What is a "fair deal" and is such a deal "reasonable"?

[radoran]

A bit of a takeoff on a discussion @jammer2 and I were having on another thread.

I think from the players' perspectives, they all thought they had reached a "fair deal" with the owners who were offering them the contracts. The owners, in threatening the abrogation of such a concept of that "fair deal," call into question their veracity, which - for the players - was already suspect at best.

I think the players have to give on "signing bonuses", long-term deals, front- and back-loaded contracts (outside a certain frame - no $10M/$550K deals) and to an agreement which will slant the League towards a 50/50 split. You're gong to make hundreds of thousands, if not multiple millions of dollars. Deal with it. And invest wisely.

The owners have to stop with the "hockey revenue" flim-flam and come clean on what the actual numbers we're talking about are - not with us but with the players. They also need to understand that, for example, a 14-year, $110M contract with a structure specifically designed to potentially "bankrupt" another franchise* if it accepted is not a "reasonable" way to do business among owners. Then those same deals drive up the overall average in the league which arbitration then uses as a benchmark for other salaries and suddenly the salary structure is elevated - by the people who create the salary structure.

It's hard for me to accept Leipold and Snider doing what they did over the off-season and then turning around and saying how awful what they did was and how someone else - the people they did it to - have to stop them before they inevitably do it again.

I'm no doctor and I don't play one on teevee, but that's borderline sociopathic, right there.

As the saying goes - there is no honor among thieves.

Hockey used to be a sport of honor. Can we please make it so again?

What is a "fair deal" from your perspective and what's "reasonable" for the owners and players to expect?

[flyerrod]

How about a 6 year deal for starters.......HRR split 52/48 to the players the first year, 2 year 51/49 and from the third year on 50/50. NO CHANGING THE DEFINITION OF HRR!! This is a set in stone definition that is not to be altered under any circumstance. Both sides live with any pluses or minuses forever more. All signed contracts completed before the closure of the last CBA will be honored in full.

From here on out, no contract will exceed 6 years in length. Free agency and starting contracts will be the same as the previous CBA. The Cap ceiling will stay at 70 million for the next 6 years and the cap floor will be 50% of the cap ceiling or 35 million.

Teams will be permitted to buy out injured players at 75% of their salary without it counting against the cap. All revenues generated through fines will be designated for NHL affiliated charities.All punishment will be meted out from a 3 person board consisting of 1 retired official(Ray Scapinello), 1 NHL appointee and 1 Union official. Any suspensions will result in the forfeiture of pay going to the same charity fund but also won't count against the team's cap.

Diving will not be tolerated. Non called dives will still be reviewed by the same panel and subject to increasing fines up to and including suspensions for repeat offenders. It is time to take the game back from the "soccer" players.

These ideas seem like a good place to start.........at least in my own little twisted Hockey Universe...

Oh and one more thing, Gary Bettman and Bill Daly will be fired and not allowed to hold ANY hockey related position EVER AGAIN!!! I should have put this first.