Viewpoint

It isn't often that a general manager gets fired during the regular season.

That is why the news Tuesday of the Dallas Stars dismissing GM Doug Armstrong, a longtime employee of the club, came as something of a shock.

In the wake of arguably the best foursome ever being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the NHL continues to take heat for scheduling five games on induction night.

That there were five games might not have mattered so much had they not involved New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Carolina, three franchises for whom Scott Stevens and Ron Francis were associated, and the Phoenix Coyotes, who are coached by Wayne Gretzky, who has something of an attachment to Mark Messier. Had those teams had the night off, along with St. Louis and Calgary for Al MacInnis, it wouldn't have created quite the fuss.

Now, there are some who would argue that with the exception of Gretzky, others from those organizations who were close to the players still managed to attend the event and skip their own games, so what is the big deal? Lou Lamoriello, Jimmy Rutherford and countless others were there.

So, Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke is proposing that the NHL allow teams retain a portion of a player's salary in a trade.

It is the same proposal Burke launched a year ago, you might recall, and it is still a good one.

The purpose is to inspire a little more trading activity in the NHL and to create a buzz. You might have noticed, there haven't been a lot of trades this season and there haven't even been a lot of serious trade talks and, by extension, rumours. There is a reason why everyone is so focused on the game, dissecting it, and fixating on the flaws, real or imagined.

The verdict is in, Rick Tocchet will miss two full calendar years before he returns to the NHL.

Let the second-guessing begin.

It says here, though, that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman got it right.

A case easily could have been made (and Tocchet and his lawyer made it) that a 21-month layoff, which has involved missing 117 games without pay while the investigation and subsequent trial into Tocchet's involvement in a sports gambling ring, was adequate punishment and his reinstatement could have come today.

OK, so you are commissioner of the NHL for a day, and the matter of Rick Tocchet and his gambling involvement is on your desk. What do you do?

Putting a team in Hamilton is not the correct answer, at least not to this question.

What supplemental punishment, if any, do you give Tocchet, who has been on a leave of absence from the Phoenix Coyotes for almost 21 months since he was first accused of being involved in a sports-gambling ring? Tocchet, of course, has subsequently pleaded guilty to a couple of charges of conspiracy and promoting gambling, both in the third degree, and received two years probation.

And on Tuesday he had his day in NHL court with commissioner Gary Bettman, who a day earlier had received the Cleary report, an internal investigation into the matter.

So what should Bettman do?

Rick Tocchet could have his status with the NHL determined by the end of this week.

According to sources, the long-awaited Cleary Report, an internal investigation into Tocchet's involvement in a gambling ring, is expected to be delivered to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this week. Once Bettman digests the report, authored by lawyer Robert Cleary, he will conduct a meeting with Tocchet and determine whether he will be allowed to return as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes any time soon.

All of that is expected to happen in the next week.

On the heels of a somewhat impressive win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, John Ferguson, the beleaguered general manager of the Maple Leafs, was given a whopping 48 hours of relief before his employment status again becomes the most important story in Toronto.

A ton of names have been offered up as potential replacements for Ferguson - if it should happen that he's relieved of his duties one day - but none have hit on the one that might be the best.

Now, sorry to be cavalier with Ferguson's job status - what he endures can never be easy - but if folks are going to speculate as to who should be the next one, it's worth offering a suggestion.

What about Jimmy Rutherford?

Six games into a new season, Bob Hartley, the same guy who led the Atlanta Thrashers to the playoffs for the first time last spring, didn't suddenly become a bad coach.

The same, however, may not necessarily be said of his team.

Okay, Hartley was winless in all six games to start this season and he was winless in those four playoff games, all of them quite lopsided in nature, if not always the score.

Barring the unforeseen - and given the many twists and turns involving the union over the past couple of years, an appearance by the unforeseen is always a possibility - the NHL Players' Association will in the next week elect lawyer Paul Kelly as its new executive director.

By all accounts, Kelly is an excellent choice, too. His recommendation is the result of an exhaustive search that involved the players and a professional search company.

Kelly, of course, was the assistant U.S. attorney who helped take down former NHLPA boss Alan Eagleson, so he clearly has an understanding of how flawed the union once was and is undoubtedly aware of how flawed it became again. He was also a noted trial lawyer, who represented Marty McSorley in his infamous assault trail in Vancouver six years ago, so he can clearly pick a hockey player out of, ah, lineup. Needless to say, Kelly has a substantial list of other non-hockey related credentials. So he is a very well qualified choice.

If the suspended Steve Downie is feeling a wee bit lonely these days, fear not. You are about to get some company.

That is, if justice is served in the NHL and there is no reason to believe it won't be.

Prepare to welcome Jesse Boulerice to the land of the suspended.