The NHL's Ugly Offseason

It is one of the great paradoxes in the NHL: just as the game grows exponentially, with ludicrous television rights deals on both sides of the border, traditionalists fight to maintain the integrity of the game by promoting its more outdated elements.

Phrases like "the code" and "honour" referring to NHL players are still trumped out regularly. Sure, they're mostly used by much ballyhooed old-school hockey celebrities like Don Cherry, but few would be surprised by the legions of fans people like Cherry enjoy.

There are some who believe the NHL should remain a tight-knit brotherhood. To those old-school types, nothing is more sacred than that brotherhood. And of utmost importance to that brotherhood is protecting players at all costs.

This need to uphold the integrity of the game has manifested in the relative quiet that has surrounded one of the NHL's worst offseasons in recent memory. Three high-profile players have been involved in trouble with the law: Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has been the subject of an investigation into allegations that the 26-year-old, three-time Stanley Cup winner raped a woman. Buffalo Sabres forward Ryan O'Reilly, 24, was charged in July with impaired driving and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. And, in late June, the Los Angeles Kings terminated the contract of forward Mike Richards. He has since been charged with possession of a controlled substance. But the Kings, Richards, and the league have remained alarmingly quiet about the case.

Many of the players involved in off-ice troubles are stars who've been either involved with the law previously or rumoured to have had problems away from the rink earlier in their career.

One former NHL general manager told me that players are examined long before they sign their first NHL contract and that teams have to ensure to the best of their abilities possible that players understand what the expectations are in terms of off-ice behavior. It's emphasized daily. Still, the same rules might not necessarily apply to all players.

"The real discrepancy happens when you have a wide discrepancy in talent," the former GM said. "You're talking about a real high-end player. You work with those players. The old adage is that they get more rope. Well, they do."

The argument could be made that there are other stories to dominate the public's attention right now and that after the intensity and near-overwhelming coverage the NHL receives in Canada nine months of the year, it's necessary to give hockey fans a break.

But if not now, then when?

By the time the puck drops in early October, there will have already been weeks of previews and fantasy draft specials. "Hockey is back!" they'll scream from corners far and wide of this country and many will forget the slow summer months even existed. The NHL's official Twitter account's frequent use of the #IsItOctoberYet hashtag is in part a gimmicky tool to drum up excitement for the season, but also a painful reminder that the league seems focused on moving forward, not addressing the issues this offseason has presented.

August and September are perfect months for the NHL to step forward and become the socially progressive league its only hinted at. If the decision to get in line with the times and move from 4-on-4 to 3-on-3 overtime as a means to diminish the widely-panned shootout, why is the league taking much longer to address issues that could impact player health and lives long term?

If the NHL's outdated voices believe protection of players is important and they are forcing silence on this summer's off-ice problems, it reflects poorly on the league. Its players are not perfect, but the league seems comfortable letting them work out their issues themselves.

But instead, these stories are not garnering the attention they should. Some of hockey's leading blogs have done great work in examining the problems surrounding the Richards case in particular. The response from the league, however, has been virtually nil. We do not know all the facts and allegations in the three cases, and perhaps that is part of the problem. And while each of the accused shouldn't be presumed guilty, questions do need to be asked.

Following the exorbitant contract extension O'Reilly signed early in July, what sort of advice did players like him receive after hitting paydirt? Likewise, after Richards—a two-time Stanley Cup champion who was waived then demoted by the Kings this past season before being arrested at the Canada-USA border with prescription painkiller OxyContin allegedly involved—what updates has the league made tothe Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program created back in 1996?

The NHL as a league is more profitable than ever, in large part because of the product it puts on the ice. That product is built on star players such as Kane, and the league has a responsibility not just to protect, but to educate and counsel players throughout their entire careers and afterward.

All of this overlooks the fact that former Kings (since signed by the New York Rangers) centre Jarret Stoll pleaded guilty in June to two reduced misdemeanor charges to resolve a felony cocaine case stemming from his April arrest at a Las Vegas swimming pool. Then there is Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, who was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading no contest in July to a domestic violence charge. As Sports Illustrated's Allan Muir recently pointed out, the NHL's investigation into the case, which started almost a year ago, is still ongoing as the league "is in some ways handcuffed by a Collective Bargaining Agreement that is a step behind the times."

Another argument could be made that the reason these issues are not garnering widespread attention is the lack of video evidence, which blew the Ray Rice scandal out of the stratosphere. And yes, in North America, the NHL doesn't garner remotely the same number of eyeballs that the NFL does. That could help explain why these ugly off-ice issues aren't dominating the news cycle in the same way they would be had players from a more popular sport been involved.

Gary Bettman took a shot at the NFL and its off-field issues in 2014, stating, "our players know what's right and wrong." He may want to reconsider that line of thinking. Why the NHL hasn't looked at the problems the NFL has endured and decided to be proactive remains unclear.

Luckily for the league, the puck is about to drop again soon, which will put these incidents further into the rear-view mirror.