NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Reportedly Retiring In The Next Few Years

A new report suggests that we will see the first changing of the guard when it comes to the tip of the spear for NHL leadership in over three decades.

According to The Athletic, the executive committee of the NHL’s Board of Governors has begun the process of finding a successor for Commissioner Gary Bettman, who Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold revealed on a recent podcast appearance was "a couple years" down the line.

Leipold let that little tidbit slip during an appearance on The Sick Podcast/The Eye Test with Pierre McGuire and Jimmy Murphy, Leipold elaborated in a call with The Athletic.

"Listen, we’re like a $5, $6 billion company — the entire league is," Leipod explained. "So we have a CEO who’s going to be moving on and any transition would cause us to be concerned. And so, really, all I was saying is that we have had a commissioner now for 30 years, maybe a little more, and he has been outstanding. I mean, truly, truly, has been an incredible commissioner and has done great things."

A new report says that the NHL has begun the search to replace Gary Bettman. (Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images)

72-year-old Bettman seems to get a bad rap, but I'm with Leipold. I'm a bit of a Bettman apologist.

Sure, there were some work stoppages, but he was behind the push to expand the league up to the current 32 teams and — more importantly, in my opinion — into "non-traditional" markets like South Florida, Tampa, Las Vegas, North Carolina, Dallas, and more.

It's been a resounding success from a league popularity and revenue standpoint as well as on the ice, seeing as those five cities I just mentioned have won Stanley Cups.

Of course, there was the Arizona Coyotes fiasco for a few decades, but that's been worked out now, hasn't it?

Leipold said that now the task will be to find another commissioner — only the second in league history — and that's a tall order.

"Now we’re going to transition to somebody else, and that should make us all a little concerned that we have to be certain we get the right person. It’s a concern that I have that, ‘How are we going to get anybody as good as Gary?’ The answer is we’re not. So who’s going to be the second best person, and is that going to be good enough?"