Walsh: 'Gary, for the first time in a long time, made bets that didn't pan out.'

A risk that did not pay off for the NHL's commissioner.

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HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Walsh: 'Gary, for the first time in a long time, made bets that didn't pan out.'
Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports

Although we now expect to see the start of a new season in the National Hockey League on January 13th 2021, the rumors initially suggested that the season would actually begin on the New Year. That never materialized however due to a late proposal from the league that requested more concessions from the players, leading to a delay in negotiations.

Regardless of what you think of that situation one thing is beyond dispute, the owners came back to the players just months after negotiating a new deal and asked for more money. Although the league was understandably suffering financial losses during the pandemic, they were aware of the pandemic at the time that a new deal was negotiated. Many wondered why NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had come forward with a new ask of the players so quickly after seemingly achieving long term labour peace, but thus far we have no concrete answer to that question.

Player agent Allan Walsh, a long time and vocal critic of the league's commissioner, was recently a guest on the Spittin Chiclets podcast where he revealed his theory about where things went wrong for the league, its owners and the commissioner.

"My personal opinion is Gary Bettman made a bet," said Walsh during his appearance on the podcast. " That by December or January the pandemic would be past us and we would be able to put, at least at the beginning of the season about 25% capacity of fans into buildings and very soon thereafter move to 50%. That was the thinking back in June and July as the deal was being consummated and my feeling is that Gary, for the first time in a long time, made bets that didn't pan out."

There have been all kinds of rumors suggesting that there has been a group of owners that were displeased by the deal Bettman made with the National Hockey League Players Association prior to entering the bubble, something that Walsh was asked about during the interview. Although it may seem strange to some that an NHL owner could have somehow been out of the loop, Walsh explained that it wasn't all that strange at all.

"I think a lot of people don't appreciate the dynamic that takes place on the league's side," said Walsh. "Gary has an executive committee of the board of governors which are 8 owners. The rest of the owners are very much out of the loop as to the progress of negotiations, very little information is shared. How do I know? Because some of them are calling me and asking me what I know, and I was flabbergasted to get some of those calls."

Walsh was also asked if Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs had been among those leading the push to request more money from the NHLPA, as rumors have suggested, but he would not give an answer to that question on the record. 

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