Money Players

Incredibly, the legacy of one-time hockey czar Alan Eagleson still poisons professional hockey. The generation of players that"the Eagle" systematically abused, misled, and defrauded continues to take its revenge on his successors. When a former Boston player, Mike Gilli, suffered a career-ending injury, Eagleson, his agent, bilked him out of some $40,000 in insurance money. Gillis sued and won. What Gillis learned from the episode is that players need hard-nosed and honest representation and that no quarter needs to be given in encounters with the good old boys who run the game. Gillis is an agent now -- one of the best. The players he and other trained agents represent routinely get contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. Over the past ten years, the NHL's payroll has shot up from nearly $200 million to more than $1 billion. Around 350 players make more than a million dollars per annum. And the league's owners are crying the blues. But these owners often buy up sports teams for reasons of ego and for kicks. And the general managers often are former playe

<b>Bruce Dowbiggin’s</b> work in radio and television has twice won him the Gemini Award for excellence in sports broadcasting. His book, <i>Of Ice and Men</i> (MW&R 1998) was hailed by the <i>Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald</i>, CBC TV and Radio, TVO, and sports talk shows. He lives in Calgary with his wife and their three children.

Chapter 5: Hired Gun

If the dressing room is a hockey player's home, then a beer joint is his sanctuary. Dressing rooms are for media sound bites, weary cliches and coach's speeches. It's the last place a player wants to bare his soul. To get honesty from players, you need to put them at a battered corner table filled with beer glasses. It was in pubs and taverns that the Players Association was spawned in 1956 and again in 1967. The stale smell of beer and the flickering TV high against the wall are a player's truth serum, his firewall against the pressures of fans, owners, media, wives and agents.

As a man with hockey in his blood, Bob Goodenow knew this better than anyone. When the rookie director of the NHLPA needed a secluded spot for an economics lesson during the 1992 NHL players strike, he found it in the dank atmosphere of a pub in Toronto's trendy Leaside district. In the executive director's job just four months, the Detroit product sketched his theory on the economics of the NHL for a reporter on a bar napkin. Goodenow put the rich clubs, such as Detroit and Toronto, at the top of the napkin. The poorer clubs, such as Pittsburgh and Minnesota, were scribbled at the bottom. In the middle of the beer-stained napkin were teams such as St. Louis and Los Angeles, the NHL's middle class.

"Here's where you find the fair market value of a player in today's economy," he said, jabbing the pen into the words Kings and Blues on the napkin. "Not up here with the Rangers and Leafs. In the middle. But the NHL wants them to be paid down here." He jabbed derisively at the words Penguins and North Stars on the lower portion on his napkin as if identifying a neighbourhood where it isn't safe after dark. "And we're not going to get a settlement till we establish this (another arrow points back to the middle-rank teams once more) with the leagues." The pen clattered onto the wooden table top, and Goodenow sipped on his beer.

In the course of a few months, Goodenow had used this message - probably delivered with the same flourish - to unite hockey payers as never before. As details of Alan Eagleson's handling of the Players Association surfaced in police reports and media outlets, Goodenow had become the saviour players longed for 25 years earlier at the advent of the NHLPA.

There are others who might not have such a warm appreciation of square, sandy-haired Robert Goodenow. Harry Sinden, who's run the Boston Bruins for over 30 years, lowers his voice and looks straight into the questioner's eye when asked about the NHLPA executive director. "This is my opinion only. Alan Eagleson had a genuine concern for the good of hockey. I don't think Bob Goodenow does. That's pretty clear how I feel about that. If you could show Alan Eagleson that the game was in trouble, he'd try and help you out of it. If you show Bob Goodenow you're in trouble, he says, 'I don't believe you' or 'I don't care.' That's how he comes across to me."

Agent Rick Curran sees another side of Goodenow. "Bob has his own challenges, his own agenda he has to deal with, and that's fine. But I think he's done a hell of a job. I really do. Having been a part of the early days, sitting here 25 years later, he's done a hell of a job. Has he made some mistakes? He'd be the first to admit it. Is he always right? Not necessarily so. You'll always have the debate - is he good for the game, bad for the game? Whatever. But from a player's standpoint, every player today is better educated than he was in the old days. They're better off for it and I think that's a positive."

There are as many views on Goodenow as there are people in the hockey business. He is characterized as everything from a pariah to a saviour, bragging bully to protector of the weak, a pitiless exploiter to an emancipator on the order of John L. Lewis. He inspires fear, awe and loathing - sometimes at the same time. "I remember I had a player held out at training camp," says Tom Laidlaw. "The contract finally got done and Bob called up and said, 'What are the numbers?' I told him. I think I got 1.5 in the first year and 1.8 in the second - something like that. Bob automatically says, 'Well, I think you should have got 1.7 and 2.' If I told him we got 2 and 2.5, he would have said 2.2 and 2.7. At first it kind of takes you back and you think, 'What a jerk this guy is.' But you know what? Bob always wants everybody to be doing their best for the players. For that I admire him."

Employees of the NHLPA operate under a strict code of silence when asked about the boss. But the man himself will confide closely guarded secrets to trusted reporters. What cannot be denied is his impact on the hockey business: in 10 years, the inscrutable Harvard-educated lawyer turned the NHL Players Association from a house union into one of the most effective employee associations in North America. While maintaining many of the legal rights of a union -such as protection from owners' collusion - he has also protected the players' individual right to negotiate independently with management. Without him, it's doubtful that players would make half the money they do today. How you feel about that last statement probably determines on whether you see him as a hero or a villain.

"That guy helped everybody," says agent Gilles Lupien, the former Montreal defenceman. "Even the teams - I think he helped them, too, because the value of a franchise was $50 million, now it's $150 million for many."

"I think Goodenow's done a great job if your only concern is making money," says former Rangers GM Neil Smith. "I think the NHLPA is killing the golden goose. To me, they've got their foot on its throat, stomping it to death. I don't understand that. He's got to take the long view. You can't just pound the shit out of everybody."

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Excerpted from Money Players by Bruce Dowbiggin
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.