Q+A: New Ontario Hockey League boss Bryan Crawford

Article content

The retired Ontario Hockey League commissioner passed the torch with a few simple words of encouragement.

“Go get ’em, kid,” David Branch said to Bryan Crawford before an introductory news conference Thursday at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Replacing a 45-year legend at the helm is no small feat, but the 42-year-old from Hamilton will certainly usher in a new chapter for the world’s best hockey development league.

Article content

The OHL’s selection committee, which included London Knights GM Mark Hunter, chose a sports executive with a rich, varied background. Crawford was a running back for the Queen’s University Gaels from 2001-05, played for the Argonauts, then worked in the multi-sport web of Ontario university athletics, built up Canada Basketball’s business model and spent the past six years with Golf Canada and was the RBC Canadian Open’s tournament director.

“Growing up in Hamilton, I dreamt of being part of the OHL,” Crawford said. “I never could have imagined it would have been as commissioner. It’s a full-circle moment for a kid who turned out to be a better football player than a hockey player.”

His job will be to keep the league on top while exploring new opportunities for growth in a rapidly changing hockey environment. The OHL has had a world-best 2,510 players drafted into the NHL since 1969, more than 200 alum currently in the league and 19 grads in the Oilers-Panthers Stanley Cup final.

“It’s an amazing privilege to be part of one of the great sports institutions in our country,” Crawford said, “(and) a league that is not only special in its product but, more importantly, in its mission.”

Article content

Article content

Here’s a Q&A with the new boss.

Q: What are the lessons you can bring from outside the world of hockey to further the OHL’s ambitions?

“What I learned about working in so many sports is that the challenges aren’t unique. They are people, culture and business challenges. What I brought is a lens that is pretty wide in scope and able to look at challenges in a creative way and understand there are others who have tread there before us and there are things we can learn and gather from simply looking at those best practices. I joined golf and never played golf before. They gave me the biggest golf tournament in the country and one of the biggest in the world. I understood where my limitations lie and there were people that knew more about the inside-the-ropes, or in this case, hockey operations that need to be empowered and entrusted and supported to do their jobs and deliver excellent results.”

Q: Is it a daunting assignment to fill the shoes of a man who has held this post for 45 years?

“There’s no question. Dave’s a legend. I don’t have a vote but he’s a Hockey Hall of Famer. There is no one who has had so much impact on so many Canadians. We’re not just talking about the guys who have gone on to the NHL. We’re talking doctors, lawyers, accountants and firefighters and policemen. I have to be my own leader with my own vision. I have to earn the respect and trust of the hockey community by focusing on collaboration, engagement and results-driven excellence. I had the wonderful fortune of following the footsteps of a 43-year leader in Bill Paul (at Golf Canada). If this experience is even half of what that was, I’m incredibly blessed. I think Dave and I are going to get along swimmingly.”

Article content

Q: What do you view as the biggest challenge facing the OHL right now?

“The biggest challenge is to make sure we’re never satisfied and constantly active. We face competition for players, eyeballs, markets and to take that head on. With really good strategy and creativity, you can build programs that speak for themselves. We are developing people and selling what we’re doing to people who are in it and people who choose to support our league and spend their money with us. If we are not continually evolving and developing our programming and not building on our legacies, we will lose ground to other leagues and entertainment properties.”

Q: Do you intend to be involved in disciplinary matters the same way David Branch had been?

“That’s a question I’ll answer once I have the opportunity to delve into our policies and procedures and our history and review that with the board of governors and think about how best to continue to handle discipline as we go forward. I have strong belief in our constitution and policies in place and those are also things we need to make sure are extremely well-written, detailed, transparent, that people understand the process and how decisions are made. I think those are the sorts of things we need to be continually evaluating to ensure they’re being handled in an appropriate way that upholds the integrity of the league.”

Article content

Q: The Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League has cracked down on fighting. What’s your stance on fighting in junior hockey?

“The most important priority is player safety. There is a bigger focus and value placed on skill. Our league has certainly made some incredible strides in player safety in all aspects of the game, not just fighting. Along with all other rules, these are things we need to constantly evaluate, monitor, explore. We need to use data to make good decisions. Data-driven decisions is something I’m a big believer in and ensuring our product is the best opportunity for the young players and their families to advance their goals in hockey and life. Sport continually evolves. It doesn’t stay the same. The NHL is changing. We’ve changed. We need to make sure we stay on the forefront of producing the best product we can.”

Q: How do you see the role of Junior B, specifically the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, in terms of developing OHL players in the future?

“Incredibly important. There’s a long list of players both current and past that have come through the Junior B system that become stars in our league and in the NHL. I think they’re a critical partner going forward and there are great opportunities for partnership and strengthening that with them, as well as other leagues across Ontario and into the United States. We depend on grassroots minor hockey to develop players, coaches, officials and we need to take an active role in supporting them in providing leadership.”

Article content

Q: What do you see as the GTA’s role in the OHL with Mississauga’s recent relocation to Brampton?

“We have incredible ownership in the Steelheads and Elliott Kerr, someone I’ve known for some time now. I think the Greater Toronto/Hamilton area needs to be a supporter and a driver of the OHL. We have fans all throughout this region that may have lived in traditional (junior hockey) communities. This is a centre of so much of the development of young hockey players so it needs to be central to our league and being part of our OHL family.”

Q: Where do you see your priorities in terms of coming in here and making change?

“The priority is listening, learning and understanding. I’ll never have the institutional knowledge that David does but I can work hard to gain a deep understanding of what has come before and how that sets us up for the future. We can’t rest on our laurels of being the primary sport in Canadian life. We have to be progressive, active and ensure we’re constantly striving to improve. If we rest on the fact we’re the No. 1 developmental league in the world, we won’t be for very long. Basketball and soccer will surpass hockey in terms of participation and families that choose hockey as the way to educate their children and learn about all the skills sport teaches us to make great citizens. We need to be aggressive to make sure we maintain our position by looking forward to improve and strengthening ourselves.”

Article content

Q: Did you ever attend Frontenacs games while you were attending Queen’s?

“We did a number of integrations between the hockey team and the football team at the time. My best friend from Queen’s, Dan Vertlieb, a very prominent Major League Baseball agent, actually did the play-by-play for the Frontenacs the four years we were there. (It was) in the old barn at the time. We didn’t have the luxury of the new arena. That was what was in Kingston: the Frontenacs and the Gaels. It was a wonderful place to spend some formative years.”

rpyette@postmedia.com

Article content