However, Eagleson was convicted of fraud and embezzlement and briefly imprisoned, after it was revealed that he had abused his position for many years by defrauding his clients and skimming money from tournaments.
A friendship was forged in Toronto which followed Bathgate to Detroit, where Eagleson started to talk to Red Wings players about the concept of a union.
[7] By 1979, Eagleson represented more than a dozen Toronto Maple Leafs players, including Darryl Sittler and his best friend and linemate, Lanny McDonald.
When Sittler and goaltender Mike Palmateer agreed to appear on the TV show Showdown, as negotiated by the NHLPA, Imlach went to court to try to get an injunction to stop them.
[12] Eagleson was also active in promoting the sport, helping to organize the historic 1972 Summit Series—the first time Canadian and Soviet professionals had ever competed against each other on the ice.
According to the Globe and Mail, his role as "manager and motivator, travel agent and godfather, firebrand and peacemaker" for the first squad ever to be known as Team Canada earned him wide recognition and the nickname "Uncle Al".
[13] Eagleson travelled regularly to negotiations and ice hockey events in Europe with an entourage, and employed Aggie Kukulowicz as a Russian language interpreter.
In the 1963 federal election, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada for the Progressive Conservatives in the Toronto riding of York West.
As Eagleson's power grew, concern was raised about his multiple roles as union chief, player agent and hockey promoter.
[citation needed] In 1989 player agents Ritch Winter and Ron Salcer teamed up with former National Football League union official Ed Garvey to author a devastating review of the NHLPA's operations.
Winter and Salcer had been critical of Eagleson's stewardship for many years, and felt he was not giving them the support they needed to adequately represent their clients.
Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz was never charged with wrongdoing, largely because the Bruins' offer was widely known in league circles, and even reported in the Toronto Star.
Orr, whose career ended in 1978 because of serious knee injuries, learned from an independent accountant that he was almost insolvent from tax liabilities, despite having supposedly earned high salaries while being represented by Eagleson.
Conway was particularly moved by the ordeal of second-line defenceman Ed Kea, who suffered a devastating head injury that required major brain surgery and left him physically and mentally disabled.
Conway vowed never to forget Kea's story and later turned his series into the basis of a book, Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey.
[19] Tipped off by Conway's investigations, future Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis successfully sued Eagleson in 1997 for $570,000 for stealing a portion of his disability insurance.
[citation needed] Although Eagleson had been based in Toronto, most Canadian media organizations had avoided detailed investigation of his dealings until Conway's material was published.
Two Globe sports writers, William Houston and David Shoalts, expanded that material, Conway's work, and the latest developments into their own book, entitled Eagleson: The Fall of a Hockey Czar, which was published later in 1993.
Many of his most ardent supporters during and after his trial were famous and prominent clients who had benefited from his activities, including high-profile hockey personalities such as Bobby Clarke, Bob Gainey and Marcel Dionne.
"[27] Over the next six weeks, 18 other Hall of Fame players (including Bobby Orr, Andy Bathgate, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Jean Béliveau, Mike Bossy, Johnny Bucyk, Ted Lindsay, Henri Richard, Johnny Bower, Darryl Sittler and Dickie Moore) followed Park's lead and threatened to resign from the Hall if Eagleson was allowed to remain.
[28][29] The Hall initially tried to stay out of the controversy, but with the growing player revolt, a formal vote of board members was scheduled to decide the matter.
[31] Since being released, Eagleson has largely remained out of the limelight, although he was interviewed on television after Canada's loss to Russia in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
"[32] Defenders of Eagleson pointed out that during his tenure as executive director of the NHLPA, both salaries and pension benefits increased exponentially, offering real security to players that had not existed until that time.
There was some controversy that Eagleson's directives (aside from instances in which he colluded with favoured owners to hold down wages) contributed, as well as the formation of the rival WHA, to rapidly increasing player salaries, something especially advocated by his successor Bob Goodenow.
[citation needed] Eagleson's maximum official salary as executive director of NHLPA was one-tenth of that of his successor, Bob Goodenow.
While Eagleson's close relationship with Ziegler and Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz led to them forming a cooperative triumvirate, this ended immediately with Goodenow's accession to the NHLPA.
"[34] Ziegler was ousted as NHL president following the season, and Gil Stein was named to succeed him on an interim basis until Gary Bettman was chosen as the league's first commissioner.