hockey's business and legal

Hockey’s Business and Legal Headlines April 22-28 with Updates on Canada’s Court System

Alec Roberson

It’s that time again when we take a look at what’s been happening in hockey’s business and legal world. Once a week we cover the big and not so big stories in this arena. We also include a featured story of the period. Let’s take a look at what has been happening this period.

Hockey’s Business and Legal News

FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements – The Ripples Will Be Felt in Hockey

Recently the Federal Trade Commission issued a final regulation prohibiting the use of noncompete clauses and agreements in employment or employment like contracts. The regulation will go into effect sometime in August of 2024. But this is important as it affects employment contracts across the board. This could include NIL agreements as well as professionals’ abilities to play in multiple leagues. How this will specifically affect hockey is to be seen, but it will certainly be felt.

Monday Night Hockey to Be Featured on Amazon Prime in Canada Next Year

The NHL, Rogers Communication and Amazon announced a historic two-year broadcasting deal. The deal will begin next season and see all Monday night national regular season NHL games streamed exclusively on Prime Video in Canada. This deal is the first of its kind between the NHL and a streaming service in Canada. It will feature a whole new broadcast team as well. This deal is part of Amazon’s strategy to become more implanted in sports streaming.

Group Working to Maintain Amateur Hockey in Arizona

A group of NHL Alumni in combination with others including Olympic champion Lyndsey Fry are working to maintain amateur hockey in Arizona by establishing the Matt Shott Arizona Hockey Legacy Foundation as a non-profit organization. The goal of this foundation is to invest in and support amateur hockey in Arizona even with the departure of the Arizona Coyotes. Some of the NHL alumni involved include Jason Demers and Michael Grabner.

Hockey’s Business and Legal Headlines Featured Story: Why Sexual Abuse Cases May be Delayed…or Not Tried at All in Canada

For this period’s hockey’s business and legal headlines featured story, reports have surfaced providing that there have been numerous sexual abuse and human trafficking cases dismissed in Ontario since December due to a lack of judges. Federal funding is reportedly lacking in paying for enough judges and due to that, the calendar is backlogged.

More notably, the Supreme Court in Canada has provided that cases must be tried in Superior Court within 30 months or will be dismissed due to violating an accused person’s right to a trial in a reasonable amount of time. This is why the sexual assault case involving members of Canada’s 2018 WJC team will likely not be tried anytime soon. It also might be something that affects further similar cases down the road in hockey.

Post image attribution: Jon Kolbert, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Alec Roberson

Alec Roberson grew up in coastal North Carolina, taking a somewhat unconventional path to hockey. With hockey being almost nonexistent in that area, Alec found his passion for the game following the success of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2001 and 2006 and later played club hockey in college. After going through law school and practicing for some time, he now continues his love for the game through writing. Find him on twitter @roberson_alec

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