NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman fines Detroit Red Wings’ Vice-President Jim Devellano over remarks
Gary Bettman, the commissioner of National Hockey League (NHL) warned all the teams and their owners by fining the Vice-President of Detroit Red Wings Jim Devellano over the marks he made about the lockout.
This step will surely keep the owners officials of all the 30 NHL teams quite, who wanted to open their mouths to give statements about the lockout and criticise Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Though those remarks by Devellano were not much different from what all the fans, hockey lovers and players are thinking but still Bettman did not like them and imposed a $250,000 fine on Devellano.
The 69-year-old Red Wings’ Vice-President, who would turn 70 in next four months, had given an interview to IslandSportsNews.com and expressed his anger and criticism over the offer sheet that Nashville Predators made for Shea Weber. According to him, this
14 year, $110 million offer sheet violated the “unwritten rule”.
Devellano is right to some extent as Predators have been doing this in past as well and some examples can be found in Chris Gratton deal in 1990s and Ryan Kessler deal in 2000s.
Another thing that Bettman did not like among everything Devellano said that the Red Wings VP called players “cattles” and owners as the “ranchers”.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly gave an official statement in which he condemned Jim’s interview and said it was against the laws of the league as he stated,
“The Detroit Red Wings' organization and the league agree that the comments made by Mr. Devellano are neither appropriate, nor authorized, nor permissible under the league's by-laws”.
According to him, such comments can make the situation worse as he added,
“Such comments are neither constructive nor helpful to the negotiations.”
Devellano’s exact words in the interview were,
“The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle. The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there. That's the way it’s always been and that the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren't
going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen.”
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