Photo courtesy of Carlos Osorio – Toronto Star

By Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)

The NHL lockout is finally over. After a 16-hour bargaining session between the NHL and NHLPA the two sides have finally reached an agreement.

Below are some of the details from the new collective bargaining agreement (thanks to TSN and Sportsnet for the information).

• The year 2 salary cap ceiling is $64.3M.
• Cap floor will be $44M.
• Maximum contract length for free agents signing on a new team is seven years.
• Maximum contract length for players re-signing with their current team is eight years.
• The collective bargaining agreement is 10 years in length with an opt-out after the eighth year.
• The schedule will consist of conference games only and the season could start as early as January 15th.
• Player contract variance can change up to 35% per season but the lowest variance in salary must be 50% or higher of the highest salary a player makes in one season. For example: if a player makes $5M on year in his contract, the least he can make in another season is $2.5M (50%).
• There will be two amnesty buy outs per team before the 2013-14 season. The money won’t count against the cap but will count on players share.

The post NHL and Players Association Reach Tentative Agreement, Lockout Is Over appeared first on The Hockey Guys.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star

By Bob Haynes (@BobHaynesJr)

The inevitable has happened. The NHL has locked the players out again as the deadline came and went without a sound on 9/15/12. This was pretty much expected as the two sides have actually had very little negotiations and the proposals made by each side were light years apart. So now who is to blame for this situation and how will this lockout affect the future of the NHL? Also, the most important issue is how can a deal be reached quickly?

Agents, Players, and Free Agency

Since the last lockout that cost an entire season to the negotiations, the cost of free agency has driven player’s salaries through the roof. In 2004 the salary cap was initially set at $39 million per team. Prior to the lockout the salary cap has risen to $70 million per team. This represents almost a doubling of salary paid to players since the 2004 season. A major reason for this is the support of the fan support for the game as the new rules to open the game were applied which created record revenues. So this has created more money in the pool and the agents and players have created salary demands that have driven the price to operate up. The reason is because the salary cap is directly tied to the revenue of the league, and in my opinion this is the problem

The greed of the players is again at the forefront as top end players sign to play overseas, what kind of message is this sending to the union? “You guys stay home, do not get paid, and work things out so that I can return and still make more money?” This is a time for solidarity by the players – meaning that the stars should not run overseas and continue to get paid while the others do the dirty work.

General Managers

The amount of money available to the GMs for players as the salary cap has grown have allowed the GMs to reach and over pay to get the player under contract. A good example here is the offers made to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter this summer. These players are both really talented players however they are not in the same class as other players at this salary level (see Sidney Crosby contract). This creates unrealistic expectations on the players and many times creates a situation where the player simply cannot live up to the salary. Further examples from past Free Agency years where contracts were too big for the players are: Scott Gomez, Ville Leino, etc.

Don Fehr and NHLPA

Don Fehr took way too long to get up to speed on the issues. These CBA negotiations should have started last year no later than the Winter Classic and conducted quietly. By waiting until after the draft to even start talking simply did not allow enough time to negotiate. The NHLPA also sees a different deadline for a solution. The NHL set 9/15 and yet the players do not miss any revenue until 10/17 for their first paycheck.

Gary Bettman and the NHL

The picture painted by the commissioner at the Stanley Cup Finals of record revenue by the league told a very different story than the initial offer by the owners of a salary rollback and how the finances of the league is not working under the current CBA. Asking for a rollback AND a smaller percentage of revenue to the players was a bad line in the sand as a starting point.

Conclusion

In conclusion the real losers here are the mid-range and lower range players and the fans. The owners are already wealthy and will not have to pay the contracts, the top end players will be able to play overseas if they like, and young stars will be moved to the AHL. The mid range NHL players are left out as well as low range AHL players that will be pushed aside for young NHL stars in the AHL. Finally the fans miss out on the games that they spend their hard earned money upon. Without the games, the fans will find other outlets for their money and a prolonged work stoppage will negatively affect the bottom line of the game long term. The two sides need to be in a room and negotiating continuously. They might also want to take a lead from the American politics landscape by doing the opposite of what is happening in the US on a daily basis.

The only way to close this issue is to negotiate which has the following definition: Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests of two people/parties involved in negotiation process. Negotiation is a process where each party involved in negotiating tries to gain an advantage for themselves by the end of the process. Negotiation is intended to aim at compromise.

So where is the compromise? The compromise is exactly in the center somewhere. Both sides need to move toward the center and the deal can be reached quickly. The owners cannot ask for a salary rollback. The players must give on contract terms – especially length of the deal.

Good Night and Good Hockey!

The post Why is There an NHL Lockout? appeared first on The Hockey Guys.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Bennett / Getty Images

By Rhys Richards (@RREsq)

In the past week, many players have signed contracts overseas in an effort to continue working during the ongoing lockout.

Detroit Red Wings superstar Pavel Datsyuk signed with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, the club whose general manager is former Red Wing Sergei Federov. Wings defenseman Jakub Kindl signed with Pardubice in the Czech Republic, and off-season addition right wing Damien Brunner returned to play in Switzerland.

In the midst of that exodus of players, Detroit made the news on Saturday when NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly announced that the club had been fined for comments made earlier in the week by Senior Vice President and Alternate Governor Jim Devellano in a very candid interview with Island Sports News.

In the interview heard round the hockey world, Devellano referred to the players as “cattle.” The NHL promptly fined the organization an amount rumored to be in the neighborhood of $250,000 per TSN.

Devellano, who has been with Detroit for 29 and in the NHL for 44 seasons, has long been a driving force with the Red Wings and the league as a whole. Devellano played a part into transforming the draft into the spectacle it is today.  Devellano suggested the four-on-four overtime format with the additional point at stake that has been in use by the NHL since the 1999-2000 season.

During the interview, Devellano answered several questions, took some shots at teams who use offer sheets, gave nothing short of a glowing review of Commissioner Gary Bettman, attacked Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron McLean for asking exaggerated questions, and outlined some of the issues currently at stake in collective bargaining negotiations.

In one response, Devellano stated in no uncertain terms, “I think it should be clear up front that Gary Bettman works for the owners, not the players, and he is now entering his 20^th year doing this. The owners direct him on what to do.” Devellano continued his efforts to humanize Bettman throughout the interview.

In response to a question about the perception fans may have of the huge contracts be given to Suter, Weber, Myers, and Lucic, among others, just before the lockout commenced, Devellano said, “It’s very complicated and way too much for the average Joe to understand, but having said that, I will tell you this: The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle. The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there. That’s the way its always been and that’s the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren’t going to let a union push them around. It’s not going to happen.”

Devellano cautioned players going overseas to remember that their medical benefits had been pulled and they would not be paid by any NHL owners in the future until they’re cleared to play by league doctors.

Without taking a stand for either side, Devellano provided one of the more realistic assessments of the characters involved in and what is at stake for both sides in the current collective bargaining agreement. The fine was based on a violation of the League’s By-Laws.  Deputy Commissioner Daly stated, “Such comments are neither constructive nor helpful to the negotiations.”

Prior to Devellano’s interview, the owners and team officials had been warned that they would face fines if they talked about the lockout. The question remains then what Devellano, a Hall-of-Famer and brilliant hockey mind, intended to accomplish by giving the interview.

While Devellano is certainly not a follower and will often say what is on his mind, the Detroit organization is known for being historically quiet with the media preferring instead to exercise its influence over decisions like where the Winter Classic should be held, for example, behind closed doors.

That conservative, calculated approach is embodied by team officials like Devellano and General Manager Ken Holland, head coach Mike Babcock, and even the team’s last two captains, Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom.

Interestingly, Lidstrom’s expected replacement superstar forward Henrik Zetterberg is actively involved with the NHLPA and has been the primary face of the franchise at union meetings during the collective bargaining negotiations.

Perhaps it is the visible involvement of Detroit’s future captain that prompted Detroit through Devellano and/or Devellano himself to take matters into its/his hands as the lockout completed its first week.

The growing number of players signing overseas suggests that the NHLPA is digging in for a long battle with the NHL and the owners. NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr is no stranger to prolonged collective bargaining negotiations having maneuvered Major League Baseball’s players’ union through the 1994-1995 strike that included a cancellation of the World Series.

On the other hand, if Devellano’s assessment is accurate, the NHL and the owners are not overly willing to negotiate to any great extent to iron out a new collective bargaining agreement.

Detroit is likely to pay the fine without any public fuss. Devellano’s job is more than secure despite the fine. Although his interview broke the mold developed by the Detroit Red Wings in recent decades, it may very well prove to be the proverbial shot over the bow that both sides need to realize the errors of their ways, and ultimately, the push they need to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement.

The complete transcript of the Devellano interview is available here.

Statistics and other information obtained at www.nhl.com and www.tsn.ca.  

Share your thoughts about the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings, and hockey in general with Rhys at Twitter: @RREsq.  He can be reached via email at RhysJRichards@gmail.com.  Join the many fans of The Hockey Guys on Facebook and Twitter @TheHockeyGuys

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Getty Images | Photo by The Associated Press

By Tyler J. Altemose (@TJamesAltemose)

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday, the NHL reviewed the NHLPA’s proposal as part of the ongoing CBA negotiations. NHLPA Director Don Fehr was widely trumpeted as a cunning strategist for the way in which the “alternative view” proposal was presented.

Rather than make an attempt to tackle the July 13 proposal from the NHL head on, the NHLPA instead decided to engage in a different tactic, dodging the NHL’s proposal entirely while simultaneously presenting their own position on the “core economic issues”.

“What the players agreed to do was cut their future increases substantially and allow the owners to … address the problems that underlie the proposal that they made,” Fehr told the media.

Today, the NHL came prepared to continue discussions.

Fehr told the media today that negotiations lasted a little over an hour and included the NHL’s preliminary response to the NHLPA’s proposal as well as a clarification of the numbers. He explained that there were parts they liked and parts they did not like, which came of no surprise to him.

Mr. Bettman, however, took a much more direct tone, declaring his disappointment with the apparent incompleteness of the NHLPA’s proposal.

He explained that the owners “value the proposal and … its economics differently than the Players’ Association” and that there are a number of issues where the owners “look at the world differently”.

Fehr clarified to the media that most of the absent issues are “contractual issues” that are directly related to the economic proposals the NHLPA presented yesterday. He also stated that the NHL has been notified of several subject areas in which the PA intends to make future proposals. As far as Mr. Fehr is concerned, the league and owners have “almost everything” from them.

Mr. Bettman reminded the media that there is “a wide gap between us and not much time to go.”

The current CBA expires on September 15, one month from today. Bettman has already stated publicly that if by that date a new CBA is not agreed upon he will reinstate a lockout.

When inquired about the proverbial doomsday date, Fehr explained to the media: “There’s only one party talking about September 15. Make of that what you will.”

His comments infer an implication that the NHL is trying to use that date as a negotiating tactic.

Still, the PA remains cautious. When asked about whether the players have been advised to set money aside in preparation for a lockout, Fehr told the media that the players have been advised to do so for some time now.

“We have been advising the players to prepare for a couple of years for a worst case analysis,” Fehr told the media. “You hope for the best but you prepare for the worst. That’s true in every negotiation. It’s not specific to this one.”

It seems that the one item of discussion both parties have agreed to at this point is that there is a “gulf”, or “wide gap” between the two proposals. Fehr sharply said of the disparity, “When you start with the proposal the owners made, how can it be otherwise?”

The NHLPA went on to criticize the league for the gap. Said Mr. Fehr:

“It is, ‘Let’s move salaries back to where they were before the [2004-05] lockout started; back to the last time. … We had a 24 percent reduction last time, let’s have another one.’ That was the proposal. That’s what creates the gulf.”

With one month until an NHL lockout and with both proposals on the table, it appears as if each party took its opportunity to stand their ground. But negotiations must continue. Both parties understand that.

“We have to be prepared to sit and negotiate until we get the deal done,” Fehr told reporters.”This is not a process in which you can evolve each day or each negotiating session, or you can analyze it on the basis that it’s a sporting event that somebody won or somebody lost.”

Fehr explained to the media that these CBA negotiations are “a marathon, not a sprint.”

Bettman maintained that the “lines of communication are good” and that meetings so far have been professional, respectful, and cordial. “This is a process we’re going to continue to work on,” he told reporters.

“You have to find other approaches to come to common ground,” Fehr said. “I still would like to believe that we will.”

Fehr and Bettman aren’t set to meet again in person until next Wednesday, but the two will remain in contact via phone as Fehr attends player meetings in Chicago and Kelowna.

Stay tuned to The Hockey Guys as the CBA negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA continue.

Credit to Chris Johnston of The Canadian Press for the tweet links. Read his full account of today’s proceedings via The Winnipeg Free Press here.

The post NHL Reviews NHLPA Proposal appeared first on The Hockey Guys.

(AP Photo/Chris Young)

By Adam Graham (@adam_graham)

There’s no question that hockey wouldn’t have evolved to the wonderful sport it is today if it wasn’t for change and adaptation, which is the main purpose behind the annual NHL general managers meetings.

In order to make hockey at its highest level become more enjoyable for the fans and safer for the players, the GMs of all 30 teams meet once a year to discuss a number of topics that might improve the game. Potential rule changes are always a hot button topic at these meetings and this year was no exception.

Specifically hybrid icing was the biggest rule change that was discussed by the GMs earlier this week in Boca Raton, Florida. In the end it was the only changes they were all united on.

As a result, the GMs will now be able to make a recommendation to the competition committee and ultimately seek the Board of Governors approval in order for this new rule to be implemented next season.

So what exactly is hybrid icing?

Well, as the term hybrid suggests, it’s a combination of two different versions of the icing rule.

There’s the way icing is currently called in the NHL, which requires a defending player to physically touch the puck after it has been shot past the goal line from the oppositions own side of center without touching anyone on the way.

Then there’s the way icing is called in literally every other hockey league, which simply requires the puck to be shot from behind center and cross the goal line without being touched on the way. There’s no need for a defenseman to hustle back to touch the puck and risk a dangerous neck injury from crashing into the boards during a race with an opposing forward.

This is known as the no-touch icing rule and while the NHL doesn’t want to eliminate the possibility of long outlet passes off the end boards to an onrushing player, not to mention the excitement of two players racing to touch the puck first, the GMs appear to be finally taking a stand on what they feel are unnecessary injuries caused by these races.

As a result, the hybrid rule that’s being implemented now relies on the judgment of the linesman to decide which player looks as though they are going to win the race for the puck on a pending icing call once they reach the faceoff dot. If the defending player is ahead at the faceoff dot, the whistle is blown on a no-touch icing ruling. However, if the attacking player is ahead of the defender, the linesman goes by the current icing ruling.

This is good news for the safety of NHL players, which was a topic that was also discussed on a much larger scale throughout the three-day series of meetings in Boca Raton.

Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan made a presentation that analyzed hits and concussions and where the league is at with the issue of hits to the head. He provided statistics that broke down how many concussions come from clean hits in comparison to illegal hits and fights.

At the end of it all, it was revealed that the number of head injuries to players has neither increased or decreased from last season, but the fact that Shanahan and the rest of the NHL Department of Player Safety is doing more research than ever on how these head injuries are occurring is a step in the right direction.

Of course, there was also the looming issue of the pending expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. However, that topic was kept under wraps by Commissioner Gary Bettman in order to put more of the focus on improving the game, which it appears is exactly what was done.

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By: Tyler J. Altemose (@HockeyGuyTy)

Sometimes even the most perfect plans go awry.

On Tuesday the Philadelphia Flyers placed forward Blair Betts on waivers, a move which surprised many Flyers fans (myself included). On Wednesday he was acquired by the Montreal Canadiens. While most of Flyers nation spent their time deriding Flyers GM Paul Holmgren as some kind of incompetent fool, I considered the methodology for taking that course of action.

It turns out that the plan was pretty ingenious.

What you, the reader, need to understand is that the crux of this issue lies on the newcomer Sean Couturier and the size of the Flyers Reserve List. In layman’s terms, if the Flyers want Sean Couturier to play more than 10 NHL games this season, they need to get rid of a player. For a more “legal” answer to the issue, I reference you to Article 1 of the CBA which defines Reserve List:

“‘Reserve list’ means the list of all players to whom a Club has rights including all Unsigned Draft Choices, all Players signed to an SPC (whether or not currently playing in the NHL), and all Players who have signed an SPC but who have subsequently been returned to the Juniors. A Club may have on its reserve list, at any one time, not more than 90 players, which shall include the following: a) Not more than 50 Players signed to an SPC and not less than 24 Players and 3 goalies under an SPC. Age 18 and 19 Players who were returned to Juniors, and have not played 11 NHL games in one season, shall be exempt from inclusion in the 50 Player limit.”

The Flyers had 51 players in their Reserve List as of Tuesday. However, two of them (Sean Couturier and Marcel Noebels) are included in that exception I emphasized above, so technically the team was at 49. Blair Betts was the 50th contract. Sean Couturier, provided he plays more than 10 NHL games, is 51.

That is a problem.

So what Holmgren did to alleviate the situation was waive a player. That player was Blair Betts. There was a wave of criticism following the move because of fear of who would replace him in the fourth line center position (the answer, by the way, is Maxime Talbot) and why Betts was waived over the oft-scratched Jody Shelley.

The reason that Betts was waived over Shelley is because the Flyers needed assurance that the player being waived would be picked up and open up that spot on the Reserve List for Sean Couturier. Flyers fans need to think of the other 29 teams in the league. Would a GM of another team opt to pick up a player with a more expensive cap hit and a more limited role, or a veteran player who plays his role well and is at a convenient price? The answer came early Wednesday afternoon when the Canadiens picked Betts up. That freed up the roster spot for Couturier, meaning that he could play as many games as he wants this season.

However, just four days after being picked up, Blair Betts is on his way back to the Flyers after failing his physical with the Canadiens, this according to several confirmed reports.

But why? Can the NHL do that?

You bet they can.

13.20(a) The Club acquiring a Player by Waiver claim shall take Assignment of the Player’s SPC. Nevertheless, if the Commissioner determines that a Player acquired by Waiver claim is not physically fit at the time the claim is made, the Club making the claim may refuse to take an assignment of such Player’s SPC and the request for waivers shall be canceled.”

And that’s exactly what happened. Betts failed his physical in Montreal and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sent him back on a one-way trip to the City of Brotherly Love.

So what options do the Flyers have at this point? Well, the most obvious option is to put Betts back on waivers again. But that move doesn’t seem very viable given the circumstances. If Betts passes through waivers again he’s still a part of the Flyers Reserve List which means that Couturier is limited to a 10 NHL game maximum.

The Flyers could also embark upon a trade. That could alleviate some cap space and open up a roster spot for Couturier (assuming the trade is for picks and not any players, or assuming the Flyers trade away more players than they acquire).

Or they can just stay put. Theoretically, they just have to send Couturier down to the Juniors before he plays 11 NHL games. They’ll be over the salary cap with Betts’ salary on the books, but that problem is easily solved by placing Ian Laperriere on Long-Term Injured Reserve and using the league’s LTIR relief to keep them cap-compliant.

It’s a murky situation, yes. But the Flyers have options. Stay tuned to The Hockey Guys to see how the situation develops.

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It has been a while since we have been able to keep you up to date here with our site, and please forgive us for that as we continue to decipher through new plans and ideas for both the site and the show.

Earlier this afternoon, I was able to join in on a conference call with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman as well as NHL COO John Collins and HBO’s Ross Greenburg.

The basis of the conference call was to discuss the outline behind the new 24/7 reality series presented by HBO which will have “The Road to the Winter Classic” as a new show – similar to the NFL Hard Knocks show with the New York Jets – which will take you inside both teams on and off the ice as well as the production that goes into the Winter Classic.

Greenburg went on to state that it will not be the Sidney and Alex show. Fans on twitter were very prompt in their responses as I tweeted the conference calls highlights.

Gary Bettman is, as he stated, delighted to partner with HBO Sports and thanked Russ for his partnership and friendship as well. The trio felt this would be a “fantastic opportunity to see players and games like never before”.

John Collins is incredibly excited, more so for the fans. I’ll leave me thoughts and comments until the series concludes.

So fans, the writing is on the wall.  Stay tuned to HBO on December 15th, 2010 for the “puck drop” of “The Road to the Winter Classic”. Let’s hope it’s as good, if not, better than the Hard Knocks show.

Quick hits:

Pre-season is obviously underway and teams are taking some final observations of their rookies and minor league hockey players who look to get a shot at the NHL this year with their respective clubs.

Kirill Kabanov of the New York Islanders seems to need a new alarm clock or to develop a quicker route to the NVMC. He has already been late to training camp twice since it’s opened, thus causing quite the stir.  As a 3rd round pick, it is a low risk / high reward type of pick but if he can not get himself to mature quickly, he could see himself back in the mother land sooner than one expected.

The other Kirill who is property of the New York Islanders, Mr. Petrov that is, seems to be stuck in his contract with Ak-Bars of the KHL. If there could have been one partner to motivate Kabanov, Petrov could have been the ideal candidate.  Stay tuned to see how all this develops from the Islanders organization.

Marc Savard is suffering from post concussion syndrome and is reported to be out indefinitely.

Colordao Avalanche forward Peter Mueller suffered his second concussion in a six month span and is out indefinitely.

Johan Franzen of the Detroit Red Wings is suffering through a Charlie Horse and will miss three pre-season games.

And finally, for those of you following the Mandi Schwartz situation, James O’Brien of Pro Hockey Talk on NBC updates us on her recieving a stem cell transplant in her battle against cancer.

Stay tuned for updates on this weekends show to our Twitter which can be found by clicking here: The Hockey Guys on Twitter or right here on the website.

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