LAS VEGAS -- The NHL, NHL Players’ Association and NHL Alumni Association are teaming up to make sure all retired NHL players can get health care long after their careers are over.
“It’s just a real great story about all of the groups coming together to make a big difference for NHL players that are the foundation of the game,” said Glenn Healy, president and executive director of the NHLAA.
“This is like Christmas Day for us.”
Healy, along with NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey, met with reporters during the NHL/NHLPA North American Player Media Tour to discuss the unveiling of the Retired Players Emergency Healthcare and Wellness Fund on Tuesday.
The fund, which will see the NHL and NHLPA each contribute $2 million annually, is included in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that was ratified July 8. The new CBA begins next season and runs through 2029-30.
“What has been handed to me is the ability to make tomorrow better than today for a bunch of players,” Healy said. “And to give help and hope to guys that you watched, you wrote about, you covered.
“The NHL career, it’s a short career, but a long life and they don’t kind of collide at times.”
According to the MOU, $2 million will go annually to the Emergency Assistance Fund, specifically designated to assist NHLAA members facing catastrophic health issues without insurance coverage and experiencing financial hardship. The other $2 million will be designated to identify resources and programs to provide wellness support for NHLAA members, regardless of where they reside.
“We certainly recognize at the League the importance of our history and the men who made that history and formed the foundation for the success we’re having today,” Daly said. “Our work with the Alumni Association has grown leaps and bounds over the years.”
Hainsey said the process of establishing the Retired Players Emergency Healthcare and Wellness Fund picked up steam when Marty Walsh became executive director of the NHLPA on Feb. 16, 2023.
“This is something Glenn has been passionate about since that day,” Hainsey said. "We don’t know if we discussed it a ton previous to that, and Glenn’s obviously had his conversations with [NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman] and Bill throughout this time. But it was an area we identified then. There was a lot going on when Martin started, but here we are, a little bit later then Glenn would have preferred, but we got there.”
Daly said the League and NHLPA have been “equal partners” in this process of taking care of retired players, starting with the supplemental gifting program, which came out of the 2004-05 work stoppage.
“We’ve been partners since that time and we’ve increased significantly in the amounts of those funds to cover all the players,” Daly said. “It would have been easy for the Players’ Association to take the position of, ‘You guys (the League) can pay for it.’ But that’s not the approach they took, so I appreciate their cooperation over the years in this. It’s a recognition of how important the efforts and the initiative is and are.”
Healy, a goalie who played 437 games for the Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs from 1985 to 2001, said that 787 former players who didn’t have a pension will now be covered.
“Every player will have the ability to have a family doctor through Zoom, whether you played one shift or 10,000 games,” Healy said. "You have the ability to have a mental wellness professional within 30 minutes on Zoom, so if you don’t feel comfortable call me or our medical teams, you’ll have that ability.”
Hainsey was a defenseman who played 1,132 games for the Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Atlanta Thrashers, Winnipeg Jets, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators from 2002-20. He joined the NHLPA in April 2021 and was promoted to assistant executive director May 19, 2023.
“This is just another step for former players or current players that we’re focused on health and wellness in their post-career lives,” Hainsey said. “The idea is when our players do leave the game in the future that they are in a totally different situation for their post-career lives.
“As Glenn said, hockey and life don’t necessarily line up all that well.”
Said Healy: “We take care of our own. No one will walk alone.”
