[truecdneh]

NHL, NHLPA reach tentative deal

7/13/2005 12:31:57 PM

And now for the words everyone has been waiting to hear: The deal is done!

The NHL and NHL Players' Association have finally reached an agreement (pending ratification) Wednesday on a new six-year collective bargaining agreement that - if approved by the NHL board of governors and the rank and file membership of the NHLPA - will officially end the 301-day labour stalemate sometime next week.

The agreement, a complex document reportedly numbering more than 600 pages, came after the two sides staged marathon negotiating sessions for nine consecutive days. Since the 2004-05 NHL season was officially cancelled on Feb. 16, the league and union have met on 82 occasions, leading to an agreement that will revamp the way the entire professional hockey industry conducts its business.

The league went into this lockout, which started on Sept. 15, 2004, seeking cost certainty and believes it has achieved that with a new economic system from top to bottom.

It remains to be seen when the lockout will officially end, though.

It is expected both the NHL and NHLPA will move to ratify the agreement within the next seven days. During that time, it is expected the new CBA will be distributed to all in the hockey industry so they can begin getting themselves up to speed on a myriad of new rules and regulations.

Among the most significant are:

- a hard team-by-team salary cap with a payroll of range of $21 million to $39 million (in the first year), which includes all player costs (benefits, insurance etc).

- the league's total expenditure on player costs (salaries, bonuses, benefits and insurance) is not permitted to exceed 54 per cent of defined hockey-related revenue and the salary cap and payroll range will move up or down as revenues increase or decrease each year of the deal.

- a 24 per-cent salary rollback for any NHL player who has time remaining on an existing contract, keeping in mind that the players will receive none of the monies they were slated to earn in the lost season of 2004-05.

- liberalized free agency (including unrestricted status at 27 by year four of the deal), a more restrictive entry level system, totally revamped salary arbitration, improved pension benefits and a revenue-sharing plan.

This agreement (pending ratification) will kick off the most bizarre and busiest off-season in NHL history after the league became the first major professional loop to lose an entire year to labour strife.

As tutorials are conducted to allow NHL owners, general managers, NHL players and player agents to understand the new economic order, plans are already in the works for the two ratification votes.

The NHL board of governors is expected to convene in New York City some time next week. And the NHLPA is expected to call a membership meeting in Toronto for around the same time.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will be recommending acceptance of this agreement to the governors, so a simple majority of the league's 30-man ruling body will be enough to ratify it.

It's also expected the NHLPA's executive committee, led by president Trevor Linden, will be endorsing the deal, which means a simple majority of the NHLPA's more than 700 members will be enough to make it binding. For those players who cannot physically make it to the membership meeting, the vote will be conducted through the NHLPA's secure website, The Source.

Assuming both groups ratify, the NHL is expected to begin a brief transition period before the league fully re-opens for business.

But before teams and players start to concern themselves with the specifics of transition - such as the buying out of some players to allow teams to meet cap requirements or the attempted signing of 2003 and 2004 draft picks who would re-enter the 2005 entry draft if not signed - the league is expected to unveil significant changes to the game, on and off the ice.

Because no season was played in 2004-05, there is no order of selection for the 2005 entry draft, which is tentatively scheduled to take place as a scaled-down event in Ottawa on July 30. Usually, teams draft in inverse order of finish from the recently-concluded season, but this time there will be a weighted draft lottery (with the teams who have fared poorest over the last few years to get marginally better odds than those who fared well) to determine who gets the first overall pick and the right to pick young phenom Sidney Crosby. That lottery is scheduled to take place on July 21 when the NHL is expected to formally announce the new CBA.

In addition to that major business, the NHL is also expected to unveil significant rule changes aimed at making the game more exciting and fan friendly, including shootouts to end tie games and the removal of the red line for the purpose of allowing two-line passes.

While the regular season will remain at 82 games long for each team, the format of that schedule may be altered, along with a potential expansion of the NHL playoffs from 16 to 20 teams.

Once the NHL's formal news conference is put to bed, along with the lottery and rule changes, the brief transition period should unfold in order to take care of the loose ends from the expired CBA. At some point, the NHL will declare itself open for business and NHL teams will be sorting through a huge pool of unrestricted free agents as many teams make themselves over from the ground up.

Whether it is the brave new world the NHL hopes, remains to be seen, but the level of activity and uncertainty will be higher than at any other time in league history.

For now, though, the only thing that matters in the short term is this: The deal (pending ratification) is done.

[The Hoser]

I don't know quite how to feel right now... *Cry* it's just so beautiful....

[DerbyX]

About Effen time.

We can now go back to watching 1 person crush another person into the side of the rink!

The Hoser: Another name change? You went from Sad Blue to the Dark canuck to the Hoser. Were there any before that?

[The Hoser]

No, SadBlue was my first name... Look at the link in my sig, I found that I am a near-perfect match to what a Hoser is... Plus I like changing my name

[Giselle]

Ya well f%#k 'em, they are going to have a hard time selling it to the public.

With 48% of surveyed people saying they won't watch the NHL it's gonna be a hard road. And the corporate world is none to happy with any of them so advertising bucks are going to be down. These guys really did a number on the future of the game as we have been used to it, I'd be surprised if it ever recovers.

Personally I don't really care about it anymore, the NHL is a joke compared to what it was 10 or 15 years ago, the games isn't even our hockey as it was. So the NHL can implode and then hopefully there will be a new league formed that resembles the old NHL with real rules and real players, 'cause the shit that is out there now is tragic. It's not hockey anymore, it's what they thought would go over in the US markets. Ooopps!

Flame away all.

[The Hoser]

I'm just so god damn desperate for hockey, kay? I CANNOT SURVIVE ON EUROPEAN HOCKEY ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Giselle]

See that is what the idiots that blew this up are hoping for, well they're counting on it actually. That people will be so desperate for hockey that they will just forgoet everything and throw their money back at them and everything will fine again. Be strong, tell them to shove it.

Can you imagine what would happen if no one bothered with it when it starts up again? If people said, uh no, we want the game to be like this. These assholes act like it's them that are doing us the favor by playing hockey. Give it up! We own the friggin' game not them. With out us there is no hockey. I for one won't pay to watch mediocre crap that is supposed to be hockey. Supposed to be what real hockey is.

[zanysportslady]

OH SWEET MOTHER!!!!
GIVE ME MY F*$&IN HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!

[The Hoser]

Giselle, I cannot last any longer without my hockey... I need it...

[Giselle]

nnnoooooooooo....

You sound like my niece that plays Midget A. She's been yakkin all day about it.

[Giselle]

Take a cold shower..

It's funny, my whole family is involved with hockey in one way or another. I'm not allowed over at the moment.

[The Hoser]

Would you ask a starved man, who hadn't eaten in 10 days and would not last another, to stare at his favourit dish and not take a bite?

[Giselle]

$1:

Would you ask a starved man, who hadn't eaten in 10 days and would not last another, to stare at his favourit dish and not take a bite?

I'd say eat the plate. I'm not sure how that would apply to this situation though so I'm not sure....perhaps just enjoy the aroma of it all.

[The Hoser]

I am hockey-starved. If I don't get hockey before the year is out, I may well put the .357 Magnum to my head and end it all, due to lack of hockey. But hockey is back, even if in a rudementry form, and I'll take what I can get, thank you very much.

[Giselle]

Easy there big fella, find a happy place...find a happy place.