It is time for Gary Bettman to be Replaced

 

The NHL's recent response to the Blackhawks scandal was poor. In the fallout of the press conference. There are owners, players, and fans calling for Gary Bettman to be replaced as NHL commissioner. There are many legitimate reasons for Bettman to be replaced, as this horrible response, and lack of discipline seems to be the rule and not the exception for the NHL under Bettman.

Allan Walsh reported on Tuesday morning that some NHL owners are very unhappy with Gary Bettman’s lack of leadership. Allan adds his own opinion, agreeing that Bettman should be replaced

The culture of the NHL has allowed homophobia, racism, misogyny, drug abuse, and sexual assault to be parts of the sport in locker rooms, front offices, and youth leagues. The NHL has repeatedly “stood against” these things, but their actions and inactions in many scenarios speak for themselves. 

The inability to properly handle the Blackhawks situation is only the tip of the iceberg for the NHL. 

-Akim Aliu’s investigation not being continued by the NHL after they promised Akim and his lawyer a further investigation

-The Disregard for player safety and health in the NHL (Player Health in the NHL: CBA, culture changes are inevitable and needed)

-Ignoring CTE as an issue for many years

-Ignoring the growing drug abuse problem in the NHL. Letting players become addicted without any proper help from the league. Leading to their addiction and risk of death after playing (Derek Boogard, Jimmy Hayes, Bob Probert)

-The 3 lockouts during Gary Bettman’s tenure

-Allowing Logan Mailloux to be drafted into the league in 2021

-Not allowing NHL players to play in the 2018 Winter Olympics against their wishes

This lack of leadership and action has led the NHL to fall deep into a cesspool of issues and allowed negative elements to become a part of hockey.

The NHL has had these other issues occur in the past. So what has made owners around the league call for Bettman to be fired?

The answer would be the press conference held by Bettman and the NHL Monday, November 1st, regarding the Blackhawks investigation. 

Many things went wrong on Monday. This leaves a sour feeling around the hockey world, directed towards what seems to be indifference from Bettman to what happened in 2010.

-Bettman on Quenneville coaching a game after the report came out: 

“Quenneville had 876 games on his resume...I didn’t want him to be prejudged”  

-Bettman on Kevin Cheveldayoff not being disciplined: 

“Kevin was such a minor player in this...Everyone else either forgot or didn’t acknowledge that he was there. He had been with the Blackhawks for nine months. He was an assistant general manager with limited responsibilities”

-Bettman when asked why the NHL does not have a sexual misconduct policy:

“We address on a case-by-case basis with a sliding scale”

-Neither Bettman nor Bill Daly called upon Rick Westhead, the lead reporter on the Blackhawks story, until 47 minutes into the virtual press conference. It took other members in the press conference to point out that Westhead was not called upon to ask a question. Westhead is a huge reason why the Blackhawks scandal got out to the general public. Not calling upon the lead reporter is a sign of freezing him out. Leading PHWA President Frank Seravalli to release this statement Tuesday morning 

The NHL’s press conference led by Gary Bettman on Monday was a disaster. 

Bettman had held judgment on Quenneville even though Quenneville was guilty of rug-sweeping the sexual assaults. What is even worse is that Bettman quoted Quenneville’s experience in the NHL, which should not make a difference when it comes to the moral standard that should be held. Bettman also ignored that Quenneville had written Aldrich a positive review after the 2010 season, leading Aldrich to coach on other hockey teams, leading to Aldrich sexually assaulting staff at those jobs. Quenneville is partially responsible for those assaults after 2010.

Bettman tried to make it seem like Cheveldayoff had no authority to speak out to the media or other members against hiding the Aldrich assaults. This is not true by any stretch, anyone has the authority to speak out against disgusting acts like sexual assault in the workplace. Cheveldayoff was also the assistant GM at that time, he had power in the front office. Bettman tried to make it seem like Cheveldayoff was just an insignificant assistant, rather than one of Stan Bowman's right-hand guys.

Bettman essentially shrugged off the idea of having a sexual abuse policy. While also trying to defend the NHL’s current “sliding system” which has not been effective.

Bettman and Daly tried to freeze out Rick Westhead in the virtual conference. Rick is the lead reporter of the Blackhawks story. Not allowing him to question the NHL on their discipline is a sign of indifference towards what happened. And also very shady by Bettman and Daly.

NHL ownership, players, and fans all have plenty of reasons to be outraged at the NHL’s poor leadership under Bettman. Gary Bettman has failed the NHL multiple times, and this time should be the last.