The Graeme Roustan Show: Marty Walsh In 2025

The Hockey News' Money and Power 2025 hockey business annual is available at THN.com/free, featuring the annual 100 people of power and influence list.

W. Graeme Roustan, owner and publisher of The Hockey News, sat down with special guests for peer-to-peer conversations also featured in the issue, including NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh.

Here's their full conversation in The Graeme Roustan Show:

(Don't see the video? Click here.)

Read along with an excerpt from their discussion:

W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: Talk about the CBA for a second. That’s coming up for renewal in 2026, is that right?

MARTY WALSH: Yeah, I’m talking to the players. There’s been a lot of speculation and talk about what’s going to happen in the new year. Gary Bettman has obviously expressed interest in it. We’ve talked to him about that. What I said to him is, “I want to get through the fall tour,” and we will be done with that in early January. We’ll have met with all 32 teams. Then, we’ll sit down, talk about what we’ve heard from players, what we’ve looked at and collected on, and hopefully begin the process sometime in the new year.

WGR: How do you feel about the cap heading toward that $100-million number?

MW: I want it to grow for our players. The last couple of years with COVID, the cap’s been held down, and players have paid a lot of escrow as well. They paid the debt back from the COVID years, which is a daunting task for our players to pay that. They also didn’t get paid themselves. I think having that behind us, as we move forward here, it’s important for players that we see the salary cap grow. We’re seeing revenue grow in the league and franchise values grow. I’m not one of these guys who say, “Well, franchises are growing. Shame on you. We should get it,” but players deserve it. I’d like to see the cap grow, so players can benefit from what’s happening with the growth of the game in the sport of hockey right now.

As we think about this and have conversations with the league over the next weeks and months, we’ll be talking about, “How do we look at this cap?” It’s important for us not just to look at one year but look at multiple years. You can’t put a definite number in because you don’t know what’s going to happen with the economy, the Canadian and American dollar, and all that. You don’t have a crystal ball to see what the future is, but right now, if the league and the sport of hockey continue to grow the way it has, last year with the excitement with the playoffs, the viewership and the revenue…this season seems to be off to a great year with gates, receipts and things like that. Next year and the year after, we have TV deals and stuff coming. That’s all great for the players, the game, the league and for the fans.

WGR: The CTE issue and concussions has never been more serious than it is today. What is the PA doing to raise awareness and change the game to protect players?

MW: The first thing we did at the board meeting was we created a player-only CTE committee. We’ve gone around and asked players. We’re going to have roughly a player on every team. Some will have more than one; some might not have a representative.

Moving forward, it’s really about understanding concussions, trauma to the brain and CTE. As mayor of Boston, I worked with Boston University, and they have a science building over there. They do a lot of studies on CTE and brain trauma, along with Mass General Hospital, Harvard Health and Harvard Medical School. We have a lot of experts in the city who do it. It wasn’t new to me when I took this job.

Obviously, veterans of war deal with concussions, and then they find out they had CTE post-death. I think it’s important for us to be in this space learning more about it because it’s our players. Our players are the ones being concussed. Some of our past players, obviously it’s no secret, were diagnosed with CTE after they passed away. It’s an important issue for us to understand as we move forward. I want to be at the forefront of scientific findings. I’ve talked to doctors and scientists who are working on ways to treat the brain after a concussion and to find ways to diagnose CTE in the living brain. We want to be part of that conversation because I want to make sure the health and wellness of our players go far beyond their time playing hockey. Hockey is a great sport, but it’s a fast sport…it’s dangerous. They wear helmets and visors, but it’s still dangerous. The ice doesn’t move. The boards don’t move.

A doctor in Boston told me one time that football players seem to be most prone to concussions. They’re banging, but he said, “Probably the more dangerous sport is hockey because of the ice and the boards.” The field gives a bit. I want to make sure that our players understand any scientific discoveries that are made. I want our players to fully understand what it’s all about. I’m not going to ignore it, and it’s not something we’re going to ignore.

For this conversation, more interviews and a deep look into the world of the hockey business, check out The Hockey News' Money and Power 2025 issue, available at THN.com/free.