What is Don Fehr's legacy with the NHLPA?
The outgoing executive director guided the players through a lockout and a pandemic, but as he completes his tenure, he is not without his share of critics
The fact that Marty Walsh was the “designated survivor” for U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address Tuesday prior to (likely) taking the job as executive director of the NHL Players’ Association provided some delicious irony. When Walsh formally accepts the job, he’ll become the sixth man to lead the union – not including two interim directors - since its inception in 1967. And he’ll try to become the first to retire from the job on his own terms.
The person most recently occupying the office was not spared of the ignominy of being told to leave, nor should he have. Don Fehr’s inaction during the Kyle Beach ordeal was indeed a firing offence. In his 12-plus years at the top of the NHLPA’s food chain, Fehr has guided the union through everything from a half-season lockout to a global pandemic, and survived an attempted coup by a cabal of player agents who were unsatisfied with his work. Those who would take issue with Fehr are quick to point out that he was never supposed to be the NHLPA’s executive director in the first place, that he was brought on as an advisor who was supposed to assist them in the search for a leader, then liked the idea of the job so much that he threw his own hat in the ring.
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