Colin Campbell under fire for e-mail comments sent to Stephen Walkom
Colin Campbell is used to handing out punishments to National Hockey League players who break rules. However, the tables have now been turned, and it is now Campbell himself who is being
questioned about some comments he made in an e-mail sent to Stephen Walkom.
The impartiality of Campbell, who serves as the league’s vice president and head disciplinarian, has been called into question after a series of e-mails he sent to Walkom, who was the
NHL’s director of officiating at the time.
Campbell’s son Gregory, who once played for the Florida Panthers, but is now a member of the Boston Bruins, was one of the topics of discussion in the e-mails. The messages later became
public records during former referee Dean Warren’s wrongful termination case against the league.
Tyler Dellow of
mc79hockey.com originally posted an article about how the content of the e-mails affects Campbell’s impartiality.
TSN.ca reports that Dellow analyzed the messages, despite the fact that many of them had dates, teams, and the names of the players removed. As a result, he was able to determine the targets of the messages and the games they were referring
to.
Dellow determined that the e-mails involved a high-sticking call made against Campbell’s son Gregory by Warren during a November 2007 game between the Bruins and the Panthers. In the e-mails
sent to Walkom, Campbell referred to centre Marc Savard as “a little fake artist” and “the biggest faker going” after the call had been made.
The league has come to the defence of Campbell regarding the e-mails.
“Any suggestion that Colin Campbell performs his job with any less than 100% integrity at all times and in every decision he makes is way off base and just factually wrong,” NHL deputy
commissioner Billy Daly told TSN.ca.
“Because of the potential for a conflict of interest, or more importantly a perceived conflict of interest, the League has implemented various structural protections that prohibit Colie
from having any oversight or disciplinary authority relating to any game in which his son, Gregory, plays. It’s always fair to question and criticize League decisions as being wrong, but not on the basis that they aren’t justly and fairly arrived at.”
Campbell also weighed in on the e-mails, and whether or not his comments have become a conflict of interest. In fact, he does not appear to be worried about the comments he made.
“For me, it’s much ado about nothing. Stephen and I would have banter back and forth and Stephen knows I’m a (hockey) dad venting and both of us knowing it wouldn’t go any further than
that,” Campbell said of the messages.
“Stephen would laugh at me. The game in question (when Gregory Campbell was penalized late in the Atlanta-Florida game) wasn’t on TV, and I was asking Stephen to find out for me if it
was a soft call. That’s all there ever was to it. The (refs) working that game are still in the league, aren’t they?" he added.
By his own admission, Campbell has stated that the e-mails were only sent in order to determine appropriate responses for general managers who disagree with the calls that the on-ice officials
make during games.
“Stephen handled the officials, just like Terry Gregson does now, and I’ve got a lot of emails to those guys asking about this soft call or that soft call and that’s in a lot of games.
I’m not ultimately responsible for the (on-ice) officials, that’s Terry Gregson’s responsibility, but I have to answer to GMs on these calls.”
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