So the IIHF Commissioners have decided that GMs should be involved in decision making for the IIHF. While I agree with this sentiment, I don't agree with how it is being done. A voting system was put in place where each nation and the commissioners would vote for changes to the IIHF. Any GM could initiate a change to IIHF rules, tournament size, games played, whatever. Then each team has one vote and the commissioners have one vote. If you got the majority of votes the motion passed.

I strongly disagree with this change and I have several reasons as to why:

1. There is no way to be completely unbiased when you are running a team, several votes have already occurred that could affect the competitiveness of certain teams and sure enough you can see the teams who are negatively impacted voting against those changes. I agree that GMs can be involved in decision making, so long as the ultimate decision is up to the Head Office, who not only should give the final decision, but should also have a vision for what they think the league should look like.

2. IIHF Commissioners are paid, GMs are not, the commissioners are paid to keep things running and make changes where needed. To me this change basically passed off work from commissioners (paid) to GMs (unpaid).

3. This just isn't what I signed up for. When I took over Team Canada there was no one wanting to manage it and I stepped up to take on that responsibility. The position was to generate a roster once per season, make lines and adjust when needed, and recruit/retain players for your team. This was a great entry level position for people wanting to be a GM. Now that league wide decisions are decided by GMs I would not recommend a new player apply for the GM roles as an inexperienced player will likely not know what's best for the whole league.

I brought these points and a few others up to the IIHF commissioners and other GMs, some other GMs agreed with me and we discussed at length today. The commissioners decided that to solve this dispute they would put up a vote rather than make a decision one way or the other on such a massive matter themselves they asked the GMs to vote on whether GMs should be able to vote...

I would love to keep running Team Canada, but I don't want to be responsible for decisions that affect all IIHF teams and if the commissioners believe that asking the GMs to vote on this is the right way to go, then I don't want to be a part of it. Someone needs to lead.

At this time I don't see any option but to step down as Team Canada's GM. I recommend NourFFAK as my successor if he wants the job.