Various reports since Sunday claim the NHL Players Association’s selection committee is expected to unanimously recommend the hiring of lawyer Paul Kelly as their new Executive Director.

As reported by TSN.ca:

“Kelly is the former U.S. assistant district attorney who tried to have NHLPA founder Alan Eagleson extradited to the United States to face charges of fraud and embezzlement.”

If Kelly is hired as expected, what does it mean for the PA, the NHL and future labor negotiations between the two sides?

The first consequence is the end of over two years of infighting and disarray in the NHLPA. His hiring won’t be under the questionable circumstances as that of his predecessor, Ted Saskin, meaning there shouldn’t be any divisions within the PA ranks over it.

Second, forget about any cozy relationship between Kelly and league headquarters that continues to dog Saskin since his dismissal as well as NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. Kelly’s being hired to represent the players, and given his resume that’s exactly what he’ll do.

Now it remains to be seen if he’ll become “a Bob Goodenow clone” which some observers are likely to paint him, but given his work in corporate law he’s expected to be a tough negotiator.

How well this sits with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Daly (who did the heavy lifting on the league’s behalf during the last lockout) remains to be seen. If they don’t know what to expect in Kelly will be rest assured they’ll begin the feeling-out process soon.

Third, despite the dire warnings from some pundits we can likely expect over this both now and in the future, Kelly’s hiring doesn’t mean the PA will re-open labor talks with the league in 2009 as they’re allowed to do under the current collective bargaining agreement.

For one thing, Kelly has to get settled into his new role and gauge the lay of the land before plunging ahead into any serious negotiations or plans. He’s first got to meet with the PA membership, heal the rifts within its ranks, encourage the younger members to engage more actively in association business and determine the direction the membership wants to take in the coming years.

Some pundits have painted Chris Chelios, Dwayne Roloson and the other dissidents who led the charge in ousting Saskin as power brokers within the PA ranks, who’ll try to maneuver Kelly into cashiering the current CBA and re-opening labor talks with the league in 2009.

As George James Malik observed this summer:

“Chelios never intended to run the NHLPA--first, and foremost, he’s very busy both managing two successful restaurants and playing hockey for the Detroit Red Wings, which he plans on doing so for at least a few more years. Moreover, he never wanted to stage another lock-out--Chelios wanted to get Saskin’s butt kicked out of office, and he wants the NHLPA to act and operate as an honest, open, and accountable union. That’s all.

Chelios has his beefs with the collective bargaining agreement, there’s no doubt…but undoing the salary cap is not a fight Chelios or anyone else can win at this point.”

Assuming for a moment that Kelly is Goodenow incarnate or is actually a front man for Chelios and his hordes who supposedly want to undo this cap, they’d first have to convince the PA membership that this is a fight worth having.

That’s not an easy sell. For one thing, players salaries are now as high or higher than they were in 2003-04, the final year of the last CBA. It’s awfully hard to rile up the membership when they’re doing as well as they ever have and could be poised to earn more.

But the biggest hurdle is convincing a currently fractured PA membership weary of the internal politics and possibly apathetic regarding association business that it’s worthwhile to return to the labor war trenches.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the majority of the members of the NHLPA lack the stomach for another fight with the league only four years after the last lockout ended.

Not because they’re cowards, but because right now they’d rather play hockey than risk possibly losing another season or part of one to a potentially contentious work stoppage.

With salaries consistently rising, escrow payments as yet having no serious consequences and the cap adversely affecting only past-their-prime veterans and marginal players who’d otherwise be career minor-leaguers if not for bloated NHL rosters, there’s really not an impetus there for a return to the bargaining table in 2009. To convince the players otherwise would take a sell job for the ages on Kelly’s part.

The earliest to expect labor talks again is 2011, when the current CBA is due to expire, or 2012 if the PA votes to extend it by another season.

Things could be different by then and perhaps the players will want a new deal, but considering how it’s been the league and the team owners who’ve brought about the last two work stoppages by locking out the players trying to get a deal they want, that doesn’t seem likely.

If there’s another lockout within the next five years, it’ll be the league and the owners doing, not the players.

By that time, the league should expect to face a more unified NHLPA, with a more involved membership, led by an executive director who could prove to be one tough, savvy negotiator.

Bettman recently said he believes in a strong NHLPA, and he might’ve received his wish, possibly to his regret.

As for the NHLPA, another chapter in their history has closed and another soon to begin, one they hope will have a better ending than the previous chapters.