to lose his position as Detroit's player rep on Oct. 31st because he is currently not on the Red Wings roster. This will keep him involved, and he was one of the most dogged opponents of former executive director Ted Saskin before Saskin was fired for spying on players emails.

That's not good news for Penny either.