AS I SEE IT COLUMN: What the NHL could learn from the Scotties and the NBA

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This article was published 24/02/2024 (513 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Sunday’s broadcast of the Scotties, did you see the emotional setup package of a beautiful 9-month-old boy whose life was saved thanks to the Sandra Schmirler Foundation? As soon as the video ended, a live camera focused on his mother, Jocelyn Peterman from Team Manitoba, who was working the donation phone banks with other Scotties teams.

You could literally see the concern on Peterman’s face as she was seen talking to donors. Her child was saved by the Sandra Schmirler Foundation – a charity that raises funds to purchase life-saving equipment for premature and critically ill babies in Canada – so this was very personal for her.

The focus wasn’t money or on the players, it was on helping others in need.

In a culture where we spend obscene amounts of money on sports stadiums and arenas and athlete salaries, it was incredibly heartwarming and beautiful to see curlers band together to help raise money for such a noble cause. Happily, Schmirler the curler’s foundation surpassed their goal of raising a million dollars.

The NBA All-Star game was similarly noteworthy for focusing on charity work. The league said upfront that the one team was playing for Special Olympics Indiana, while the other team was playing for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indianapolis (where the game was played). The winning team got $240,000 while the losing team would earn $100,000.

Contrast that to the tone-deaf NHL, where the winning all-star team was paid $1 million. Wikipedia says the winning team of the NHL All-Star Game will donate the million-dollar prize to charity, but it appears that might be an old reference to the traditional single game all-star setup. I cannot find a single reference that mentions which charity Team Auston Matthews donated their money to after defeating Team McDavid in the 3-on-3 mini tournament. Sportsnet’s website says nothing about a charity, just that “the winners will share a $1-million prize.”

Maybe the winning team donated their money privately but why not follow the NBA’s lead and publicly state up front for all the world to know, that the players are not getting the winning money, a charity is.

The idea is very simple. Have the all-star game focus on fun, skills and charity, but not on fattening the pockets of millionaires.

The NHL was even more tone deaf when it gave generational superstar Connor McDavid $1 million for winning the skills competition.

McDavid makes just under $17 million (CDN) a year. If he gets paid every two weeks like most people, that works out to $649,615 per pay cheque or $8,120 per hour.

Does someone who already makes eight grand an hour really need $1 million for a few minutes of work?

The optics were horrible and it felt like a slap in the face to the common, hardworking hockey fan.

I am an enormous fan of McDavid. I remember being in the press box in Phoenix watching the Coyotes play the Edmonton Oilers. I was sitting beside NHL veterans Dan Maloney and Jim Schoenfeld. They repeatedly mentioned how the game of hockey had never seen a talent like McDavid, and they played in the Gretzky era.

McDavid’s skill set and ability to stick handle while skating at top speed is otherworldly. He is essentially a human highlight reel.

To be clear, I am blaming the NHL, not McDavid for this marketing debacle. I couldn’t find a story that said McDavid had donated his prize money, but from everything I’ve read McDavid is also a philanthropic superstar, donating a lot of time and money to charitable causes, so perhaps he will eventually donate that money to charity.

The NHL should state from the outset that the prize money for winning the skills competition will go to the winner’s charity of choice. Think of Celebrity Jeopardy, where the celebs start the show by mentioning which charity they are playing for. The NHL could easily adopt a similar format or flat out copy the NBA’s formula of clearly stating which charities each team is playing for, so that everyone in the stands and everyone watching on TV could see that the all-star players are generously giving of their time to help others in need. That would instantly remove any doubt that the millionaire players might keep the money for themselves.

The NHL has much to learn from the Scotties and the NBA.