Q&A: NHLPA Exec Marty Walsh On CTE, Salary Cap, Growing The Game And More, Part 2

The NHLPA’s Marty Walsh has been a busy individual since entering his role as the player union’s executive director in March 2023.

Walsh recently made a move of note when he announced the establishment of an NHLPA committee to study Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and its connection to injuries suffered playing the sport. Walsh sat down this week with THN senior digital correspondent Adam Proteau to discuss a number of union-related topics. Part One of that interview is here, and below is Part Two, edited for clarity.

THN.com: Our next topic is growing the game in global markets, non-traditional hockey markets. What role do you think the players can play in that regard?

Marty Walsh: Oh, I mean, a big role. I think players, you know, when you think about growing international hockey…I mean, we’ve been to, since I’ve been here, many countries. And I think two of the places that stand out to me are Sweden and Prague. In Sweden, we had four games, sold out. Lots of excitement there. We were able to host an event one of the nights there, the PA, with business leaders and political leaders in Sweden, and it went really well. The NHL was there as well. And Gary Bettman was there. So it was a good night

In Prague, we also had a couple games that were sold out. We had the same thing. We had another PA event there. So I think there’s opportunity and I think the players’ role in growing international hockey is probably the biggest piece of it. People are coming out to see players, particularly if you can get international players that you’re in a country that a player is from.

And then with the Olympics and the World Cup, the 4 Nations Face-Off, I think potentially there’s a lot of tremendous upside, probably even more upside than other leagues have. I mean, other leagues — basketball had some, baseball had some. But we have lots of international players, and I think it’s really important that we work to grow the game in their countries.

THN: Now, in terms of the growth in the salary cap ceiling, do you think it’s going to be steadily rising moving forward? Is there going to be maybe a bigger lurch from one year to another? How do you see that developing?

MW: It depends on the revenue, you know what I mean? I think that we’re looking at, you know, five percent (growth), roughly, this year. We were able to add a few hundred thousand dollars to that. We’re looking at five percent next year as well.

And so I think that if you look at that growth, and then you look at the revenue, I think you can make a determination somewhere down the road here, probably sometime next year that, you know, is there money in the system that can have bigger salary cap growth moving forward?

So I think it really is based off of revenue coming in, and the one thing I don’t want to do is raise the cap to the point where the escrow is higher, too high. You want to get to that point where the cap is being raised, players are being paid and they’re not paying additional escrow on top of that, or any escrow. You want to get as close to zero escrow as possible if you can.

THN: Obviously, you made news last week with the announcement about the PA’s concussion study group, CTE, and that issue in particular. How did that process start for you?

MW: It started when I started the job of talking to players, and obviously learning about CTE, I got reached out to by some medical folks here, from Boston that knew me as (Boston’s) mayor, and they wanted to talk to me about CTE. They expressed to me that in a lot of ways, people don’t actually publicly talk about, and I’m learning more and more about CTE as we move forward here.

A groundbreaking announcement of a CTE Advisory Committee and a solemn promise from @NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh that the issue of CTE will be taken very seriously by the Players. https://t.co/VlNHFlPGcL

— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) November 4, 2024

Obviously, I knew about CTE when I was mayor, but I wasn’t as engaged in it, and now I am engaged in it because my job as head of the Players Association is not just to negotiate contracts and grievances and arbitrations. It’s also about the health and safety of players, both while they’re playing and post career.

So, we had a conversation at the board meeting in June. We talked to some players about it, and they said, you know, how about we create a committee, a player-only committee.

So, we’re going around now talking, talking about topics during the fall tour, and we’ve had, we don’t have a full committee yet because I haven’t talked to every team yet, but we’re having a good response to it.” – Marty Walsh on the NHLPA’s new CTE study committee

THN: Historically, the league has been loathe to confirm a causation or a link between playing the game and CTE. Does the Players Association have a different stance in that regard?

MW: Well, look, we’re going to look at the research, see what the research tells us, and do what we can. We’ve had players that played in the NHL that died and then we discovered that they had CTE. So we’re going to do everything we can to learn as much as we can about CTE. There’s lots of research going on now trying to detect CTE in a person that’s alive. You know, you can only detect it right now in a brain (from) a person who has passed away.

So we’re going to look at that and what the causes are. A lot of this isn’t…the causes might not be because of playing NHL hockey. It could happen in high school. It could happen in college. It could happen in juniors. It could happen, you know, a lot younger than that. So we’re going to try to get as much information on this as we can moving forward. But I think it’s important to have us, the players, at the table in this conversation because they’re the ones impacted most by it.

THN: A quick question comes to mind – I wanted to get your sense personally of what the job as executive director has turned out to be for you as opposed to what you might have anticipated going in. What has the acclimation been for you?

MW: It’s been great. I think when I started, I obviously knew the foundation of what the job was, as a head of a union, I’ve done it in the past, you know, representing members. And obviously, that’s key.

The difference here in a lot of ways to my past jobs, as far as the union space, is that we have a big presence in the business side as well. We have opportunities in the business to grow the game, grow opportunities for our players, grow opportunities for the fans, quite honestly, and grow the sport.

So it’s been interesting to learn and watch and meet the players. I’ve met some owners. I’ve sat with the league a lot, with (NHL commissioner) Gary (Bettman) a lot, talking about different opportunities for growth. I think it’s a fascinating role as far as the labor union compared to what I’ve done in the past.

THN: Last question. You don’t answer to the public. You answer to the players, ultimately. But what would you say to the public about how the union has changed in your regard and what we should expect from the union in the months and years to come?

MW: I’m not going to disparage my predecessors. They all led this union in different times. And I think that, for the public, I think it’s understanding the fact that there’s a need for a union in hockey.

When you think about it as a fan, all you think about is your player playing a game at the stadium and they want to win every game, win the Stanley Cup. But a lot goes into that. There’s health and wellness, health and safety. There’s contracts. There’s making sure the players have what they need to be able to do their job.

At the end of the day, players are doing a job. Fans see them as stars and heroes and somebody they love so much. But the union is there to make sure that the players have everything they can to do their job successfully and have a good, successful, healthy career, I guess is the right way to put it.

In 1957, Ted Lindsay started the PA because the players were being taken advantage of by the owners of the teams. Fast forward to 2024, a lot of gains have been made on behalf of players, but there’s still a need for representation for the players with ownership and with leagues as they move forward. 

Get the latest news and trending stories right to your inbox by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or by visiting our forum.

Read original article here

News Summary:

• Q&A: NHLPA Exec Marty Walsh On CTE, Salary Cap, Growing The Game And More, Part 2
• Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.