Featured Comment Paparanger Posted August 5, 2017 Author Featured Comment Share Posted August 5, 2017 Please Allow me to clarify something: The article I read said that the NHLPA & The NHL both have the "Option" to terminate the CBA after this upcoming season. In other words, this is not an option that has to have mutual approval. If either side decides to do this then there is a more than 90% chance of a stoppage. The one thing I forgot to mention is that the other reason the players are disgruntled is because of the 2018 Olympics not being on the table this time around. One of the things the article mentioned is that the NHL (The league) has a net worth of Four Billion Dollars while the NFL (The League) has a net worth of Sixty-two Billion Dollars while MLB has a net worth of Thirty-Six Billion Dollars. Because of this, there is only so much money to go around. And that is a problem the owners face. If I were to read between the lines I would have to conclude that Gary Bettman is the major problem here. True the NHL had it's problems as a league prior to him being named a commissioner but it seems that ever since he has come into the league there has been more ciaos than harmony. I lost count of the lockouts because of him. Plus he wants to expand the league which is a drain on the talent pool of a hard game to play while putting teams in venues that don't support hockey. The imbalance of teams from the east to the west with the absurd travel schedule of the western teams is a joke. He puts a team in Vegas which is good but he snubs Seattle . HUH? Quebec is looking to get back into the NHL but he won't move any failing teams to that venue & allow them to thrive. This guy has flipped the script. He is supposed to be working for the owners but it seems that it is the other way around. Then he wonders why he gets booed every time he makes a public appearance. I see no reasonable answer in sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 46 minutes ago, Paparanger said: Please Allow me to clarify something: The article I read said that the NHLPA & The NHL both have the "Option" to terminate the CBA after this upcoming season. In other words, this is not an option that has to have mutual approval. If either side decides to do this then there is a more than 90% chance of a stoppage. The one thing I forgot to mention is that the other reason the players are disgruntled is because of the 2018 Olympics not being on the table this time around. One of the things the article mentioned is that the NHL (The league) has a net worth of Four Billion Dollars while the NFL (The League) has a net worth of Sixty-two Billion Dollars while MLB has a net worth of Thirty-Six Billion Dollars. Because of this, there is only so much money to go around. And that is a problem the owners face. If I were to read between the lines I would have to conclude that Gary Bettman is the major problem here. True the NHL had it's problems as a league prior to him being named a commissioner but it seems that ever since he has come into the league there has been more ciaos than harmony. I lost count of the lockouts because of him. Plus he wants to expand the league which is a drain on the talent pool of a hard game to play while putting teams in venues that don't support hockey. The imbalance of teams from the east to the west with the absurd travel schedule of the western teams is a joke. He puts a team in Vegas which is good but he snubs Seattle . HUH? Quebec is looking to get back into the NHL but he won't move any failing teams to that venue & allow them to thrive. This guy has flipped the script. He is supposed to be working for the owners but it seems that it is the other way around. Then he wonders why he gets booed every time he makes a public appearance. I see no reasonable answer in sight. If Bettman wasn't working for the owners he wouldn't be commissioner for very long. Expansion required approval of the Board of Governors. They approved it. Not Gary Bettman. Under Bettman, the owners and players have exponentially increased their worth. The highest paid player in the NHL when Bettman took over was Eric Lindros at $3.5 million per year. Conor McDavid just signed a deal averaging $12.5 million per year. I chuckle when Bettman gets blamed for the work stoppages. Bettman can't lock out the players. Only the owners can. It's not as if the owners felt player salaries were all hunky dory and the (the owners) felt as if they were making enough money and Bettman was whispering in the ears behind the scenes that they should be making more and that a lock-out was the way to do it. I'd argue you would have had those work stoppages regardless of who was commissioner. Here's all you need to know. In 1993, the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks paid expansion fees of $50 million. The Vegas Golden Knights just forked over $500 million. #blamebettman :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammer2 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 The NHL will lock out the players. It's basically a foregone conclusion. Owners have their whole lives, players have 10-12 seasons or so. Take away one of those years, it's HUGE. Take away 2 in an extended lockout, it's monumental. The owners have all the leverage here, AND sitting firmly in their back pocket is the knowledge that the fans come back with their tails between their legs, they love the sport and will not abandon it like MLB fans after they missed a season. I don't think it will be this lockout, but eventually, the NHL will make contracts not guaranteed. They will break the union's backs on this issue when they think the time is right. Most franchises sign at least one player to a ridiculously risky deal, knowing they have this buy out in looming on the horizon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyClarkeFan16 Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 18 hours ago, jammer2 said: I don't think it will be this lockout, but eventually, the NHL will make contracts not guaranteed. They will break the union's backs on this issue when they think the time is right. Most franchises sign at least one player to a ridiculously risky deal, knowing they have this buy out in looming on the horizon. This is what the next lock out will be about - guaranteed contracts. I think you'll see the NHL want to move to an NFL style of contract where salaries aren't guaranteed, but bonuses are. I'm also thinking that if the NHL/NHLPA end up in another war, it's time to file for binding arbitration immediately. The 50/50 split of revenue will remain, but I think if the players give something up, they're going to demand to be more involved in terms of relocation or expansion. Enough of this keeping franchises afloat that have no business remaining in the markets where they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trefilov22 Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 On 8/3/2017 at 2:17 PM, aziz said: the fear being that a deep-pockets team could offer a sum of money the smaller team just couldn't, fully planning on buying it out down the road to no consequence? that's fair, i get that. i'm also not opposed to teams with more vibrant fan bases being able to realize some sort of earned advantage. my thinking is that a hard cap coupled to no-impact buyouts would do a fair job of allowing an advantage without letting it get out of control. while team A might be able to offer a player eleventy-billion dollars per year, and plan on buying it out a few years down the road, they'd still need to fit that eleventy-billion dollars into their cap figures until they do. i believe the mechanics of negotiating and acquiring players would remain largely as it is today, but we wouldn't have to worry about teams dealing with cap problems years after a questionable deal was signed. because: who thinks teams dealing with cap problems helps the sport? i think the hard cap does as much to control spending on individual contracts as is needed, but teams decaying for years under their poor planning would be minimized. which, i/m/h/o, can only help NHL hockey as a whole. I must admit that I am not well versed on how the CBA works in the NHL, and this could actually be answered within this thread further on, but on the note of the buy outs.. Why not have something put in place that if a team were to buy out a player, they would have to pay some sort of tax (call it whatever you want), that goes into a pool... If a team completes a buy out, that tax goes into the tax pool. At some point, either in the off season or what not, that tax money gets disbursed to all the teams in the league. If a team were to commit a buy out, they would be ineligible to receive and of that "tax" money. Now that "tax" could be a percentage of the salary bought out, a set fee, etc. I don't know the right answer to that, but I would say something of a percentage of the buy out. 50, 60% of the remaining contract? Now that money would go into the disbursement pool on a per season basis. So, if John Doe has a remaining contract for 4 years, at a total value per season (signing bonus, base pay, etc.) of $6mil per season, then each season the team would have to put in whatever the percentage fine for the buyout would be. Or, they could do it in one lump sum, but that could create for rather large disbursements each season. These should be a caveat for those teams receiving the disbursements.. That those funds have to be used towards player salaries, development, etc. Prop up their minor league system.. It should also be disbursed on a fund needed basis... Those teams in smaller markets that are struggling, get a better share of the pie... I doubt this is a feasible solution, but maybe something along these lines could be a start. The other teams should get some sort of benefit for being money conscious or just living within their means. Hell, maybe allow teams to somehow earn buyout points that they can use to buy a buyout. Shrug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 On 8/2/2017 at 11:23 AM, murraycraven said: Amen... NHL and it's ownership can't get out of it's own way. If you are a betting man I think it is a pretty safe wager there will be another lockout. That would be bad news for Toronto fans since the Leafs are actually on the rise again. It would kill all the momentum that they're building with the current core group and would hurt the league badly. A lockout this time would backfire for the league. I think fans have reached their threshold for lockouts (it really is ridiculous when you think about it), and fans in Ontario would burn down the NHL's offices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluPuk Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 IMHO, the players have a LOUSY deal right now. The PA should strike to get the right to play in Olympics, have a LOT more say in the cap, and lots of other one-sided "rules". Here is my message to Gary 'the elf' Bettman : no players, no NHL. Sorry, I had to get that out..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aziz Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 1 hour ago, BluPuk said: Here is my message to Gary 'the elf' Bettman : no players, no NHL. sure, but "no NHL, no NHL" is also true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJgoal Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 1 hour ago, BluPuk said: Here is my message to Gary 'the elf' Bettman : no players, no NHL. Here's the thing. In general, the owners don't need to own a team. The players need the NHL in order to continue getting paid as they are. If the owners would suffer significant financial difficulties with no NHL, do you really think they'd lock the players out? What's interesting is that while I do think guaranteed contracts are the next hill for the owners, and that they'll want to go more towards the NFL model, the NFL players are looking ahead a couple of years and are supposedly planning to try to get guaranteed contracts in their next CBA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trefilov22 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Yeah, I would have ot agree the players need the league more than the owners.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunatic Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 1 hour ago, Trefilov22 said: Yeah, I would have ot agree the players need the league more than the owners.... Another question is: How much do the fans need the NHL? The AHL and ECHL provide good hockey at an affordable price! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trefilov22 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Absolutely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trefilov22 Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 10 hours ago, Lunatic said: Another question is: How much do the fans need the NHL? The AHL and ECHL provide good hockey at an affordable price! I agree, their brand and quality isn't all that bad, and the price really can't be beat comparatively speaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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