For one brief, shining moment in 2011, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety—under Brendan Shanahan’s guidance—actually cared about player safety.
If Shanahan had been allowed to continue his plan of seriously penalizing players for dangerous acts, those acts would have been phased out of the game; there are players over the last decade whose careers have been shortened or ended, or whose retirement life will be full of unnecessary pain and distress, because of a play that Shanahan didn’t want their opponents to be making.
However, owners and GMs didn’t like there being consequences for actions; Shanahan was forced to step back.