SB Nation Seattle

Why can't both sides in the mess stop putting their efforts into winning a PR battle and just lock themselves in a room and get it done?

In all, 19 NHL teams are represented [...], with Boston, Calgary, Carolina, Colorado, Edmonton, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Washington the ones without a player on the [NHLPA negotiating] committee.

I can confirm Don Fehr will take on the NHLPA job. He is in town at the world hockey summit but has not yet met with the media.

That's the insidious nature of the escrow-enforced triple cap system. It pits player against player, teammate against teammate, those under long-term contracts against those about to hit the market.

Based on the actions that have been taken to date with respect to my employment, including the ongoing surveillance of my activities at the office and the reduction of my role through the circulation of false information, it is my view that I have been constructively dismissed by the union. However, what is more important to me is that it has simply become impossible to work for the Players in the environment that has been created. It is also unfair to the hard-working, dedicated staff of the NHLPA to have my untenable situation negatively impact them in any way.

In a memo to the league's 30 player reps, Penny accused Chelios, a supporter of Kelly who tried to stop the middle-of-the-night vote to oust Kelly, of using union staffers to spy on other union officials.

Penny wrote: "This completely inappropriate conduct has created a hostile, fractured and distrustful work environment. It is the type of environment that exists in repressive, totalitarian regimes -- not work places."

Let me tell Andrew Ference, one defenseman to another, he should spend more time worrying about going to back to get the puck than to worry about Paul Kelly's ability to do the job as head of the PA. When [Ference] was in junior, I assume he wasn't going to college...so I ask, what makes him so [expletive] smart?! They had a guy like Chris Chelios in that room [in Chicago] who disagreed, told them to wait and think.
Maybe guys like Ference should take time to listen to guys who are older and smarter.

Of the five players on the executive committee who voted against dismissing Kelly, four of them were Chelios, Shawn Horcoff of the Edmonton Oilers, Adam Burish of Chicago Blackhawks and Manny Malhotra of the Columbus Blue Jackets. For the record, Chelios would not say which way he voted and what his feelings were on the issue. It is interesting to note, however, he did deliver the statement from the NHLPA on the firing the day after it occurred.

Kelly followed Lindsay and defended his work as executive director. He accused those allied against him of being participants in a coup and went so far as to single out NHLPA general counsel Ian Penny, Hargrove, members of the advisory board and divisional player representatives, the six former players who support player representatives at each team and help facilitate communication between the NHLPA office and the membership.

"At the end of the day, you weren’t left with anyone else," a source said. "He basically went through the entire organization and named them as part of the coup."

"Without asking for Sidney Crosby’s opinion, the NHLPA fired executive director Paul Kelly this week. That was a mistake."