NHLPA head Donald Fehr on return to play plans and players condemning racism
On December 31st, 2019, I don't think anyone could have anticipated or predicted the type of year that 2020 would be. From the COVID-19 outbreak, to Murder Hornets to police officers killing George Floyd and all the protesting that has followed, to say that 2020 has been a rough ride so far would be the understatement of the decade.
NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr recently sat down with The Canadian Press to talk about the NHL players' comments and participation in the ongoing anti-racism movement as well as the NHL and NHLPA's return to play plans.
On the protests and anti-racism movement:
“These are issues which have always been important and fundamental and around which you need to make progress,” Fehr commented. “The hope is that in one fashion or another, the current state of events will result in that kind of progress, and meaningful progress being made.”
Since George Floyd's tragic death at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers and all of the events that have since transpired, over 100 NHL players have spoken out against injustice, racism and prejudice on their personal social media accounts.
Some, such as Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler and Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby have taken part in in-depth interviews. Some players, including Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin and Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara have gone as far as to attend peaceful protests in person.
“I'm really proud of the guys,” Fehr said. “They understand it's an important moment. They understand what the issues are, at least in the grand scope. And they're making their voice heard. Not everybody, but quite a lot.
“And that's to their credit.”
On the NHL and NHLPA's plan to return to play:
“There's a lot of work to do,” Fehr said. “The Phase 3 and 4 protocols, like Phase 2, are detail-intensive, but they also involve more people in the same area more frequently, so you have to pay a lot more attention.
“We both have public health doctors and in our own doctors on staff, and they're gonna tell us when we go astray.”
The bulk of the NHLPA reps are spread out between Canada, the United States and Europe. According to Fehr, many of them have questions on what a return to play looks like.
“They want to make sure they understand what the plan is and why it is that way,” he said. “They want assurance that not only have the maximum efforts been made to keep them safe, but they don't want to inadvertently take something back to their families.
“And they want to make sure they have enough time to get back, to train, to get ready so that when the game starts, leading to the eventual awarding of the Cup, that there'll be real games that will be as intense as you would like.”
Though Commissioner Gary Bettman has been vocal about the "collaborative" efforts between the league and the players, however, Fehr has an interesting way of describing the relationship at this point.
“What I can say is this: we're faced with a common problem, which arose entirely outside the ordinary labour-management relationship, and we can't resolve this by ourselves,” he said. “There are things we don't know, and there are things we can't know about the future.”
“There is … a common recognition we're dealing with something entirely out of the ordinary, and we've got to figure out a way to deal with it,” Fehr said. “It's not something we caused. It's not something that the NHL caused. It's not something which began as a fight over economics or likely will end there, although the adverse economic consequences of the pandemic are clearly going to have to be addressed.”
“If we can't complete this season, there's going to be a big revenue hit,” Fehr said. “It would not be good at all, but the health and safety of everybody concerned … is priority one, two, and three, and everything else follows that.
“Whatever it turns out to be — a potential loss this year, a potential loss next year, if for some reason we can't play before full arenas — we just have to deal with it.
“And it ain't gonna be pretty.”
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13 MAI 2026
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| B | P | PTS | ||
| Nick Foligno | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Parker Kelly | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brett Kulak | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brent Burns | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nico Sturm | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Mackenzie Blackwood | - | - | - | |
| Ross Colton | - | - | - | |
| Brock Faber | - | - | - | |
| Marcus Foligno | - | - | - | |
| Ryan Hartman | - | - | - | |
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