You know who is enjoying this? The KHL.

No doubt.

Fully agree the current CBA is pretty sweet for players, considering the low-revenue status of this league. They have liberalized free agency, guaranteed contracts, no-trade clauses available — and 30 teams of jobs when only a handful of teams are actually profitable.

I understand issues like the Olympics, long-term deals, maybe even expansion fees are negotiable — it sure sounded like Kelly knew that, too — but if the lead players behind this want to go into hardline war mode even at the cost of another work stoppage, they’re likely to lose clubs and, as a result, jobs. Fewer jobs means even less salary leverage for anyone but the superstars, so there would be even more “NHL veterans” waiting on the sidelines for an offer.

They’ll say, “Oh, there was a diligent review of Kelly, all the player reps signed off on it,” but the way it went down in one surprising weekend, the way it went into the wee hours of the night, the way clearly a select few were behind the direction of this review — it all wreaks of poor practice and poor internal politics.