The NHL and the NHLPA have, since the end of the 2012 season, been meeting to discuss the future of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that expires on September 15 of this year. So far talks have been cordial and the idea of getting something done before the start of the regular season seemed to be on track. On Friday, the NHL brought forth their first proposal and now it seems the words ‘Lockout’ and ‘War’ are on the lips of almost every pundit and fan-boy with a blog. Here’s a run down of the first proposal from the NHL to the Player’s Assiciation:
– reduce hockey related revenues for players from 57% to 46%
– players must be in the league for 10 years before becoming an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA)
– contracts are to be limited to 5 year terms
– same salary in each season of contract (no ‘front-loaded’ contracts)
– no more salary arbitration (it’s the teams way or the highway)
– Entry Level Contracts would be 5 years instead of 3 years
– no signing bonuses
These are just some of the points that the NHL hit on. The ball is now in the NHLPA’s court and according to Executive Director Donald Fehr, the P.A. is not in any hurry to counter-offer:
“We requested further information,” Fehr said. “The initial proposal we are looking hard at……we’re not at that stage (to submit a counter) yet. At the appropriate point in time, we’ll make our proposal.”
Courtesy: The Sporting News
The first proposal, for me, makes sense in that the owners are trying to re-coup lost funds and get themselves back into the black. With high-priced, front-loaded, lengthy contracts for some of the leagues top stars, reducing the amount of time a player can be signed for and upping the amount of time a player has to play in order to be a UFA, can save money in the long run and keep the league at an even, competitive pace. Why then are owners offering such lengthy contracts to begin with? Zach Parise and Ryan Suter just signed 13 year, $98M deals, and they took LESS money than they were offered. Meanwhile, the owners are jacking up ticket and food/beverage prices to compensate for the loss they are taking. If the owners want to be taken seriously in the eyes of this fan, then maybe stop offering players $10M signing bonuses and 13 year contracts.
So, Donald Fehr and the P.A. have asked for additional information before they make a counter-offer, but in the mean time talks of ‘Strike’ and ‘Lockout’ will loom large in blogs all over the world. For this fan-boy though, I don’t see a lockout happening.
The 2004-2005 season was shut down by Bettman when a new CBA could not be reached and the league took years to recover from that. It’s still recovering. The NHL cannot afford that again. If the league was shut down, or even delayed for half the season like in 1994, it could spell DOOM. But I don’t see that happening.
Unlike the previous lockouts, the NHLPA is being well represented by players from almost every team in the league. And not just the veterans like Henrik Lundqvist, Jason Chimera Manny Malhotra and Patrice Bergeron. Young players like James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk, John Tavares, Jonathan Toews, Kyle Okposo, Brandon Dubinsky, etc… have turned out to represent their P.A. to become more educated this time around.
“It’s going to take some time to get in depth and understand those,” Manny Malhotra said. “It’s a long process, so instead of getting wrapped up emotionally and flying off the handle, it makes far more sense to be educated in what they’re trying to propose and understanding it in great detail to make sure we know what to counter with.”
Brandon Dubinsky:
“I think everybody’s expecting us to say how upset and disappointed we were in there, but it’s a negotiation… that was their starting point… I don’t know if it was a test or it wasn’t a test. I’ve been in a couple of these, and this is the most players that we’ve had. So I think that the players are together, and I think that we all want to play hockey this year.”
Like any negotiation, the first pitch is always a slap in the face. The NHLPA, in a few days or weeks, will counter with something that may be a slap in the face to the owners and the league. And back and forth it will go until something is agreed upon. It’s only July 18th. They have time. But one thing is for certain – the league and players cannot afford another lockout and that’s why I don’t see it happening. They know what is at stake and they don’t want to be the ones who ruined the NHL for good.
I’ve done a lot of reading on this from all the real reporters out there who get paid to do this, and they all seem to agree that the main point the owners are hitting on is the revenue-sharing. Before the two sides can agree on how much or how little the players get, the meaning of the term has to be changed. I’m still learning this stuff, so I’m not even going to begin to explain in fear that I will completely get it wrong and be crucified for it – so I’ll find out what I can and write about it soon. The other stuff in the proposal is more about roster and salary cap stability in order to save money and keep players from charging too much for their services before they really get a chance to earn that right – now that I can agree with.
Like I said a couple paragraphs ago, there is three months until the current CBA expires. The NHL wants a deal done as soon as possible and the NHLPA and Donald Fehr will take their time and carefully plot their first attack, but for Fehr, just because the CBA expires doesn’t mean the end of the world:
“The law doesn’t require that the industry shut down if you don’t have an agreement,” Fehr said of the deadline. “Somebody has to choose to shut it down. At the moment, I see no reason to do that from the players’ side. That’s what I said. Hopefully they won’t either.”
*Also Posted at http://www.ihatejjr.com/content/nhl-strikes-first-cba-negotiations *
