NHL CBA establishes a $4M annual
fund for retired players' health care and wellness
[September 11, 2025]
By STEPHEN WHYNO
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Beyond the noticeable changes in the new NHL
collective bargaining agreement like expanding the regular season to
84 games and implementing a playoff salary cap is an investment in
caring for former players that has not existed until now.
The league and union will contribute $4 million annually to the
newly established Retired Players Emergency Healthcare and Wellness
Fund. NHL Alumni Association president and executive director Glenn
Healy, a retired goaltender, said the plan provides access to a
family doctor and a mental wellness professional for any player,
“whether you played one shift or 10,000 games.”
Healy, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA assistant executive
director Ron Hainsey shared details about the plan Tuesday for a
small group of reporters attending the league's annual preseason
player media tour.
“Our wellness plan is not like basketball,” Healy said. “It’s not
like football. We’re different in this sport. We don’t have our
teeth. We have different issues, and this is I think a real step
forward for the players. This is groundbreaking. This is Christmas
Day for us.”
The CBA, which runs through 2030, also increases the insurance
subsidy retired players are eligible for to $10,000 a year.
“This is just another additional thing we can do for our current and
former players,” said Hainsey, who played over 1,000 games from
2002-20. “The idea is when our players do leave the game here, in
the future, that they’re in a totally different situation for their
post-career lives.”
Healy, a Stanley Cup champion with the New York Rangers in 1994, has
been pushing to fill this gap for some time and met with Marty Walsh
about it when he took over running the union in 2023. Walsh at the
time said alumni well-being was high on the list of things the NHLPA
wanted to focus on, and this is evidence of the league joining in on
that effort.
“We certainly recognize at the league the importance of our history
and the men who made that history and formed that foundation for the
success we’re having today, so we’re very appreciative of that,”
Daly said. “Obviously, our work with the Alumni Association has
grown in leaps and bounds over the years.”
St. Louis forward Robert Thomas, the Blues' alternate player
representative, when asked his favorite parts of the new CBA,
mentioned not the elimination of team dress codes or fitness testing
but pensions and health benefits for alumni.
“There’s so many guys that did so much for the league and the
players in the past,” Thomas said. “Trying to continue to make that
a No. 1 priority moving forward is something that a lot of players
feel really good about.”
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Glenn Healy responds to questions from the media after a meeting at
NHL headquarters, Dec. 4, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank
Franklin II)
Decision on Hockey Canada players acquitted of
sexual assault could be coming soon
In the aftermath of a judge in Ontario finding five members of
Canada's 2018 world junior team not guilty in their sexual assault
trial, their status remains unclear with less than a month to go
before the start of the season.
The judge found in late July that the prosecution could not meet the
onus of proof for the charges against Carter Hart, Michael McLeod,
Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton. The league said at the
time they are ineligible until they are reinstated, something the
Players' Association disagrees with.
Daly said he anticipates a decision on the players “at some point in
the relatively near future.”
Work continues on the main hockey arena for the 2026 Winter
Olympics in Milan
NHL players in February are set to return to the Olympics for the
first time since 2014. Commissioner Gary Bettman had previously
expressed concerns about the arenas being ready on time, and
progress on that front is ongoing.
Daly acknowledged that while “the arena’s not done, it’s being
worked on diligently." He said a hockey-related, on-ice test event
is scheduled for December, though not with fans in the stands.
“We’ll find out in early December how far away we are,” Daly said.
The NHL draft is expected to be decentralized again this summer
For a second consecutive year, the NHL draft will be a decentralized
event, with team staff not on site, Daly confirmed. The league
experimented with the format in June after a vast majority of teams
voted to decentralize the event, like the NFL and NBA have done for
quite some time.
“It was clear that, while it wasn’t as overwhelming a vote as it was
the first time we asked, it was still a strong majority who wanted
to have a decentralized draft,” Daly said.
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