Tuesday, October 23, 2012

NHLPA Knew On Friday That NHL Owners Were Contacting Players


On Tuesday, the news broke that NHL owners were given a 48 hour window to talk to players about the CBA proposal.

"Players were contacting club personnel to inquire about our proposal," said deputy commissioner Bill Daly. "We gave them a limited window in which to respond to those inquiries."

The NHLPA was aware Friday - not Tuesday - that players were being contacted by owners.

That day, Mathieu Schneider issued an email to players entitled “Club Officials Contacting Players & Agents”. This is what he wrote:
In the last few hours we have heard about calls today from various club officials to players and agents to discuss the NHL proposal and bargaining.  This is interesting, since our understanding has been that the League had banned club officials from talking to players since the beginning of the lockout.  


If you get a call, or if there is anything you would like to discuss, please contact me. And, as always, please feel free to contact Don about anything, anytime.

Mathieu Schneider
The fact that the NHLPA was aware that something was going on Friday doesn't suggest it was concealing anything. The Union probably just wanted to get its ducks in a row. As well, it doesn't mean that they knew ahead of time it was going to happen.

Finally, Schneider's statement that players can contact Fehr "about anything, anytime" continues to speak to the inclusive and transparent approach Fehr takes to leadership. He's really changed the culture of the NHLPA.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Knowing that something was going on and being advised that it was about to happen are two different things. I still think it was a shady move by the NHL. That last thing these two sides need is more reason to not trust each other. What's even sillier is that I doubt there were any conversations that happened because of it. Either that or there were very few. Much ado about nothing and not helping anything.

These guys need to be locked in a room until they hammer out a solution. Now. This is getting silly.

Anonymous said...

it's a passive-aggressive response by Schneider and Fehr to be so open to players' questions.

by being so "open", they want to quash any dissenters or players from forming cliques, even if some players might have legitimate concerns but are afraid to voice them alone.

Sam