Colin Campbell’s tumultuous run as the head of the NHL’s discipline wing is coming to a close. TSN is reporting that Campbell, the NHL’s Senior VP and Director of Hockey Operations, will step down from the duties of running the league’s supplementary discipline decisions, although he’ll still keep his title and a major role in hockey ops.
Colin Campbell Out As NHL’s Discipline Chief; Brendan Shanahan To Take Over
Taking over for Campbell will be Brendan Shanahan, the ex-player who took a job as the NHL's VP of Hockey and Business Development. He'll now be in charge of handing out suspensions and fines, as applicable.
The demise of Campbell in this role is one that we all could’ve seen coming. He was often criticized for the cagey presentation and the wild inconsistencies in his disciplinary decisions, and while just about everybody gives him credit that the job he possessed was an incredibly tough one, it’s safe to say this change is more than welcome.
The writing was on the wall a little over a month ago, when Campbell appeared on TSN Radio. He was defensive, aggressive, agitated and unhinged in the interview, questioning the hosts on their motives and hockey smarts while going on and on about the difficulty and thanklessness of his job. You can listen to that interview here, and if you haven’t, it’s worth the time.
We’ll see now just how hard the job really is. Can Shanahan bring some consistency and respect to the position, and can the “Wheel of Justice” jokes finally cease to exist? One can only hope. Shanahan has a lot on his plate now, but it’s not as if he has big shoes to fill.
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