Kelly followed Lindsay and defended his work as executive director. He accused those allied against him of being participants in a coup and went so far as to single out NHLPA general counsel Ian Penny, Hargrove, members of the advisory board and divisional player representatives, the six former players who support player representatives at each team and help facilitate communication between the NHLPA office and the membership.

"At the end of the day, you weren’t left with anyone else," a source said. "He basically went through the entire organization and named them as part of the coup."