In NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction speech last month, he provided a candid self assessment, offering up his best guess on how he’d be viewed by a scout.



Lousy skater. Not much of a shooter. You’re not going to outwork him. He’ll be strong in the corners and in front of the net. And he will take a hit to make a play.



The latter description was, of course, a reference to the distinct role he has openly embraced over the decades he has acted as steward of the league: the heel.



Bettman gets booed annually at the draft and as he presents the Stanley Cup. During his Hall of Fame speech, he even boasted of one particularly dubious honor: the “energetic reaction” he managed to elicit from the home crowd in Las Vegas, before the Golden Knights had played a single game (when the cameras panned to Golden Knights GM George McPhee, McPhee could be seen nodding his head, mouthing: “It was...