‘I can’t do this forever’: NHL commissioner Bettman acknowledges early discussions on succession plan
RALEIGH – A report of a potential succession plan for longtime NHL commissioner Gary Bettman surfaced Tuesday in the hours leading up to his press conference to open the 2025-26 Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights. While Bettman, 74, was quick to downplay how far along the process was, he also didn’t shy away from the fact his career will wind down eventually.
“Any organization, major organization, it’s incumbent upon its CEO, which a commissioner is, and its board to have a succession plan,” Bettman told reporters at Lenovo Centeer. “I am 74, and I do acknowledge the fact that I can’t do this forever. We have been in discussions over the last couple of years, at least, as to what a succession plan might look like.
“It hasn’t been fully implemented. The executive committee is fully on board. The board has been briefed in terms of the direction that we may go. But beyond that, there’s nothing happening imminently. And reports of my demise or retirement are greatly exaggerated.”
Since he took over the job 33 years ago, Bettman has overseen expansion from 26 to 32 teams, worked with the NHL Players’ Association and IIHF to get NHL players to six of the past eight Olympic Games and fought through three lockouts. NHL revenues and attendance are at all-time highs, as are television ratings in the U.S., but he still appears to have work left to accomplish.
The primary news Bettman announced Tuesday, along with NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh, was the 2027 NHL All-Star Weekend, which will take place next February at UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders. The festivities will include a skills competition involving players aged 25 or younger and an international 3-on-3 tournament featuring Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA and a World team. You can read more about the All-Star Weekend here.
Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly also took questions from media and tackled the following topics Tuesday:
NHL doubles down on defense of Vegas blocking Bruce Cassidy interviews
Ironically in an attempt to avoid unwanted attention, the Golden Knights blocked coach Bruce Cassidy, whom they fired in March, from interviewing with the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings for potential jobs. Cassidy went public with his frustration over the process last week, but Vegas has remain steadfast in its decision to do what was within its rights contractually. The NHL expressed its support for Vegas’ prerogative on Tuesday.
“Obviously we don’t find it unreasonable because we’re allowing it to happen,” Daly said. “I do think Vegas is clearly within their contractual rights to do what they’re doing. We also understand and appreciate that they’re on a Stanley Cup run right now and they don’t need the distractions necessarily on a coach signing somewhere else. So we’ll get to the end of the season and we’ll see where we go from there. We’ve talked to all the parties involved in this including Bruce, so he knows what our position on the subject is and he might not be happy about it but he was accepting of it and we’ll see where we go from there.
“There are contracts that exist in the league that would not allow for this to happen. His was not one of them.”
More updates from the Stanley Cup Final presser
– While Daly acknowledged the IIHF revisiting its ban of Russia from international competition is something the NHL will follow closely, he also pointed out that no new ruling has been made. That said, Russian players will be allowed to compete on the ‘World’ team at the 2027 3-on-3 All-Star Game.
– Bettman said the current level of interest in additional NHL expansion “is strong,” that “there are a number of places and people who are interested in it,” but didn’t offer any major new update. It’s worth noting Bettman in April hinted at an expansion fee “substantially north of $1 billion” and added that such a price hasn’t deterred the interested parties.
– Bettman still isn’t reacting to any swell of interest among league decision makers hoping for a switch from the current divisional bracket format to the 1 vs. 8 format despite the fact it forced several of the NHL’s better teams, most notably the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild and the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens, to face off in Round 1 this year and that the Conference Final matchups have been major mismatches the past couple springs.
“If you look at the body of work since 2013 when this format went into place, you get statistically – and we can give you all the data if you want afterwards – closer games, more games, more competitive games and more entertaining games throughout under this format than you do 1-8,” Bettman said. “And while there are plenty of people who might want to make a change particularly in a given year if you think there’s an aberration, at the end of the day, if you’re interested in longer competitive series, actually under this format you get more six and seven game series than you do under 1-8.”
– While the NCAA is working closer to eliminating redshirts and adjusting eligibility to allow its athletes five seasons of play in five years, the NHL opposes it.
“We’re not in favor of the change and we’ve made the NCAA aware of it,” Bettman said. “We and a number of other hockey organizations throughout North America and other three junior leagues in Canada, the USHL, USA Hockey, the College Coaches Association, all have raised concerns. So we’ve made the NCAA aware of those concerns and what it might do to development of players in North America.”
– Construction on the Calgary Flames’ new arena, Scotia Place, is going as planned – perhaps even ahead of schedule. It will be operational for the 2027-28 NHL season and serve as one of the host sites for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.
_____
POST SPONSORED BY bet365
_____
_____
- Brind’Amour and Tortorella are so much more than their coaching caricatures
- Why the Golden Knights are a better fit for Mitch Marner than the Leafs ever were
- Mourning a tragedy, Hurricanes’ Andersen reaches precipice of greatness in Stanley Cup Final
Top 50 NHL UFAs of 2026: Boone Jenner now the No. 1 center in a bone-dry market