james mirtle: The end for Saskin? – A hockey journalist’s blog

james mirtle: The end for Saskin? – A hockey journalist’s blog:

The best piece written so far on the ridiculousness that has been going on with the NHLPA and its executive director Ted Saskin came from the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, who gets all of the nasty details from last week’s conference call out

My gut still tells me this isn’t a huge thing. I could be wrong, but I’m still not convinced there’s a significant movement against Saskin; instead, there are a couple of movements going on here. One is the small group of anti-Saskin people (Trent Klatt and Chris Chelios being the core leaders), and I think this thing’s been sitting around the PA festering and refusing to go away long enough that there’s now another group that simply wants to find a way to find closure, and if that means bringing in Block to investigate, fine. Saskin’s response is understandable in this situation, too, because I”m sure he REALLY wants it to go away sooner rather than later.

There are really two issues here: is the PA acting like a professional organization (at a basic level, following the bylaws of its charter and not breaking its own rules), and was Saskin brought on properly. the latter was clouded early, but there was a vote of the membership that seemed to clear that up (if only in hindsight), and that leads me to believe Saskin probably will be okay. The larger issue, however, of the organization operating within its charter is an interesting one, adn is as likely to touch folks like Vinnie Damphousse, arturs Irbe and Kirk McLean as it is Saskin himself, if there’s anything serious found.

larry brook and his axe-to-grind, and Tom Benjamin’s assumption of worst possible case notwithstanding, I still believe this is more a bureaucratic sitaution and not a major crisis for the PA. But we’ll see. But I think it’s important to wait and see, and not go running off making judgements based on this investigation being approved or the tempers on the phone call.

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