BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

The Renaissance Man wishes that this conclusion had been reached during the NHL Strike last year, but it is better to have it now, than not at all.

The lawsuit was based on the premise that, when Lord Stanley granted the Stanley Cup, the trustees were to award it to the best hockey team in Canada. Fine, the NHL has taken it over, but when there is a work stoppage, so the argument went, the Cup still had to be awarded.

Under the settlement, the Cup CAN be awarded (though it need not be). This means that the trustees have the power to award the Stanley Cup to a non-NHL team if there ever is another work stoppage in the league.

Here is the story from CTV.ca

Court: Non-NHL teams could vie for Cup






TSN - The Sports Network

2/7/2006


TORONTO (CP) - Chalk one up for the little guy.

Two Toronto hockey buffs have won their fight to ensure the Stanley Cup doesn't have to stay in mothballs in the event of another NHL labour dispute.

Tim Gilbert, lawyer for Gard Shelley and David Burt, confirmed Tuesday that a settlement has been reached with the NHL. Shelley and Burt, members of a Toronto pickup hockey league called the Wednesday Nighters, went to court during the recent lockout to challenge the NHL's claim that it controlled the Stanley Cup and could prevent it from being used as a trophy for other leagues.

A court hearing on the case was scheduled for Tuesday, but Gilbert said a deal was struck last Friday.

"A David and Goliath story," Gilbert said Tuesday morning.

"They were doing this to establish a principle," Gillbert added of his clients.

Under the agreement, the National Hockey League acknowledges that the trustees who control the prize can award it to a non-NHL team in a year where the league doesn't operate.

As part of the settlement, the league will inject $100,000 a year into hockey leagues for women and underprivileged children for the next five years.

The two argued that the cup's trustees - Ian (Scotty) Morrison, former head of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and former NHL official Brian O'Neill - could award it to someone else since the NHL wasn't using it.

Their argument hinged on determining what Lord Stanley's intentions were when he donated the Cup as a challenge trophy in 1892 and whether the trustees overstepped their bounds when a 1947 agreement (revised in 2000) handed its control over to the NHL.

The settlement does not mean the trustees have to award the cup in the event of another work stoppage.

An NHL spokesman declined comment Tuesday morning.