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Report: NHL looking at tampering complaint regarding Benning’s comments about Subban, Stamkos
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Thomas Drance
Jun 24, 2016, 12:13 EDTUpdated:
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The NHL is reportedly looking into a complaint against Canucks general manager Jim Benning regarding comments he made on Thursday expressing his club’s general interest in Steven Stamkos and P.K. Subban, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie.
Benning is probably the most candid and accessible executive in hockey, which is to his credit. In this case though, his comments – in which he admitted during a TSN 1040 interview that the Canucks had called to inquire about Subban’s availability and planned “to talk to” Stamkos following the draft – may have placed the Vancouver general manager into a spot of hot water.
The relevant precedent to consider here is Ron Wilson, who was dinged for “inappropriate public comments” back in 2009, when he hinted that his club planned to pursue the Sedin twins were they to hit unrestricted free agency. It was actually the organization that was fined at the time, rather than Wilson personally.
“You’re hearing right now — and this sounds very contradictory — but there is a real possibility I would think that we would be going after the Sedins. Let’s just speculate there,” Wilson said in a Fan 590 appearance before the opening of free agency in June of 2009, via CBC.
The league investigated and determined that Wilson had violated an “inappropriate public comments” provision of bylaw 15 (the bylaws are sealed, so we can’t get too much into it). He was fined $25,000, with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly offering this statement at the time:
I confirm the following:
“That Ron Wilson, Head Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, violated the provisions of NHL By-Law 15 relating to inappropriate public comments by speaking generally to his Club’s potential interest in negotiating with Daniel and Henrik Sedin prior to such time as those players’ existing contracts with Vancouver had expired. The League has imposed a fine on the Maple Leafs’ organization as a result;
Because Subban is still a Montreal Canadiens player and Stamkos remains under contract – teams can’t begin to approach his camp about a contract until the opening of the free agent negotiating window on Saturday – it’s understandable that a complainant, in this case, might feel that his comments fall into the “inappropriate public comments” standard. 
That said, I would suggest that Wilson’s comments were several degrees more pointed and suggestive than anything Benning said about his club’s potential interest in Stamkos and Subban. 
Benning also made a series of highly publicized comments concerning his club’s interest in pursuing Milan Lucic on Thursday, but the Los Angeles Kings sent out a letter of intent granting permission to 29 other teams to approach Lucic and begin contract negotiations, according to ESPN.com. It follows then that any comments made about the big, Vancouver-born power forward would not constitute “inappropriate public comments”.
We’ll update this post with more information as the story develops. 

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