Last year's Power50

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HOW WE MAKE THE LIST

Our correspondents across Canada nominate individuals from their regions and beats. The nominees, by their actions in 2009, are generally poised to make an impact on the country's sporting scene in 2010.

Last year, Jim Balsillie's attempt to transplant the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton had the country buzzing.

This year, the concussion/headshot debate - seeded by a series of Globe stories last winter and thereafter placed on the NHL agenda - is developing into the 2010 version of the Coyotes story. That's why some of the individuals involved in that story are ranked highly on this year's list, including the only deceased member of the Power50, Reggie Fleming.

It is a reflection of the country's thriving and diverse sports environment that we have increased the number to 50 from 30, with nine women included. We pared the names of nearly 50 nominees - and that was without considering highly influential print/web journalists and TV/radio commentators such as Brian Williams and Bob McCown.

It was decided last year to eliminate journalists and restrict the group to athletes, coaches, officials, general managers, executives and owners. The one exception is Don Cherry, a cultural icon of indisputable influence, whether negative or positive is in the ears (and eyes) of the beholder.

1. Gary Bettman: It's clear that Canada - whether Quebec City, Winnipeg or Toronto - won't be getting a seventh NHL franchise without the commissioner's endorsement. The end-around tactic has failed. Meantime, several U.S. franchises are in financial peril and Bettman must also deal with the issue of player health and welfare, like it or not.
2. Keith Pelley: The Vancouver 2010 Games focus switches away now from organization and construction - the pesky Cypress problem aside - to consumer consumption. As head of the broadcast, print and Internet consortium, Pelley is influencing how we watch sports, now and in the future. (The Globe and Mail is a member of the consortium).
3. Reggie Fleming: By donating his brain to science, Fleming allowed researchers at Boston University to prove that concussions sustained during his professional hockey career led to degenerative brain disease and ultimately his death. The discovery, coupled with ample reporting about dementia in football players, has everyone from NHLers to parents of atom players looking for direction.
4. Headshots: Colin Campbell, David Branch, Don Cherry, Dr. Charles Tator, Ken Holland In a way that harks back to the introduction of the helmet to the NHL, hockey is faced with the stigma of appropriate measures against headshots as being curiously contrary to the game's culture. Enter Campbell as the league's disciplinarian; Branch, the OHL commissioner, as most ardent about punishing headshots; Cherry, as the cultural connection to the masses; Tator, an outspoken neurosurgeon who's been warning of concussion danger for years; and Holland, the Detroit Red Wings' GM with influence on the issue.
5. Gord Nixon: Sports can no longer operate at an elite level without corporate backing. Under its chief executive officer, the Royal Bank of Canada is partnered with the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, and is a national sponsor of Hockey Canada, the Canadian Snowboard Federation, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, Athletics Canada, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Open golf tournament. RBC also became an official patron of the PGA of America yesterday, at a time when other sponsors are running for the hills.
6. Mark Cohon: The CFL commissioner has struck a deal to play the first regular-season game in Atlantic Canada this season and will oversee negotiations on a new collective agreement with the CFL Players Association before the start of the 2010 season. Meantime, there's a wee ownership problem in Toronto to resolve - again.
7. David Braley: This time next week, the B.C. Lions' owner will own 25 per cent of the CFL's franchises if he's able to acquire the Toronto Argonauts. The most powerful member of the board of governors, he was revealed by The Globe and Mail last year to have provided the financial support underpinning the current ownership of the Argos - Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon.
8. Stacey Allaster: The most powerful female executive in professional sport, Allaster, of Welland, Ont., is commissioner of the Women's Tennis Association. Having pierced the glass ceiling in a male-dominated industry, she is confronted by an international sponsorship challenge and lack of North American stars on the circuit, save the aging Williams sisters.
9. Phil King: King is running the show as TSN dominates the television and Internet sports markets in Canada, controlling the CFL and its Grey Cup, the world junior hockey championship and certain NHL rights. After launching TSN2 in 2009, what's next? (TSN is owned by ctvglobemedia, also owner of The Globe and Mail.)
10. Nancy Greene Raine: As a transplanted Ontarian, Greene personifies the coming-out party that the Vancouver 2010 Games represent for Western Canada. She learned to ski-race in Rossland, B.C., won an Olympic gold medal, got in on the ground floor of development at first Whistler, then Sun Peaks. A former Reform Party member and now a Senator, Greene Raine is positioned to influence federal financial support of Olympic sports after the Games have ended.
11. John Furlong: The tough slogging all but done, VANOC's president fades into the background, unless something goes terribly wrong.
12. Nadir Mohamed: As CEO of Rogers Communications, the lingering mystery is what becomes of Sportsnet, a network of sports radio stations and the faltering Toronto Blue Jays. Does he prop them up or take them down?
13. Marcel Aubut: Takes over as president of the Canadian Olympic Committee as all the money that comes with a home Games drifts elsewhere, potentially.
14. Mike Babcock/Steve Yzerman: As executive director, Yzerman assembled the Team Canada hockey roster, and Babcock is charged with guiding it to a gold medal as coach. At stake: four years of national sporting pride.
15. Chris Bosh: A pending free agent with the seemingly revitalized Toronto Raptors, does he boost basketball's appeal in this country by staying, or follow the path taken by Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
16. J.P. Barry, Pat Brisson: When Paul Kelly was sabotaged internally, the super-agent team turned the tables on the NHLPA saboteurs; stable includes Sidney Crosby, Daniel Alfredsson, John Tavares and the Sedins.
17. Clara Hughes: Speed skater, cyclist, athlete activist, odds-on favourite to be chosen as Canada's flag-bearer tonight, the Summer and Winter Olympics medalist dedicates time and money to Right to Play.
18. Brian McKeever: Cross country skier will race in both the Olympics and the Paralympics, a remarkable achievement considering Stargardt's disease robbed McKeever's central vision ("the hole in the doughnut") and left him with only a peripheral view of the world.
19. Larry Tanenbaum: Presides over the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment empire including the Maple Leafs (last Stanley Cup, 1967), Raptors and TFC soccer. Next, the NFL?
20. Jennifer Heil: If Manuel Osborne-Paradis doesn't do it in the downhill, Canada's queen of freestyle moguls is a strong bet to repeat her 2006 Turin Games triumph and become the first Canadian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal on home turf.
21. Scott Niedermayer: After missing the 2006 Turin Games, Niedermayer returns as captain of Team Canada in possibly his last season of NHL play.
22. Dana White: Having already established Montreal as a popular UFC venue, the sport's mercurial head is bringing the show to Vancouver while trying to break down Ontario's harumph-like opposition.
23. Paul Beeston: The Toronto Blue Jays CEO is now in charge of running the Bills Toronto Series in addition to resurrecting a team that hasn't qualified for postseason play since 1993.
24. Bill Daly: NHL deputy commissioner is the link between Bettman and the world, via an overworked BlackBerry.
25. Greg Stremlaw: General manager of the Canadian Curling Association took over after an administrative fiasco and righted the ship financially.
26. Beckie Scott: Member of the International Olympic Committee, the three-time Olympian (gold medal in cross-country ski pursuit at Salt Lake City) is Canada's most significant voice on the all-powerful IOC.
27. Bob Nicholson: Hockey Canada's president is convening the first summit since 1999 to examine all aspects of the player, from skills development to safety.
28. Doug Mitchell: If anyone can influence progress in Canadian Interuniversity Sport it is the chair of the BLG awards honouring collegiate athletes, sponsor of UBC's Thunderbird Sports Centre, part-owner of the Calgary Stampeders and former CFL commissioner.
29. Sandra Bezic: The creative force behind the hit TV show, Battle of the Blades , is a renowned skating coach, choreographer and analyst.
30. Mike Gillis: Innovative general manager of the Vancouver Canucks may be piloting Canada's only NHL playoff team this spring.
31. Brian Burke: While the team continued to struggle, the brusque Toronto Maple Leafs GM came around on the head-shot issue during a pivotal meeting in November.
32. Roger Jackson: A 1964 gold medalist in rowing and former three-term president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Jackson is running the successful Own the Podium program that financed training, psychology and technology for the 2010 Olympians.
33. Hayley Wickenheiser: Best women's hockey player in the world, mother to a nine-year-old son, aspiring physician, a 15-year national team veteran with 300-plus points in 200-plus international games, Wickenheiser is captain for the first time as Team Canada campaigns for a third consecutive gold medal.
34. Francesco Aquilini: Owner of the Canucks, he's looking to build a sports empire and will play host to the UFC card at GM Place in June.
35. Murray Edwards: Powerful dean of the Calgary oil patch and host of annual World Cup ski races at his Lake Louise resort, Edwards as Flames co-owner entrusted the hockey team's direction to the Sutter clan, with dubious results.
36. Geoff Molson: New kid on the block of NHL owners intends to preserve the Montreal Canadiens tradition, already by having supported GM Bob Gainey and associated stability in true Habs style.
37. Eugene Melnyk: His Ottawa Senators have become the heart and soul - and at times death - of the National Capital Region; countered Jim Balsillie's bid for a seventh Canadian franchise.
38. Darryl Katz: Edmonton Oilers owner is trying to revitalize the city's downtown core by having a new arena built.
39. Bob Young: The Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner has salvaged the franchise and now gets a new stadium to replace decrepit Ivor Wynne, thanks to the Pan Am Games.
40. Jim Balsillie: Sponsoring Steve Bauer's cycling team isn't quite what he had in mind for 2010, yet who of sound mind thinks we've seen the last of the Phoenix Coyotes bidder on the hockey front?
41. Jim Hopson: Former Saskatchewan Roughrider offensive lineman and now president, he enhanced his role as keeper of the franchise while now former GM Eric Tillman awaited resolution of sexual-assault charges. But for a late penalty, the Green Riders rather than the Montreal Alouettes would be Grey Cup champions.
42. Stephen Hart: Can the newest national soccer coach finally steer Canada into the (next) World Cup?
43. Carla Qualtrough: Swimming medalist, human-rights lawyer and president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Qualtrough is charged with making the Paralympic Games "a celebration of diversity and inclusion."
44. Steve Nash: Sponsors a community basketball league in the Vancouver area, is part-owner of the new MLS franchise for the city, dedicates himself to charity, and continues to rank among the NBA's top point guards.
45. Scott Moore: CBC Sports remains a marginal player under his direction save for the veritable Hockey Night in Canada franchise, which seems under attack regularly. Question is, does the Corp go after the Olympics again?
46. Alex Baumann: The 1984 double gold medalist in the individual medley leads the charge into the London 2012 Games as executive director of Own the Podium.
47. William Thompson: Rescued the country's floundering figure skating program, which will have several medal contenders in Vancouver including the dynamic Patrick Chan.
48. Guylaine Demers: University of Laval professor and president of Égale-Action, she pushes for more female coaches at the elite level of sport in Canada.
49. David Murphy: By taking Simon Fraser University into the NCAA, the senior athletic director is challenging Marg McGregor and the CIS to respond with a strategy - beyond status quo - to stop further defections.
50. Jeremy Wotherspoon: At age 33, he's the irrepressible, laid-back dean of a speed skating team that includes multimedal contenders in Kristina Groves, Christine Nesbitt and Denny Morrison.

Contributing: Matthew Sekeres, Allan Maki, Eric Duhatschek, Sean Gordon, Roy MacGregor, Jeff Blair, Stephen Brunt, Michael Grange, David Naylor, David Shoalts, Jeff Brooke, Lorne Rubenstein, Tom Tebbutt, Paul James, Beverley Smith, James Christie, Bruce Dowbiggin, Bob Weeks