Ted Lindsay Risked His Red Wings Career to Organize NHL Players
Detroit Red Wings star Ted Lindsay helped establish the NHL’s first players’ association in 1957 and was traded to Chicago that July. His organizing helped lay groundwork for the stronger union reestablished in 1967.
Ted Lindsay was one of the NHL’s leading players when he began challenging the system that left team owners with broad control over players’ careers. In the 1950s, the league’s reserve system limited players’ choices about where they played, while management largely set salaries, pensions and working conditions.
Lindsay, a Detroit Red Wings winger known as “Terrible Ted,” had won four Stanley Cups with the team and captured the Art Ross Trophy in 1949-50. In 1956, he consulted Manhattan lawyers Nelson Lewis and Milton Mound about improving players’ rights. Alongside Canadiens defenseman Doug Harvey and delegates from other teams, he helped form the original NHL Players’ Association on February 11, 1957. Players secretly organized and paid for legal representation.
The effort brought a steep personal cost. Detroit general manager Jack Adams was angry about Lindsay’s union activity, and on July 23, 1957, Detroit sent him and goalie Glenn Hall to Chicago. Lindsay had just recorded 85 points, including a league-leading 55 assists, in the 1956-57 season.
The association later collapsed under pressure from owners. A 1958 settlement of the players’ antitrust lawsuit established a salary floor, larger postseason payments and relocation costs for players who were dealt. The organization was formally reestablished in 1967, and players gradually gained stronger protections and negotiating leverage.
Lindsay returned to Detroit for the 1964-65 season, his last, and entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966. The NHL Players’ Association named its annual player-voted outstanding-player award for him in 2010. The NHL and NHLPA ratified a collective bargaining agreement in July 2025 that runs through the 2029-30 season.