- Bettman confirmed an NHL succession plan has been under discussion for at least two years
- The 74-year-old commissioner called retirement reports “greatly exaggerated”
- Read below for the full Bettman quotes from his pre-Game 1 presser in Raleigh
Gary Bettman is not going anywhere yet. But the longtime NHL commissioner stopped pretending Tuesday that he was going to do this job forever.
Bettman was asked about a Daily Faceoff report on a potential succession plan during his pre-Game 1 media availability at Lenovo Center, and he didn’t dance around it.
“Any organization, major organization, it’s incumbent upon its CEO, which a commissioner is, and its board to have a succession plan,” Bettman said. “I am 74, and I do acknowledge the fact that I can’t do this forever. We have been in discussions over the last couple of years, at least, as to what a succession plan might look like.”
Catch the full Bettman and Bill Daly presser here:
Bettman wasn’t about to grease the rails on his way out, though. He made it clear nothing was happening this week.
“It hasn’t been fully implemented. The executive committee is fully on board. The board has been briefed in terms of the direction that we may go. But beyond that, there’s nothing happening imminently,” he said. “And reports of my demise or retirement are greatly exaggerated.”
Tuesday was also Bettman’s 74th birthday, which gave the question some extra bite. He’s 33 years into the job he took over in 1993, and he’s overseen expansion from 26 to 32 teams, three lockouts, and NHL participation in six of the past eight Olympic Games. Revenues, attendance, and U.S. television ratings all sit at all-time highs.
The obvious internal name is deputy commissioner Bill Daly, who was named to the No. 2 seat in 2005 and is 62 years old. He sat alongside Bettman for Tuesday’s media availability, as he usually does. Bettman spent most of the rest of the presser unveiling the 2027 All-Star Weekend format, a five-team international 3-on-3 tournament at UBS Arena.
So a transition is coming. It just isn’t coming Wednesday.
