TORONTO - Once again, the National Hockey League Players' Association is looking for an executive director.
The NHLPA said in a release Monday that its executive board "voted overwhelmingly to relieve Paul Kelly of his duties as executive director, effective immediately."
The statement said that "following the executive board's review of the overall operation of the NHLPA, it was decided that Paul Kelly should no longer continue to serve as executive director."
No reason was given, but it's believed the union executive felt that Kelly did not take enough of an adversarial stance with league management.
However, the Boston lawyer who participated in the prosecution of NHLPA founder Alan Eagleson in the 1990s said on the day he was hired on Oct. 24, 2007 that he wanted "a positive relationship between the NHLPA and the league."
The NHLPA executive board, which consists of one player representative from each of the 30 NHL teams, made the decision at its annual meeting in Chicago.
The association will put together a search committee to identify potential candidates for a replacement.
Kelly, who had been on the job for less than two years, was not available for comment
Kelly succeeded Ted Saskin, who was let go in May 2007 amid allegations of monitoring players' email. Saskin had taken over when Bob Goodenow stepped down under pressure from the players on July 28, 2005, only two weeks after a collective bargaining agreement was signed to end the lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 season.
In June in Las Vegas, Kelly invited NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to address an NHLPA meeting for the first time.
But by then Kelly was already being questioned. At the same meetings, the association formed a six-member committee to review his leadership.
The first sign of discontent came in February, when former star player Eric Lindros resigned as the association's ombudsman and sent a letter to members detailing his grievances with Kelly.
There were also reports that the executive committee broke its own rules by extending the contract of general counsel Ian Penny without consulting Kelly.
Kelly was reportedly told of his firing during the players' meeting on Sunday. Pat Flatley, a Kelly supporter and the assistant director of player affairs, reportedly resigned.
Penny is considered a candidate to replace Kelly.
Until a new executive director is named, the union is in the hands of Penny, advisory board head Ron Pink and former Canadian Auto Workers boss Buzz Hargrove, who was hired as interim ombudsman to replace Lindros.
The NHLPA was formed in 1967 with Eagleson, a Toronto lawyer, as executive director. But while salaries rose and NHL players for the first time took part in international hockey until his reign, he came under suspicion for continuing to act as a player agent and as a promoter of events like the Canada Cup.
Eagleson resigned in 1992 and later was found guilty on racketeering and fraud charges in the United States and fraud and theft charges in Canada. He served six months of an 18-month prison sentence in Canada and was disbarred by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Goodenow replaced him and took a more hardline approach to the league, but lost the support of many players during the 2004-05 lockout. While the collective bargaining agreement he signed has since worked out well for the players, it was seen at the time as a shattering defeat.
Saskin, who joined the association with Goodenow in 1992 as director of business affairs, brought a more conciliatory style to the job, but a bloc of discontented players led by defenceman Chris Chelios accused him of being too cozy with league management and questioned the process by which he was hired.
The revelation of reading players' email spelled his end.
Kelly was found by a five-player search committee consisting of Lindros, Chelios, Mike Cammalleri, Shawn Horcoff and Robyn Regehr, with the help of a Chicago headhunting firm.
Kelly said from the start he would not follow Goodenow's style.
"If I had any healthy criticism for Bob, it was that he viewed every issue between the NHL Players' Association and the league as adversarial and a fight," Kelly said when he was first hired. "It got the point where frankly he had a difficult time even being in the same room with Gary Bettman and some of the owners. That's not my style."
The new executive director has some major issues to handle. The post-lockout CBA is to expire in September 2011, although the union holds the right to extend it by one year.
There is also a difference with the league on Olympic participation. The NHL is leaning against having its players involved after the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, while many players want to continue playing at the Olympics.
