The NHL Players’ Association announced Friday night that it has set up a search committee to find a successor to executive director Don Fehr.
The NHLPA executive held a conference call Monday and the players voted throughout the week on whether to begin the process in place of Fehr. The 73-year-old joined the NHLPA in December 2010 and negotiated a collective bargaining agreement in 2013 and 2020.
Fehr will continue to lead the NHLPA until he finds a successor.
Early members of the NHLPA Search Committee are Ian Cole (Carolina Hurricanes), Justin Falk (St. Louis Blues), Sam Gagner (Detroit Red Wings), Zac Hyman (Edmonton Oilers), Kyle Okposo (Buffalo Sebres), Knut Schmidt (Winnipeg). ) And Kevin Shattonkirk (Anaheim Ducks). The names of other members may appear in the future.
The committee will begin the process of finding candidates and report progress to the board at a meeting in Toronto on July 18-20.
The selection committee said in a statement:
“Many of the players who have played in the NHL over the last eleven years have been very appreciative of the significant work that has been done under Don Fehr’s leadership. Led and negotiated a new CBA that created a defined benefit pension plan that would greatly benefit players for future generations.Don was instrumental in reviving the Hockey World Cup in 2016.
“After the Covid-19 forced the suspension of the 2019-20 season, Don led the bargaining which led to the expansion of the CBA in July 2020 and allowed the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs to be played. We look forward to continuing to work.
Sources told ESPN that the timing of the decision does not relate to an independent commission of inquiry into the 2010 sexual harassment allegations against then-Chicago Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich. The report, released on April 15, found issues of misunderstanding and misunderstanding. The process of handling such allegations, but Fehr himself did not find “personal error or institutional failure of policy or procedure”.
A source said that the process of finding a successor to Fehr started in the autumn of 2021, when Fehr started discussing succession plans with the players. However, another source said the search committee was set up because Fehr had not yet made a formal plan to find a successor.
The current CBA runs in the 2025-26 season, with Fehr’s success getting a lot of rush before the next labor struggle with NHL bosses. But in the short term, the next NHLPA executive director will be tasked with negotiating around the Hockey World Cup, which is expected to return in February 2024.
Among the candidates being considered for Fehr’s success are Matthew Schneider, a former NHL defender and current assistant director of Fehr; Glenn Healy, former NHL goaltender who is the head of the NHL Alumni Association and former NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly was the director of player affairs; Mike Gillis, former general manager of Vancouver Canucks, who is working as a consultant with the NHLPA; And player agents Ian Pulver and Alan Walsh.
