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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of John Ziegler’s NHL reign |
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By Gilles Moncour
In a news item from last week that some of you may have missed, John Ziegler, the fourth president of the NHL, passed away at the age of 84. In announcing the passing of the man who guided the NHL for fifteen years — from 1977 to 1992 — the league did not say where he died or the cause of death: appropriate for a man who, during his reign, ran the NHL with more like a clandestine gentlemen’s society than a major sports league. Let’s take a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Mr. Ziegler’s time:
The Good
North American Hockey was made whole again. When the WHA-NHL merger brought the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques, and Whalers into the NHL, all the best players in North America were playing in the same league for the first time since 1970. There is no doubt that the WHA was good for hockey — bringing pro hockey to new cities, breaking the owner’s monopoly and increasing salaries, and introducing a 70s- style entertainment angle to the game. But by 1979, it was time to close ranks, and Ziegler’s two-year effort to overcome opposition in Toronto and Montreal and incorporate the WHA came to fruition for the benefit of all.
Euro influence and the quality of play. Certainly no president in NHL history could boast a greater increase in the quality of the product than Mr. Ziegler during the ‘80s. When he took over in 1977, the NHL still featured a couple of great teams, a few superstars scattered around the rest of the league, and a large gulf between the haves and have-nots. Teams like the Habs or Bruins could walk into many cities, play at half-speed, and still come away with an easy ‘W’ — heck, there was a better chance of a line brawl than a basement squad beating a powerhouse. But through the influence of junior and college hockey, and especially the influx of European talent and training, every team now had skill on display. The talent, entertainment value, and excitement went up and up, as imagination and offensive prowess ruled the decade. Through Rendezvous 87, a window to Soviet hockey was opened and would lead to a new wave of Russian stars in the 90s. While it’s true that Mr. Ziegler was probably just in the right place at the right time, at least he didn’t mess it up… and by the time he left his post in 1992, the NHL was on the brink of what many would say was its most exciting season, 1992-93, which saw fourteen(!) 50-goal scorers. Who knew that parity and the dead puck era would immediately commence?
Strike Breaker. Finally, Ziegler was instrumental in ending the ten-day players’ strike in April 1992, saving the playoffs and Mario Lemieux’s Stanley Cup repeat that spring. In addition to free agency and playoff bonuses, a big issue was distribution of revenue for trading card rights. (Hard to believe, but hockey cards provided over three times the revenue of the league’s TV deal in the trading-card bubble of the early ‘90s.) Mr. Ziegler must have had his legacy in mind, as the concessions he granted to the players were so intolerable in the minds of the owners that the Board of Governors forced him out in the fall of 1992, to be replaced on an interim basis by Gil Stein, then permanently in 1993 by Gary Bettman.
The Bad
Good-ol’-boys club. The NHL conducted itself with the cozy airs of closed society and with an exasperating lack of transparency throughout Mr. Ziegler’s tenure. John Ziegler was not so much the leader of the league (the title of “Commissioner” would not be created until 1993 for Gary Bettman) but the spokesman for an unholy triumvirate of himself, Chairman of the Board of Governors Bill Wirtz and NHLPA Director Alan Eagleson. While never accused of the egregious fraud of the disbarred and convicted Eagleson, there is no doubt the league colluded to keep player rights in check and salaries low. As Alan Eagleson’s world of kickbacks and greased pockets unraveled in 1991, the collateral damage certainly contributed to Ziegler’s (and Wirtz’s) removal from their posts the following year.
SportsChannel. It is the summer of 1987. The Oilers, led by MVP Wayne Gretzky (187 points), just reclaimed the Stanley Cup with a thrilling seven game victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. A great time to be a hockey fan, except for one thing… if you lived in the US, you couldn’t see any games on TV. OOPS! In surely the most short-sighted marketing move in league history, the NHL padded its bottom line and transferred the US TV rights from booming ESPN to invisible SportsChannel USA. This was a channel that 80% of the country couldn’t even get if they wanted to pay $30 a month. While during the four-year deal, SportsChannel eventually would be offered to many more homes, the damage done by taking the sport off of ESPN and basic cable was severe. The chance to market Gretzky and Lemieux to non-traditional audiences (like the NBA had done with Bird and Magic) was gone. By the time the NHL reappeared on ESPN in 1992, the moment had passed and hockey was cemented as number four in the US sporting landscape.
Mickey Mouse / Garage League. The two best players of Mr. Ziegler’s era both got into hot water with comments that brought into focus the perception of the NHL as not quite ready for prime time. While Wayne Gretzky’s damning of the Devils as a “Mickey-Mouse organization” after a 13-4 romp over New Jersey in 1983 was not specifically directed at the league, the fallout from the remark certainly left the NHL with egg on its face: the huge disparity between humming Oilers and the hapless Devils conjured up a minor-league mentality. Eight years later, Mario Lemieux’s dismissive comment in the final year of Mr. Ziegler’s administration seemed to sum up a lot of what was wrong with the NHL in general and the Ziegler administration in particular: How the league office was missing the boat on promoting its great product and stars; how the most powerful owners had elected to build up their own empires at the expense of the overall good; and how the backroom deals and cliquey way the NHL was run was more akin to “a garage league” than the well-oiled machines of the NFL, MLB, and NBA.
The Ugly
Perhaps no incident summed up the lack of leadership and professionalism in the NHL offices than the events of the Devils-Bruins 1988 Eastern Conference Finals. In the aftermath of New Jersey coach Jim Schoenfeld accosting referee Don Koharski in Game 3 (the infamous, “have another donut” incident), NHL VP Brian O'Neill suspended the coach for the next game. Devils’ GM Lou Lamiorello then got a NJ court to issue an injunction, allowing Schoenfeld to coach because he had not gotten “due process.” The officials, upon seeing Schoenfeld behind the bench in Game 4, called a wildcat strike and refused to ref the game.
With a crisis brewing, this was surely time for the League President to step in. Except, he was gone. Missing. AWOL.
With no one to decide what to do, the Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz made the call — play the game no matter what. Three off- ice NHL officials were drafted in, wore yellow Boston practice jerseys and sweatpants, and proceeded to officiate Game 4 of the Eastern conference semifinals.
Where was Mr. Ziegler was on that fateful weekend in May 1988... Snorkeling in Bermuda? Fishing in northern Quebec? Traveling in Europe? no matter... at least now he may Rest In Peace.
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