By: Mike Rifkin
July first is the opening of free agency across the NHL, and it gets hockey fans excited for what the next season will show. We saw a ton of movement (more on that in a different article) of really good players, and it made for interesting social media interactions. But then because of who runs the NHL they made a foolish mistake.
Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that former Blackhawks executives Stan Bowman, Joel Queeneville, and Al MacIsaac are eligible for reinstatement and can be hired by a franchise starting July 10th. All three were suspended by the league because of their lack of response in the Kyle Beach sexual abuse case. I have a few problems when it comes to this situation. The first is that these guys don’t deserve a second chance. The league had an opportunity to make a statement and showed it stood with survivors of sexual abuse, instead they folded and we really shouldn’t be surprised, just look at what happened when it came to Pride nights across the league this season. The other major problem I have with this is that the league tried to bury this during free agency. They didn’t want anyone to realize what they were doing, while they knew exactly what they were doing. Gary Bettman continually gets in the way of the league, but here’s the thing is Gary Bettman going to sit at a podium answering questions based on this decisions, if these guys are hired are they going to answer questions about the situation that took place in Chicago and what they learned from it? The NHL is coming off a fantastic Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final, and had a flurry of moves on the first day of free agency, but we’re here talking about something that the league should have taken care of and that is the fact that none of the three gentlemen should have jobs in the league, but once again Gary Bettman gets in the way of his league.
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