Co-Managing Director, Octagon-Hockey. Sports Agent/Lawyer | “To protect clients’ rights, promote their interests, maximize their compensation.” Opinions my own
“In 2004, if all of the NHL hockey players were represented by agents like Allan Walsh, there would be no salary cap and none of the players would be paying escrow,” - Ian Penny, general counsel of the MLB Players Association
There’s first time for everything: I get to my seat at the LA Kings game last night and this guy is sitting next to me. He sat there for 3 periods intently watching the action.
I have tremendous respect for the Bruin players that sent best wishes. All class. As for Jack Edwards, to say Roman’s injury was “bad hockey karma” while he was laying on motionless on the ice, you are truly a piece of shit and an absolute disgrace.
Marc-Andre Fleury indicated he was planning to wear the mask anyway and pay the fine. The NHL then threatened the Wild organization with an additional significant fine.
As part of Native American Heritage Night and to honor his wife, who is native, Marc-Andre Fleury had a custom-designed mask created by Cole Redhorse Taylor. Mask quotes his dad on back, has names of his kids.
He’s bummed the NHL has informed him he can’t even wear in warmups
“Merci - Thank you!”
I asked Flower why he speaks to his goalposts in 2 languages.
His reply: “I never know if the steel is from Quebec or the states. I would rather stay polite and not take any chances.” 🌸🌸🌸🌸
I’m hearing this morning that several NHL owners are “very concerned and unhappy” with Gary Bettman’s leadership. I think even the owners realize it’s time for a change in the NHL and culture only changes from the top down. It is time to FIRE BETTMAN. 1/
The NHL’s decision to ban players from wearing specialty jerseys in pre-game warms up is gutless. Pride Night, Military Appreciation, Hockey Fights Cancer, Black History. 99% of players had no issues wearing a specialty jersey. Typical NHL, going 60 Miles per hour in reverse.
While Marc-Andre Fleury still hasn’t heard from anybody with the Vegas Golden Knights, he has apparently been traded to Chicago. Marc-Andre will be taking time to discuss his situation with his family and seriously evaluate his hockey future at this time.
Only the
@NHL
would intentionally schedule other regular season games on the same day and at the same time as the Winter Classic. Your signature event on New Years Day and you counter program against yourselves.
#MarketingGeniuses
We knew it was going to be bad but holy hell. The Stanley Cup Finals national broadcast ratings down 43% this year from last year. It was the least viewed Stanley Cup Finals since 2007.
Robin Lehner was an amazing teammate and friend to Flower and a true goalie partner in every way. I condemn anyone attacking another person for having a mental illness. Robin is a role model and inspiration deserving of respect.
There is not many people I’ve met or played with I respect as much as flower. 100% HOF guy that I will miss. But people that keep attacking my mental illness for something I don’t control. One day when your eyes close you will be judged and then don’t ask for forgiveness.
A head coach criticizes horrendous officiating ($10,000 fine), a player dangerously crosschecks another in the throat ($5,000 fine), a ref yells at a player on the ice to f*** off and the league says “nothing to see here”. That’s about where the NHL has sunk.
The
#1
pick in the NBA Draft in 2022 has a $11M base salary.
The
#1
pick in the ‘22 MLB draft received a $8M signing bonus.
The
#1
pick in the NFL Draft is making $9.3M this yr.
The
#1
pick in the NHL Draft in 2023 will make Base Salary+Signing Bonus of $950k a year for 3 yrs.
The NHL refusing to allow Marc-Andre Fleury from wearing a custom designed mask Native American Heritage Night (even in warm ups) is all you need to know about Gary Bettman’s NHL.
Hockey is for everyone?
As part of Native American Heritage Night and to honor his wife, who is native, Marc-Andre Fleury had a custom-designed mask created by Cole Redhorse Taylor. Mask quotes his dad on back, has names of his kids.
He’s bummed the NHL has informed him he can’t even wear in warmups
A reminder that Gary Bettman fined the New Jersey $3 million and loss of the 2 draft choices for a cap circumvention. He fined the Chicago Blackhawks $2 million. That’s Gary’s message. Circumventing the cap is more egregious than covering up alleged sexual assault.
The pushback on the NHL’s ban on Pride tape is already underway as players, teams react - The Athletic
One NHL team contacted the makers of Pride Tape and placed an order for an entire case.
Gary Bettman today: Our fans love the digital ads over physical ones. We did surveys, we asked. The only thing that ranked higher in our fan surveys were the 3 lockouts. All the fans understood we were only doing it for them.”
A fan in Vegas won an autographed Marc-Andre Fleury jersey in a Covid relief fundraiser. What does Flower say? “It’s only 20 minutes out of my way, I’ll go drop it off personally.” Always answer your door, you never know who’s ringing!
#FlowerPower
Detroit forward Matt Luff took an 89 MPH slapshot off the chin last night against Minnesota, losing teeth and needing 16 stitches to repair the damage. He was on the ice for practice this morning.
#LuffIsTough
I’ve been communicating with several players at the World Juniors and they’re devastated. The ‘02 born players have lost their last opportunity to represent their country on the U20 stage. I feel gutted for them.
Gary Bettman has once again failed the game. This abhorrent backsliding by banning pride tape goes against the very essence of “Hockey is for Everyone”. I’m disgusted.
“That’s the problem with these young players. You wanna embarrass guys? You wanna skill it up? You better be prepared to get punched in the mouth.”
Coyotes broadcast applauds Jay Beagle cross-checking Trevor Zegras/beating Troy Terry senseless. Embarrassing commentary
The Detroit Red Wings v. Sens game from Stockholm, Sweden is a TSN regional broadcast and only available for viewing within the Ottawa region. The game is nonsensically BLACKED OUT throughout the rest of Canada.
#GrowingTheGameTheNHLWay
Marc-Andre Fleury is everyone’s Flower in full bloom. 🌸🌸🌸
The Native American Heritage Mask is a thing of beauty.
The players are the heart and soul of the game!
The NHL sent a memo to teams yesterday titled: "Fostering A Safe and Inclusive Culture"
Per a copy I saw, all league personnel & players "are required to immediately report" to Gary Bettman or Bill Daly conduct that "is clearly inappropriate, unlawful or demonstrably abusive."
Was just listening to Gary Bettman on Sportsnet yesterday where he said regarding NHL players - "You don't have to tweet to get our attention. We have an 800 number people can call...we're an open book.” Spit my morning coffee out all over my desk.
With all the incredible talent and fascinating personalities to showcase amongst NHL stars, the league should be able to put on a kick ass entertaining 90 minute production for the fans and broadcast audience. This ain’t it!
#Embarrassing
Gary Bettman previously fined the New Jersey Devils $3 million (and loss of 1st and 3rd round picks) for circumventing his precious salary cap with the Kovalchuk contract and just fined the Chicago Blackhawks $2 million for its actions related to Brad Aldrich.
When I was 13 years old, I took this picture of Guy Lafleur at Dorval Airport in Montreal around 2:00am after the Canadiens returned home after winning the Stanley Cup in Boston, May 1978.
Heard the NHL’s consistently horrible officiating and egregiously missed calls were a “hot topic” at Day 1 of the NHL GM’s meeting today. The NHL kicked off the discussion by reminding GM’s that anyone who publicly criticizes the officiating will be severely fined.
#GarysWorld
How does Columbus drop to
#3
BEFORE they flip the card. The whole purpose of the draft lottery show is transparency and this is anything but….
#Questions
For the way the game is marketed, for the lack of any coherent global strategy, for turning his back on issues like painkiller, ambien and toradol abuse, for his lack of empathy and caring, for his 3 lockouts and all the lies. It’s time for Gary to go.
To any players that went undrafted today, you should know that undrafted players make up the biggest percentage of players in the NHL outside of those drafted in the top 2 rounds.
A NHL goalie wanted to put a Cancer ribbon on his helmet design as part of the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer Month. The League told him the ribbon is banned and refused to allow it. Where’s the common sense?
I think we can all agree the NHL’s “Department of Player Safety” should be renamed. The last thing they are promoting is “Player Safety”. How about “Department of Acceptable Brain Trauma and Broken Jaws”? The new motto can be “Nothing to see here”.
The Dept. of Player Suspensions (aka the Parros Kangaroo Court) is a media/PR entity that has nothing to do with ‘Player Safety’. Baseball bat swing to players head? No hearing. David Perron-1100 NHL games without suspension. Zub played the next shift. 6 games is a farce!
About last night…this will go down as one of Marc-Andre Fleury’s more memorable saves of his career where highlight reel saves have been the norm since 2003.
990 Games Played
546 Wins
25,757 Saves
3 Stanley Cups
Put the blame squarely where it belongs. This is on Gary Bettman. If he truly cared about “player safety”, violent acts on the ice intending to injure opponents would be appropriately punished. The NHL has learned absolutely nothing since the Steve Moore travesty. 1/2
I’ve been representing NHL players for 27 years and I’ve never seen anyone as universally loved as Marc-André Fleury. His smile lights up a dressing room.
The NFL Salary Cap has more than doubled in just over a decade:
2011: $120.4M
2012: $120.6M
2013: $121.1M
2014: $133M
2015: $143.28M
2016: $155.27M
2017: $167M
2018: $177.2M
2019: $188.2M
2020: $198.2M
2021: $182.5M
2022: $208.2M
2023: $224.8M
2024: $255.4M
A lot of talk about being pissy today. You want to see pissy? Check out Gary Bettman being pissy as he flees
@rwesthead
trying to ask him a few questions on former NHL players suffering thru the effects associated with traumatic brain injuries.
#OpenBook
#NHLFamily
I’m shocked at how uninformed this take is-
1. Players in Canada can set up a Retirement Compensation Agreement (RCA) and limit their tax liability to a flat 20%. With sound tax advisors, a NHL player can actually pay the same or less tax in Canada than he will Florida or Vegas.
Now I’ve heard it all. Gary Bettman attributes the recent increase in NHL scoring to the 2005 salary cap. Yeah Gary, it took 17 years but the salary cap is finally scoring goals. Tell us you really don’t understand hockey without saying you don’t understand hockey.
An update! The gentleman met Jonathan Drouin after tonights game and Jo signed his game used jersey from Halifax. Thanks
@jodrouin27
and
@ChantalMachabee
!
It was 45 years ago tonight, my father brought me (his 10 year old son) to arguably the greatest hockey game ever played. Red Army v. Montreal Canadiens on New Years Eve, 1975 at the Forum. 3-3 tie. I’ve kept the ticket stub all these years.
#TretiakvsDryden
From the way Gary has mismanaged the horrific events in Chicago to his refusing to acknowledge a link between traumatic brain injury and CTE, for doing nothing to help retired players, for calling the NHL a “family”, for the Dept of Player Suspensions, 2/
“[The current playoff format] is working well and we’re not looking to make any changes.”
Commissioner Gary Bettman says the NHL is not looking to go back to the 1v8 playoff format. Should they?
Said the guy who made over $50M while playing in the NHL and part of the group of players that stabbed the NHLPA/Bob Goodenow in the back during the 2004/05 lockout. Every NHL player today can partly thank ol JR for the salary cap and escrow.
NHL contracts today just blow my mind.... I remember when you actually had to earn high salaries, now they are just given and hope they work out! Crazy.
As I’ve said many times, I don’t cheer for teams, I cheer for clients. But the officiating tonight is an embarrassment to the NHL and an embarrassment to the sport. The players and the fans deserve better than this.
The highest paid player in the NHL today is comparatively the-
• 113th highest-paid player in the NBA
• 103rd highest-paid player in the MLB
• 88th highest-paid player in the NFL
Due to Gary’s triple hard cap salary cap crunch, several NHL teams cannot carry a full 23 man roster. 1 team is at 20 and several at 21. Overall, 28 NHL jobs lost, 28 players squeezed out of the league.
Just a reminder that the reason we have salary caps is not “cost certainty”, “competitive balance” or “it’s great for the fans”. The salary cap allows owners to pay players less than their true market value by restricting the available dollars within a system.
Anybody else want to shoot the NHL app into the sun? Why would the league make it so hard to follow games and provide accurate stats on pre-season games?
Hearing many players are planning to give the middle finger to Gary by supporting special initiatives including Military Appreciation, 1st Responders, People of Color, Indigenous Communities, Pride among others. Players should be free to express themselves or not as they choose.
Just found out today my 17 year old daughter is on Twitter. I asked her if she follows me and she said - “Sorry Dad, No. I’ve seen the stuff you tweet and it’s not that interesting.”
Gary’s NHL: Let’s have an All-Star Game with a tradition of 1 player from each team participating in the Game. Let’s have an expansion team in Seattle. Let’s leave Seattle and their incredible fan base with no players going to the All-Star Game.
Dumba: “Why is that (Pride Tape Ban) even a thing? Why did they have to do that in the first place? You'll never get the answers from them…they don't have answers for a lot of things that they (NHL) do. They follow and try to save face."
I have a question that needs to be asked. Why didn’t the Jenner & Block Chicago investigators interview Gary Bettman? What did Gary Bettman know and when did he first know it? Let’s get that on the record.
See the iconic showdown between Ohtani and Trout at WBC? Gary Bettman and the owners have robbed NHL players and the fans of Olympics and World Cups. A generation of NHL stars have never represented their countries best on best. It’s such a lost opportunity for everyone.
It is inconceivable for a NHL player to be cleared after his 19th concussion. My heart aches for what happened to Steve Montador and the impact it had on his friends and family.
#NHL
#LeagueOfDenial
2) His name was Steve Montador
He was my best friend
He was cleared for 19 concussions in the NHL
He was cleared for 4 concussions in a span of 12 weeks while we played together on the
@NHLBlackhawks
His 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th brain injury in just 571 NHL games…
Gary Bettman in a media availability just now made the ridiculous and wildly false statement there is no tanking in the NHL.
Trust me when I tell you, NHL teams would rather finish dead last than miss the playoffs by 2 points.
Finishing in 17th place is a disaster.
Will never understand the conventional thinking within many NHL teams that a player has little chance of being an NHL player if not on a roster by 25 years of age. In other sports, a player is just coming into his own at 25, in the NHL, “Eh, he’s done. He has no chance.”
We got a first look at the temporary visiting team spaces (dressing room, training areas, etc.) for the first 4 NHL games at Mullett Arena!
The annex is being built and expected to be ready in December.
Full discussion:
Full show: