Is the NHLPA Digging In for a Fight?

When the NHLPA announced that it hired Glenn Healy away from the television studios to become their "Director of Player Affairs", I was rather happy that our airwaves were now free of his crappy color commentary, and that was the end of that.

What I didn't expect, however, was that this hiring could be the signal that the NHL is preparing itself for a bitter battle with the NHL when the current CBA expires.

Per Adam Proteau of The Hockey News, a dude who knows his stuff, the league and NHLPA are slowly digging in for what could be the nastiest war yet.

If ... commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL are aiming to abolish guaranteed contracts as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, they'll quickly discover [Paul] Kelly isn't anywhere close to the pushover his predecessor Ted Saskin was, nor does he employ the bull-in-a-china-shop public relations philosophy that helped do in Saskin's predecessor Bob Goodenow.

Bettman and the owners will surely and rightfully be painted as villains under such a scenario – and I suspect the majority of the general public will see matters as Kelly and the players see them.

Nevertheless, the hiring of Healy – someone who, despite what his friends within the industry might tell him, rubs a fair number of folks the wrong way – appears to signal a more militant turn within the NHLPA that could be cause for concern among hockey fans.

Wasn't this 'partnership' and the Salary Cap supposed to give the NHL the cost certainty it desired? Weren't the players supposed to help the league grow revenues? What happened to all the sweet talk us poor fans were fed after losing an entire season?

Healy has always been a loyal Bob Goodenow disciple, as noted in the article, and may be just the first in a line of militants that the PA is bringing on board in case the NHL really do try to get rid of guaranteed contracts.

I just hope that this is just posturing, but given the history of bad blood between the PA and the NHL, I fear the worst.