NHLPA meetings Bettman, players discuss drug testing

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Ryan Remiorz / the canadian press archive Gary Bettman made his first trip to an NHLPA meeting in his 16 years as NHL commissioner. (CP)

The NHL commissioner spoke for almost two hours on Saturday morning -- more than double the time he was originally allotted. He began with an address to the roughly 110 players in attendance and faced questions on a range of topics.

Everyone seemed satisfied after Bettman's first-ever visit to these meetings.

"It was a big move on his part to come in here," said Detroit Red Wings defenceman Chris Chelios, often a critic of the commissioner. "It was a respectful meeting. We weren't going to do anything that was unprofessional. It took a lot for him to go out of his way and address the players.

"I just wish we had 700 guys in here to listen to him."

The commissioner spoke about the business of the sport and fielded questions from guys like Chelios, Robyn Regehr, Georges Laraques, Manny Malhotra and Kevin Weekes.

There was a time during Bettman's reign when a meeting like this would never have happened. However, NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly thinks it's important to keep an open dialogue with the league.

"In our business we have to strike the balance between working together in a professional, constructive manner and digging in to represent our respective sides," said Kelly. "My view is that we should be talking to each other, we should be listening to each other.

"I thought it was important for Gary to come to the players' meetings to share with the players whatever he wished to share with them and also to respond to tough questions."

An interesting issue for the sides to work out moving forward is the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Bettman is in favour of adopting the World Anti-Doping Agency's long list of banned substances and wants to see testing conducted all year.

The players discussed the issue on Saturday and seem to be split on what to do.

While none of them think there is a problem in the sport, there are a lot of things to consider before adopting a new policy.

"In the drug-wtesting business, there are false positive (tests)," said Kelly. "We don't want guys' reputations or careers to be ruined by those instances. There has to be a mechanism to corroborate what appears to be a positive test."

Another issue that came up with Bettman is the league's U.S. television contracts. Many players would prefer the league to strike a deal with ESPN, but the commissioner remains committed to Versus and NBC.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 21, 2009 C3