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Is the lockout going to get Ron Hainsey blacklisted by the owners?

NHL Labor Hockey

Winnipeg Jets’ Ron Hainsey takes a break from a bargaining session at NHL headquarters in New York, Friday, Sept. 28, 2012. The NHL and the players’ association agreed on issues related to player safety and drug testing Friday, but the core economic divide that is preventing an end to the league’s latest lockout was not even on the agenda. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

AP

Ron Hainsey’s role with the NHLPA has been a very obvious one throughout the lockout. He’s been involved in almost all the talks and during this latest round of failed discussions, he’s been the go-to player for choice quotes.

With all that said, is his work with the union going to wind up costing him his career? Elliotte Friedman from CBC has heard rumblings that it could happen and had to ask him about it.

“Do you worry that, after your contract is completed, you’ll never play in the NHL again?”

“My wife and I have talked about it,” he said. “If I play the way I’m capable of, everything will work out.”

The problem Hainsey has run into is that his apparent “bad cop” routine in questioning NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in meetings as well as getting under the skin of hardliner owners Jeremy Jacobs and Murray Edwards. Friedman says the motivation to bring Jets owner Mark Chipman to the meetings last week was to not just bring a moderate but to get Hainsey to fall in line. It didn’t happen.

Hainsey’s been good to the players in helping them better understand how things are working, but perhaps his biggest “crime” is that he’s a staunch supporter of Donald Fehr. Combine that with any apparent disrespect the owners might’ve felt from him in meetings as well as Hainsey’s UFA status after this season and he may never get another contract.