Arizona Coyotes, and Gary Bettman’s Karma

When the NHL commissioner made this statement, the pot was boiling pretty hot all over the league. Players and former players spoke out against the abusive methods of Mike Babcock and other coaches, and Akim Aliu had just revealed that Bill Peters (then coach of the Calgary Flames) had made racist remarks against him in the late years 2000.

Gary Bettman reacted by announcing a new code of conduct forcing league organizations under penalty of severe penalties report to New York Headquarters any inappropriate conduct displayed by a member of their staff.

The NHL also mandated an annual awareness program for all coaches, assistant coaches, general managers and assistant general managers of each of its 31 teams as well as their school clubs.

The commissioner even hinted that an emergency telephone line was going to be activated to allow team personnel to confidently report incidents or behaviors likely to be categorized into a gray area.

Promising discipline prompt and severe, the commissioner of the NHL had also promised that the whistleblowers would be taken seriously.

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Well, that announcement and those good intentions were put to the test midweek when the Athletic site, written by Katie Strang, published a devastating investigation into the Arizona Coyotes’ corporate culture.

The journalist, who interviewed about fifty people in connection with this affair, lifted the veil on an organization with questionable values ​​in which a toxic work climate prevails.

Gary Bettman’s problem, however, is that the main character of the story isn’t a coach or general manager who can easily be thrown overboard. This is the new owner of the Coyotes, Alex Merulo, who took possession of the team in 2019.

Among the highlights of the survey conducted by Athletic, we note:

• Employees from all departments who resign or are fired. Anger during which the owner makes derogatory remarks towards employees in front of their colleagues;
• Former general manager John Chayka abruptly left his post last summer a few days before the start of the playoffs. After receiving permission to meet with another NHL organization that wanted to offer him a job, Chayka saw that permission taken away by the owner. Chayka has since been suspended by the NHL for breach of contract;
• President Ahron Cohen also quit his job;
• Suppliers on the team who are not paid and then have their arm twisted to accept less than what they are owed;
• Bonuses due to players who were paid late;
• Several actions are currently before the courts involving the Coyotes and some of their suppliers. The airline transporting the team, in particular, is asking the organization for $ 257,000;
• Legal actions or requests for arbitration have been brought by former employees, including former deputy general manager Steve Sullivan, who had a new four-year contract in his pocket, but who does not seem to want to honor as a result. of his dismissal;
• Team employees contacting the NHL for help and waving red flags;
• In the last playoffs, as a game headed for overtime, a request to buy pizza to feed the players was denied by senior management;
• Representatives of a Chicago law firm who show up at the Coyotes offices and question employees about possible financial irregularities (veracity of financial information sent to the league), about a case of sexual harassment and about corporate culture in general;
• New CEO Bill Armstrong who, when questioned in connection with this investigation, attempted to intimidate the reporter who asked him questions.

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In short, it is quite easy to conclude that things are not going well with the Arizona Coyotes and that this organization is neither a good employer nor a good business partner. In the desert, the Fundamental principles evoked by Gary Bettman take it for their cold.

Reading this sad story, however, one thinks that the mechanisms announced by the commissioner of the NHL about fifteen months ago have partly worked.

First, Coyotes employees did not hesitate to call the NHL to report incidents or behavior that they considered unacceptable.

Then, a Chicago law firm was commissioned to question employees on a wide variety of subjects, all of them equally worrying.

But at the end of the day, we can’t help but believe that if this case was finally publicized in the media, and that if about fifty people agreed to give their version of the facts to a journalist, it is because discipline fast and severe Gary Bettman’s promise never materialized.

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When he goes to bed at night, Gary Bettman must tell himself that it is his karma to sort out issues relating to the Arizona Coyotes and that this nightmare will never end. Since the early 2010s, the financial and legal difficulties of this organization have certainly caused it more concern than the 30 other franchises of the NHL combined.

For the past 12 years, the Coyotes have gone bankrupt, the NHL then had to repossess the organization after fighting in court a hostile takeover bid and move plan led by the Canadian businessman. Jim Balsilie.

The NHL later put a knife to the throats of Glendale’s elected officials, who were threatened with ending up with a gigantic empty arena. At the end of an endless game of tussle, Glendale’s elected officials had to cut their fire departments, libraries and public swimming pools to subsidize a hockey team.

Little by little, in just over a decade, five owners have taken over the helm of the Coyotes and an even greater number of potential investors have turned their heels after analyzing the books of account, or have seen their candidacy be refused because they did not have the kidneys or the reputation strong enough to buy this lame duck.

It is now 2021, and Bettman is still grappling with a dysfunctional organization, which this time is led by a billionaire who does not make in the lace and who goes mad with rage when he is told annual deficits of over 50 million. .

The people of Quebec will no doubt smile when they read this. They will think that it would have been much easier to move this team to the Old Capital when all this circus started.

But the circus continues. And it will be particularly interesting to see how Gary Bettman juggles the twists and turns of Alex Merulo over the next few months. Until the NHL finds another dreamer ready to mop up deficits in the desert, it will be hard to shake it off.

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