Gretzky To Manage Team Canada?

The NHL cleared up any uncertainty today with regards to NHL involvement in the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championships in April. The league made the appropriate decision by allowing any managing directors and coaches to participate in the annual tournament despite the inevitability of working closely with locked out players during the games. The NHL’s executive VP, Bill Daly, issued a statement this morning saying the decision was made after “due consideration to all of the relevant and sometimes competing concerns.”

Wayne Gretzky had been approached by Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson earlier in the month about taking control of the helm at the IIHF tournament. While Gretzky did not commit, he certainly did not rule out the possibility. Gretzky has led two previous versions of Team Canada, the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, resulting in golden performances each time. Gretzky’s participation would certainly be welcomed as Canada will attempt to defend the IIHF World Championship title it has held for the past two tournaments.

Should he accept Nicholson’s invitation, Gretzky would likely assemble his usual cast of characters to fill out the managerial positions for Team Canada. Oilers GM Ron Lowe and Canucks assistant GM Steve Tambellini have worked with Gretzky on the past two Gretzky versions of Team Canada, so he likely would not mess with a winning formula. Pat Quinn, Ken Hitchcock and Jacque Martin would take control behind the bench along with Canadian National team coach Marc Habscheid. Habscheid, who recently signed a contract with Hockey Canada giving him the head coaching position, said he would be willing to volunteer as an assistant coach to allow Gretzky’s group to take over. There have also been rumblings that Scotty Bowman may be asked to coach or scout.

The World Championships promise to offer some of the finest hockey that will be played this year as many locked out players will be participating for their respective countries. With the finest players in the world playing in this year’s tournament, the World Championships are poised to rival the World Cup in terms of the quality of hockey and fan interest. Instead of being the leftovers tournament that is usually played during the NHL playoffs, the World Championships will feature the very best each country has to offer.
Many of the players who played for Canada in September at the World Cup have not played much hockey at all this year due to the lockout. Canada would likely hold a training camp in mid-April and play a few exhibition games before embarking on their quest for gold at the World Championships. Injured players from the World Cup including Steve Yzerman, Chris Pronger, Rob Blake and Ed Belfour would deserve consideration for the team. All four have represented Canada well in the past and have extensive international experience. They would certainly be an asset to this team. For Yzerman, Belfour and perhaps Blake, this may be their final opportunity to represent Canada on the world stage.

Gretzky is expected to make a decision by the end of the week. Without any NHL hockey this season, there is no doubt his competitive spirit is running high. The 2005 IIHF World Championships would be an ideal place to let it out. For some reason, I think Gretzky is thinking the same thing.

Agreement In Principle, Season Could Be ‘Uncancelled’ Tomorrow

Reports have just surfaced that a meeting has been schedule for tomorrow evening in New York City between the NHL and NHLPA where it is expected they will put the signatures down on paper to formalize a new CBA that has apparently been agreed to in principle. A source close to the league said when asked whether he expects a deal to get done, “I don’t see any way it wouldn’t.”

The proposed deal would include a $45 million salary cap; a number that many believed would have got a deal done earlier in the week. Secret talks have been ongoing since yesterday when a group of influential owners and players expressed deep concern with the direction the league was heading in. It has been reported from numerous sources that Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux played key roles in sparking dialogue between the two sides that have led to this agreement in principle on a new CBA.

I have said all along that canceling an entire season would be a decision worthy of an ‘idiot award’ because there is no way to predict the massive damage this would inflict on the game. I always believed that if the people in charge had the slightest bit of intelligence, they would realize how destructive a cancelled season would be. Finally, it seems they may have come to their senses.

On Wednesday, when Gary Bettman delivered the formal cancellation of the season, this was likely not an announcement to signal the end of the season but rather an announcement to make clear to the NHLPA just how serious the economic problems are with the league. It is likely the NHLPA did not believe the NHL would come out and cancel the season. In response, the NHL did just that to drive home how serious the league is about the problems that they are having. At that point the NHLPA probably realized that the NHL means business and there is no way the players will get their way this time.

After canceling the season, both the NHL and the NHLPA likely went through a feeling of shock before they both realized just how incorrect a decision was made. It was that realization that likely brought the sides back to the bargaining table to give it one last shot. Hopefully by tomorrow, we will be using hockey terms like teams, players, games, schedules and season instead of financial terms like cost certainty, salary caps, and revenue linkage. I think everyone has heard enough of those.

Into The Great Unknown

Never before has a major North American sports league taken the kind of leap into the great unknown that the National Hockey League took today. Because of this, there is no existing benchmark for which to measure the severity and stupidity of this landmark decision. When Gary Bettman stepped to the podium at the Westin New York Hotel at 1pm ET and delivered the final blow to the 2004-2005 campaign, it marked the first time in North American professional sports history that a league had a season go from beginning to end without a single game being played.

After both sides came off their hard line stances on Monday, ones that they said would never be compromised, great optimism arose that a deal would be worked out in time to save a portion of this season. In the end, the NHL and the NHLPA let the season slip away over a $6.5 million difference in salary cap limits. The NHL was prepared to live with a $42.5 million limit while the NHLPA would go no lower than $49 million.

As the lockout stretches on, further damage will be done to the game, primarily damage in the public relations department. Fan interest will continue to decrease and resentment will continue to build causing even more serious economic issues to arise as time moves forward. League revenues will drop and, as a result, it is only conceivable to believe that the cap limit of $42.5 million offered by the league will drop severely the next time a proposal is tabled. As revenue decreases, quite simply there will be less money to go around; therefore, it is extremely difficult to theorize how the NHLPA believes it can achieve a better collective bargaining agreement by dragging this process out longer. The best deal the NHLPA was going to get was sitting on the table until 1pm ET today. They chose to turn smugly and walk away.

It is entirely possible that NHL dropping salary-linkage and the NHLPA agreeing to a salary cap on Monday was not in an attempt to forge an agreement but rather done as a ploy to appear as though they are bargaining in “good faith.” Legally, the two sides must bargain in “good faith” or risk having an impasse declared. Should that occur, a collective bargaining agreement could be imposed upon the NHLPA and create a situation where players could decide whether or not they would agree to play under the particular system put in place, better known as “breaking the union.” While Bettman has denied from the outset that breaking the union is his objective, he also has shown that the league is not willing to give into the players this time around and that the owners stand committed to obtaining an economically sustainable landscape for the league. Breaking the union would allow the league to dictate the kind of economic system to be put in place but admitting to that as being his main objective would not be bargaining in good faith.

It is frustrating to many people that the two sides appeared to come so close to an agreement only to fall short in the end. Undeniably there has been damage done to the NHL. One can only hope that Bob Goodenow and Gary Bettman are intelligent enough to realize that a deal must be accomplished in time to begin next season on time. If not, it will be clear they are looking through rosy-coloured glasses and either do not see or do not choose to acknowledge the likely irreparable damage that is being done to the game. One thing is for sure though. In the NHL record book, under Stanley Cup Champions, beside 2004-2005, two words will forever leave an indelible mark of incompetence, futility and gloom on this great game: “not contested.”