Marty Walsh Q&A: New NHLPA Boss on Growing Hockey, Coyotes and More

NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh spoke with Adam Proteau about growing hockey, best-on-best international competition, expansion, the Arizona Coyotes and more.

Prior to coming to the NHL Players Association as its new executive director in March, Marty Walsh had an impressive resumé: former mayor of Boston, former U.S. secretary of labor in the Joe Biden administration, advocate for environmental protection, former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and noted labor leader.

The 56-year-old Boston native is now the sixth NHLPA executive director in the organization’s history, and he took time in early July to speak to THN.com regarding his new job, issues surrounding the players’ union, his early-days relationship with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and league figures.

Here is a Q&A, lightly edited for clarity, of Walsh’s discussion with THN.com:

The Hockey News: I wanted to get your initial thoughts on the lessons that you’ve learned in the short span of time you’ve been at the NHLPA.

Marty Walsh: One of the things is, this is a labor organization, and our concerns are no different than other labor organizations – quality of work, collective bargaining, wages, benefits, work conditions, things like that. Also, the players that I’ve met, the players I’ve come across – they’re a very humble group of people, very focused on their career, very focused on their families, the ones that are married and have kids.

A lot of players now in the off-season are focused on their families and moving forward. We saw at the NHL award ceremonies last week, almost every person that received an award was thanking their spouse for raising their family and putting up with their hockey life. So it’s really been interesting, and it’s also been great to learn internally at the PA, there’s a lot of great people working behind the scenes and doing a lot of great things for the membership of the union.

THN: I want to know where you believe are issues that you can take up with the league and actively advocate for the players.

MW: I think one area is growing the game of hockey, growing the opportunity for fans and support for the game. I think that’s an area that is pretty easy to be done, and going out there and advocating. I think there are opportunities for growth in international hockey and getting more engagement with the NHL in other parts of the world. And looking at potentially other tournaments we can do – the World Cup of Hockey, hopefully somewhere down the road.

The NHL has the Global Series, and we’re looking at making sure that we’re picking the right places to go to and giving people around the world opportunities to see the talented professionals that we have in our sport. Obviously, the Olympics are something else, making sure that players that play in the NHL have an opportunity to play on a world stage, best-on-best, when it comes to those tournaments. I think that’s an area of growth.

There’s a lot of different areas that we can collectively work together on for the game of hockey. There’s also an opportunity in the philanthropic world to work better as far as promoting different opportunities with the NHL – expanding our relationship with the American Cancer Society, and also the Canadian Cancer Society, as well as the V Foundation, other places that we can really think about – not just with cancer, but where else can we take the power of the player and the power of the league and do good with.

THN: Before the salary cap was implemented, some of the higher-end teams were paying $81 million to $83 million – the Maple Leafs and Red Wings were two of those teams – and in the multi-year span since then, the cap really hasn’t raised dramatically, or had fallen in line with increased franchise valuations. Is that something you want to address at some point with the league?

MW: I think if you go back in history before the salary cap, the owners clearly made a decision at some point to institute the salary cap, and there were a lot of conversations around that, and they weren’t always pretty conversations. My focus really is, "How do we create opportunities for players here, and how do we make sure players have the opportunity to do well?"

As we see these franchises going up in value, I think it’s also important that I represent the players to make sure players are being treated fairly as well. And we need to see their opportunity – not just the big, high stars and (big) money players doing well, but we need to make sure other players are doing well as well.

THN: I spoke to you at your introductory press conference, and you talked about your labor experience in the past and how that has helped you. Is that something you could tell right away was something that would make the acclimation to the NHLPA job a little bit easier?

MW: Yeah, but it’s also about relationships. It’s about building relationships and spending time, obviously, getting to know my membership, number one. That’s my first priority, the players that I represent. Secondly, getting to know the league, and (commissioner) Gary (Bettman) and (deputy commissioner) Bill (Daly) and the folks at the league, so that we can build on those relationships and make them stronger. Because I think if they’re stronger together, it’s better for everybody.

And also, building relations with the owners of the teams – I think that’s something that’s really important as well. I’ve learned a lot in my nearly 35 years in the labor movement, and I plan on hopefully taking what I’ve learned and trying to implement it at the NHLPA.

THN: I know you’ve talked a little bit about the future of the industry, but specifically, increasing business in Europe and globally – is that something where there’s opportunity you see there for great growth?

MW: Yeah, but I also think there’s growth in the United States and maybe a little bit in Canada. Until I got this job…I knew Canada was a big hockey country, but there’s not many corners of Canada that don’t have a team that they were born into and will die with. But there are opportunities in the United States as well. And I think we have opportunities in communities of color to grow – in the Latino community, and in the Stanley Cup final, we saw two Indigenous players playing against each other, so there are opportunities in the Native American communities and the Indigenous communities around the globe.

And we have opportunities in other communities and communities of color to grow. We’re seeing women’s hockey be really successful and popular, and we saw the union form for one of the women’s hockey leagues, so there are growth opportunities for both men and women. There are a lot of opportunities for us to really do a lot.

THN: I’m glad you mentioned the women’s leagues, because with the news coming out about the two leagues merging, there’s some unrest or maybe uncertainty in terms of how it’s actually going to look. But how do you envision the NHLPA working in tandem with the women to grow that element of the game?

MW: We’ve worked with the women’s players' hockey union to some degree when they negotiated their first contract, and now the merger of the two leagues…we’re going to keep an eye on that, and anything we can do to help the players is what we’re going to do. My role here is to help my players, our players in the NHL and NHLPA, and anything we can do to help the players of the women’s hockey league, we’re going to try and be helpful to the women as well.

And that goes for any PA, to be honest with you. Any union. We’re helping the rugby unions organize, we work closely with baseball, with (MLBPA head) Tony Clark, we work closely with football, with basketball. It’s important for us as an organization, as a union, to collectively work together to make sure we’re strengthening the opportunity for the players.

THN: Sometimes, I find it’s hard to get fans interested in the business element of the game. You’ve worked for the public and private sector – what would you tell the average hockey fan about the keys to the growth of the game, inclusivity and marketing?

MW: Fans are a big part of the game. We focus on the players, we focus on the teams, but fans are, in a lot of ways, the blood that flows through the veins of the league. And I think fans, talking about the game, being excited about the game, introducing other people to the game is really important as well.

I’ve been a hockey fan my entire life, and now that I’m in this role, I talk about hockey a lot more. And sometimes, I come across a person that might say, “I’ve never really watched a hockey game.” I say, “Well, you should watch,” and I try and promote the game. So I think hockey fans have a very unique role in helping us grow the game as well. And the more you grow the game, the more exciting the game will be long-term, for the fans and for their teams.

THN: The World Cup of Hockey is a topic some people like to focus on, and I know there are some hurdles there with Russia specifically, but when you look at the absence of those best-on-best tournaments, has hockey not necessarily been hurt but may not have been as good as it could’ve been with those stages being unavailable to the NHLPA’s members?

MW: I think every generation of fan has that tournament they’re seeing – whether it’s been a World Cup, Canada Cup, the Olympics – that when you see Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux on the same line together, it’s pretty exciting. And the opportunity to see Connor McDavid out there with the best players in the world, or Auston Matthews out there with other top players, it’s exciting as well.

Aside from the obvious concerns we have with world politics today, I think having a tournament that we and fans know will happen – multiple tournaments in a row, not multiple years, but multiple tournaments, wedged in with the Olympics – I think will be exciting. That’s what we have to focus on right now – how do we make sure it’s not just a one-off tournament? How do we make sure there are a few different tournaments coming so fans can get excited about them?

THN: The player safety element of the sport – there are people that say it’s a difficult rope to walk for the NHLPA to represent the victim of a certain play as well as the perpetrator of a certain play. How do you see player safety as it stands, and where do you envision it down the road?

MW: Player safety is important, and I mean, we represent everyone on the ice, so it is important that we make sure players that go on the ice and play the game get off the ice, go in the locker room and go home at the end of the night without having to deal with major injury. And I think that’s important.

Our role is that we do represent players that might be the offender of an incident, and that’s the role of the union. We have to do that. We have to protect our players. But I think that there are opportunities for us to talk about player safety. There’s a player safety committee that we and the NHL sit on, and I’ll have opportunities during the fall to talk to players about safety, and there are opportunities to make sure the game is safer. I’m 56 years old, and the game is a lot safer today than it was when I was a kid watching many years ago.

THN: With NHL expansion, there’s always a hunger among some media and fans to try and project where things are going down the road. And it’s an area where players don’t get a cut of expansion fees, so it may be difficult to have an impact as a union, but where do you see the players’ role in that debate?

MW: I think expansion in any sport can be good. The last two franchises that expanded in the NHL – the Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights - showed expansion can be good for the game. But before we focus on expansion, we want to make sure we strengthen the game we have today, making sure that places like Arizona are playing in good hockey rinks, making sure that we’re getting full support…like, when Tampa Bay went down to Tampa Bay first, they didn’t fill the stadium. Now, they’re a top franchise. The Florida Panthers (went) deep into the Stanley Cup final this year, and I went to Games 3 and 4. The place was packed, it was wild, it was loud. It reminded me of the old Boston Garden back in the day.

The one thing about expansion is that I want to be part of the conversation as we think about it, if it is thought about. But that’s a question the NHL will have to answer…when I spoke earlier about growing the game, it’s growing the game within the parameters of our 32 teams.

THN: You mentioned Arizona – have you got the sense that players as part of that franchise are frustrated with where the situation is right now?

MW: We’ve stayed very connected with the players in Arizona. It’s important for us to do that. Certainly, these players have said it more than one time – and I know I’ve probably bothered people by saying it, but I’m going to keep saying it – they deserve to play in an NHL rink. They’re NHL players, and playing in a college arena is not acceptable. But I’ve had several conversations with the commissioner about it, and hopefully, there will be a resolution at some point in the near future.

THN: Just a few more questions. I’m always looking at the minds involved in the game, the progressive minds. Sometimes, fans and media don’t have any idea really about who’s doing great work behind the scenes or who’s an up-and-coming thinker or influencer. Are there people that stand out for you, either people inside the NHLPA or outside it, that are part of the hockey community that you think are going to help push this game to new heights?

MW: That goes back to what I said earlier – hockey players are really, really humble, and many of them do amazing things behind the scenes. And they don’t tweet about it; they don’t talk about it. They quietly do it. That’s the uniqueness of hockey players. There are some great thinkers as well – I’ve had some real interesting conversations with different players about what the future of hockey should look like. And there are not just one or two players – there are many of them that do that. So we’re fortunate here that they think a lot more about the game, and the future of the game, than the average person would realize.

There are too many of the thinkers to name, but we have a very good player-representative committee on the executive board of the NHLPA. And we have a lot of players that are on teams that might not take a public leadership role, but they have a lot to do with growing the game, and helping organizations, non–profits, thinking about the game, all that stuff.

THN: Two more questions. Your relationship with Gary Bettman – did it change instantly once you joined the NHLPA, or are you more or less still feeling each other out?

MW: I met Gary a couple of times when I was the mayor of Boston, so we knew each other. We’re learning to work with each other every day. We talk a good amount about different things. We’re in different meetings together talking about things, and I think that strengthening the relationship between the NHLPA and the NHL is important for our players. And it’s also important that, when an issue comes up that is very important for our players, they know I’m going to go to the mat for my players.

I’ve always been of the mindset that you’re better off having a relationship than not. If you don’t have a relationship, you can’t solve things easily. And we haven’t had that issue yet that has caused a deep-seated conversation yet.

THN: Last question. As you were going through the hiring process, and now that you’re settling into the position, what do you think the key message was to players that caused them to buy into you, believe in you and hire you?

MW: My labor background – knowing I’ve gone through collective bargaining in the past, knowing that I’ve been able to grow business in my time as mayor. My collaborative approach is important to the players as well, and (players) know that I’m going to fight and represent the people I represent until the end. I think that’s ultimately what the players saw in me. When you talk to guys like Kyle Okposo and other folks, they’ll tell you that.

I’m not a lawyer, and I think almost every person that preceded me in this role was a lawyer. I don’t think you necessarily need to be a lawyer to run a labor organization. That’s why you have lawyers working for you – to help you when it comes to collective bargaining. I bring a different uniqueness to this role that, quite honestly, might not have been there in the past. Other unions have gone that route – obviously, Marvin Miller in baseball, and Tony Clark is a former player as well. So they’ve gone different routes, but I think that was my connection to the players.