The Ottawa Senators’ Shane Pinto was suspended on Oct. 26 for 41 games by the NHL and the terse 55-word press release announcing it raised more questions than it answered. If there were an award for press releases that made mud look clear, then this one would be the hands-down winner.
The NHL should and easily could have been clearer in its messaging. That it wasn’t hurt its credibility and Pinto – a young man with what had been a bright future in the NHL that is now in question.
NHL Should Have Explained Rules on Gambling in Pinto Fiasco
Chutzpah is what it took for the spin artists in the NHL’s media relations team to expect the league’s fans to simply accept that Pinto was suspended for something as hazy as “activities relating to sports wagering”, but that none of these undertakings involved putting money down on NHL games. Could they really have assumed that questions wouldn’t follow?
The problem is that many, if not most hockey fans, believe that NHL players are free to bet on any sporting event they wish as long as it’s not an NHL hockey game. Starting from that premise, fans not unreasonably asked why Pinto was punished and what the league, Pinto, and the Senators may be trying to hide.
Related: Senators’ Pinto Suspended 41 Games for Gambling Violation
The fact is that under the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has the power to discipline any player who engages in gambling activities of any kind if it is judged “detrimental to the welfare of the league or the game of hockey.” In other words, Pinto could have been wagering on a tiddlywinks tournament in Poughkeepsie, but if he were doing it in ways deemed improper by the league he could be disciplined (from, Ken Warren, “Explainer: The Shane Pinto suspension and the NHL’s uneasy connection to gambling”, The Ottawa Citizen, 26/10/2023).
Simply adding this language from the CBA to its press release would have gone a long way to clearing up the confusion it caused in the fan base. It would also have shut down a lot of speculation and all that implies for the credibility of professional hockey.
NHL’s Explanation of Pinto Suspension Reeked of Contempt
Missing an opportunity to be clearer in a press release can be forgiven I suppose. Yet a press release that has a whiff of contempt about it cannot.
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Providing fans with a cryptic explanation as to why Pinto was punished with a suspension of extraordinary length and then closing it off by saying that the league considers “this matter closed, absent the emergence of new information, and will have no further comment”, is contempt writ large. To hockey writers, it’s the equivalent of double daring them to ask questions. They just aren’t going to back down.
NHL and Pinto Should Have Gone to Where Scandal Will End
Most communications pros will advise that the best way to handle a scandal is to go directly to where the story is going to end – and quickly. In other words, the details of what Pinto did will eventually come out so the league may as well be transparent and let them out. Otherwise the NHL, the Senators and Pinto will die a death by 1,000 cuts.
As for Pinto, when or perhaps if he makes it back to the league, does he really think that reporters won’t be hounding him incessantly to say what he did? They’ll keep asking questions until they get answers.
Pinto’s apology rings hollow without, as it does, saying what he’s sorry for. He needs to let people know what he did instead of hiding behind confidentiality agreements and negotiated settlements. It’s the only way he won’t be labelled by some as the NHL’s first Pete Rose – however unfair that comparison may be.
NHL Failed to Send a Message in the Pinto Betting Affair
Presumably the NHL wanted to use the Pinto matter to send a message to players and fans about how seriously it takes violations of its rules on betting. But how can it send a message when it won’t say what Pinto did, except that what he didn’t do was bet on NHL games?
The NHL failed to send a message to anybody with Pinto’s suspension or its press release about it. Perhaps Pinto was the only one to get any kind of message from the suspension but that’s only because he’s the only player in the NHL who knows what he did. It seems the NHL is determined to keep it that way.
I get the hand wringing from human resource experts about Pinto’s right to confidentiality as an employee. If I were fired I wouldn’t want the details shared publicly by my employer. Yet employee rights around confidentiality just like any other rights are not absolute. They must be balanced against other rights and obligations. Judging by the press release, it doesn’t look like the league’s legal and communications people bothered to do that.
What’s more, where employee misbehaviour raises matters of public trust, most businesses will make public the details necessary to restore trust in the integrity of their business. It’s why many businesses and professional associations have codes of conduct by which they govern themselves. They may not share all the gory details of employee violations of the code, but they certainly make enough known that people understand the boundaries that must not be crossed.
At the very least, the NHL could have elaborated on its rules governing gambling by giving examples of activities that would violate them. Simply issuing a press release saying Pinto was suspended for something he did involving sports wagering and we won’t tell you exactly what it was – but take our word for it – it didn’t involve betting on NHL games is several steps short of being completely pointless.
Details of Pinto’s Wagering Wrongs Will Come Out in the End
More will surely come from the saga of Pinto’s gambling violations – whatever they were. Whether it all comes out in one cathartic press release or oozes from the festering abscess that this affair has become is up to the league.
Yet rest assured it will come, with consequences for the integrity of the NHL unknown.