The TSN Hockey Insiders Pierre LeBrun, Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger joined host Gino Reda at the Board of Governors’ meeting in Florida to discuss the NHL's hopes of changing the culture of the league with the Respect Hockey Charter, discuss possible tightening of COVID protocol for teams, and provide insight into the hiring of Jim Rutherford by the Vancouver Canucks.

On the heels of everything that happened to Kyle Beach, NHL senior vice president Kim Davis was tasked with taking a look at where the NHL is today and what it can do as a unit better moving forward. The end result: The Respect Hockey Charter.

Pierre LeBrun: Pretty comprehensive initiative that was introduced to the board of governors today by Kim Davis, was unanimously received by all accounts and then it was broken down for us afterwards. The key thing for me is mandatory training for anyone working in the NHL – coaches, trainers, executives, any staff – you have to be certified in this training program by June 30 and there are all kinds of layers to this initiative. I get it, there are still people who are going to look at this and say ‘words but will there be action’ for sure. The difference for me is the official involvement of Sheldon Kennedy in this initiative. His respect group will be overseeing part of the education and prevention program. I spoke to Sheldon Kennedy a few moments ago and he is absolutely hopeful the league has gotten this right and as he said, he doesn’t have to tow the line. If he doesn’t think this is happening, he will let us know, but he believes that Kim Davis is on the right track and Sheldon Kennedy is proud to be part of it. Sheldon Kennedy also mentioning Mark Chipman – the Winnipeg Jets owner – who he said behind the scenes absolutely backed up his words from that news conference and was a big help in this initiative as well.

The deadline is June 30 to have everybody involved in the NHL certified in the program and then after that, they are going to share this 90-minute video and the full program with people in the game of hockey outside the NHL. Also shared today in the post-day press conference for the board of governors’ meetings where some interesting numbers on the COVID front.

Chris Johnston: There were and a little nugget as well from deputy commissioner Bill Daly who acknowledged that he can’t say for sure whether we’ll see more tightened protocols around the league, obviously with a new variant coming into play, more cases across North America. This is significant. There is a conversation due next week with the NHL Players’ Association where they review these protocols and Bill Daly mentioned 19 teams this year have had to at one point or another enact heightened protocols, maybe go back to something like we saw last season, a little bit more like the bubble scenario to be safe and maybe we’ll start to see that depending on what the league’s doctors decide before that NHLPA meeting. Of course, this all ties back to a big deadline that we’re charting with the Olympics on January 10. The board of governors didn’t get to that on the first day of meetings, but they are due to discuss the Olympic issue on Friday in terms of where they’re at in making a decision on whether players will go or not.

While the board of governors was making news behind closed doors, Darren you were making news in the lobby as you discovered a three-year deal for Jim Rutherford as the president and interim general manager of the Vancouver Canucks.

Darren Dreger: I don’t think that anyone should be surprised by this hire by Francesco Aquilini and the Vancouver Canucks. When you look at the experience, the sparkling resume of Jim Rutherford and the multiple Stanley Cups he’s won as a general manager. And Francesco Aquilini did acknowledge in the Monday media availability after the firing of Travis Green, Jim Benning and others that there was a strong possibility he would hire a president of hockey operations and perhaps that individual could do both roles. Rutherford is the interim general manager. He tells me that he’s going to look at pretty much every candidate – those with experience, those without experience – but first he’s gotta put feet on the ground in Vancouver and get to know everyone throughout the organization. So that’s the priority (and) no timeline.