Christmas Lockout roundup

CBA roundup
• As we march into the scary world of triple digits in terms of days being locked out, we spend today to wish you a Merry Christmas. Having no hockey certainly stinks, but it's pretty low on the list of real priorities. With that said, we still can hope the lockout ends really soon. We'll accept that as a belated Christmas present.
• To date, the NHL has wiped out 626 regular-season games, lost the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the All-Star weekend in Columbus.
• In true Christmas style, Bruce Garrioch turned 'Twas the Night Before Christmas into a lockout poem instead and, well, it's funny and sad all at the same time. He didn't stop there, though. Santa Garrioch also handed out gifts to all the principal players in the lockout.

Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner
A Don Fehr dartboard in his office. The one he's using now is full of holes.

As for Fehr? He got a baseball bat, but hopefully he doesn't use that in the negotiations. (Toronto Sun)
• The NHL tried to wish fans a very Merry Christmas on its Facebook page and, well, fans didn't "like" the posting all that much. OK, they didn't like it at all. (Puck Daddy)
• Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit and again opined on the NHL lockout. The problem with the league, as he sees it, is the Southern expansion.

"You can't have every team south of the Mason Dixon line going broke every year," Cuban wrote. (Sporting News)

• When the lockout ends we all know there will be a big job ahead of the people involved in this wonderful sport to make it right with the fans. We here at Eye on Hockey have discussed things they could try. Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik told Josh Yohe he isn't exactly sure what the NHL can do; he just knows it will be up to the NHL to do it.

"Obviously you think about that kind of stuff," said Orpik, who is going through his second lockout. "But the league, that's their side of things. They're the ones who need to worry about marketing. Our job is to play our best. We are the product. There is no league without us."

And there Orpik alludes to what will be the best cure for the NHL: the product on the ice. You can throw as many gimmicks against the wall to see what sticks, but nothing will work quite as well as great and compelling action on the ice. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
• One assumption many people had at the beginning of this sordid mess was that the NHL's absence might mean a boon for the lower leagues in North America like the ECHL and AHL. Randy Miller found out that's not really happening.

"Some people think because there's a lockout, we can open the doors and (people) just show up," said Rich Lisk, President and CEO of the Titans, who play in a state-of-the-art, 13-year-old arena that holds 8,100 for hockey. "We're waiting to see if the lockout really is ending. That's going to be the tell-tale sign. I think when there's no NHL season, you might start seeing a difference."
Maybe, but few minor-league teams are benefiting from the lockout. ECHL attendance is up, but just 2%, and American Hockey League crowds are down 7%.

It's too bad, nothing beats live hockey, even if it's not the NHL. Hopefully the dip for the AHL isn't a carryover of fan discontent with the NHL. (USA Today)

Could this lockout spell the end for 3 teams?

 

        

One of the outcomes of another cancelled season might be the elimination of a few NHL franchises. If there's no season, some of the franchises that are struggling financially may be in trouble because very little revenue would be earned, and some fans may never come back to NHL arenas and support these teams.

Phoenix Coyotes

The Phoenix Coyotes might find it difficult to survive another lost season since they earned the second-lowest revenue during 2011-12, according to Forbes. They also lost the most money of all 30 teams last year with an operating income of -$20.6 million. Complicating the situation further is the team's lackluster attendance numbers over the last few seasons.

Year	Attendance %	NHL Rank
2006-07	85.6	23rd
2007-08	84.7	24th
2008-09	85.0	27th
2009-10	68.5	30th
2010-11	71.2	29th
2011-12	72.5	30th

Three straight seasons with the worst or second-worst attendance percentage is not a good situation to be in. Another lost season would likely keep the Coyotes at the bottom of the league's attendance rankings. If the Coyotes don't survive the lockout, it's hard to imagine the team being contracted. The best scenario for everyone involved would be to sell the team (currently valued at $134 million, according to Forbes) to a person or group that would move the team to a stronger market.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers may be a team on the rise in regard to their on-ice performance, but they lost $12.1 million last year, which according to Forbes, was the fourth-highest loss among all teams during the 2011-12 season. The Panthers also ranked 26th in the NHL in revenue earned last season, according to Forbes. On the bright side, Florida's attendance numbers got better last season.

Year	Attendance %	NHL Rank
2006-07	79.8	25th
2007-08	80.2	30th
2008-09	81.2	29th
2009-10	78.7	25th
2010-11	81.5	25th
2011-12	86.6	23rd

In the likely event that Florida doesn't return to the playoffs next season, will the team's attendance improve for the second straight year? A lost season could drive away a lot of the fans who were responsible for the rise in attendance during 2011-12. A lost season would result in a missed opportunity for the team's young core to develop and build some important team chemistry.

Columbus Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets fell to the bottom of the NHL standings last season and have no superstars to draw fans or market outside their own region. Making matters worse is the fact that the franchise lost $18.7 million last season, and according to Forbes, the Phoenix Coyotes were the only franchise to lose more money in 2011-12. Only two teams earned less revenue last year than the Blue Jackets. Columbus' recent attendance numbers also aren't very good.

Year	Attendance %	NHL Rank
2006-07	90.4	20th
2007-08	81.7	29th
2008-09	85.7	25th
2009-10	85.0	23rd
2010-11	75.3	27th
2011-12	80.8	28th

The lockout, along with the team's decision to trade captain Rick Nash to the New York Rangers without getting a star talent in return, hasn't given hockey fans in Ohio many reasons to purchase season tickets. If the 2012-13 season is lost, hockey fans' interest in the NHL across central Ohio might decline quite a bit.

More lockout reaction

The NHL lockout started back in September and while it has provided fans with heartbreak (nearly 50% of the schedule has been erased) and much hand-wringing (can’t they figure this out already?), it is far from over. We do, however, seem to be getting closer to the end, whatever that is. Last Thursday, the league cancelled games up until Jan. 15, which is probably the drop-dead point. Meaning the next move will probably be the last move. One of these days — and it could come before the calendar turns over to 2013 — commissioner Gary Bettman is going to announce the start of an abbreviated 48-game season or he is going to officially cancel the season. That moment will undoubtedly be the biggest of the lockout. And while we do not know if it will be a good or bad moment — having lost so much already, is there anything that can be labelled as good? — we can probably guess where it will take place. In a fight that has mostly taken place behind closed doors and unknown locations, the podium is where we receive most of our information and competing interpretations of that information. It has replaced the rink as hockey’s stage and has become the defining image of the lockout. For Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, the podium is where they seem to do their real work. As we plod along in what has been more than three months of labour strife, the lockout has been as much about spin and public relations efforts as it is about coming to an agreement. Nowhere was that more apparent than on Dec. 5, which if you had to choose might have been the most frustrating day so far of this negotiation. Leading up to that day, there had been genuine optimism that an agreement was within reach. Owners and players had met privately for two days in New York and had agreed to split hockey-related revenues 50-50, as well as made other concessions. They had reportedly made so much progress that coaches were calling players in Europe to be ready to come home for training camp.

During the day, a podium with the NHL logo had been set up in a Manhattan hotel for what was expected to be the biggest news conference of the lockout. It sat unattended for hours upon hours. Finally, Fehr arrived and relayed to reporters and fans — it was broadcast live across Canada — what seemed to be good news: hockey was close to returning. But as Fehr spoke, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly was leaving a voice message on Steve Fehr’s cell phone that essentially stuck a pin in the balloon.

The NHL, it turned out, had wanted the union to say yes or no to the offer hammered out the day before, not use it as the basis of another return offer. So, mere minutes after leaving the podium with a smile on his face, Fehr returned and told everyone that “it looks like this is not going to be resolved in the immediate future.” Within the hour, Bettman was gripping the podium like he was on a rollercoaster and through trembling lips raged against Fehr’s apparent deception.

Mary Altaffer/The Associated PressFor NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (pictured) and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, the podium is where they seem to do their real work.

“That reminds me of the last time the players the players said we were close, and we were a billion dollars apart,” Bettman said. “I don’t know why he did that … I find it almost incomprehensible that he did that … I am disappointed beyond belief that we are where we are tonight, and we’re going to have to take a deep breath and try to regroup.
“What you’re witnessing is very tough bargaining. We kept giving and giving and giving, we made five separate proposals, we kept negotiating against ourselves … my concern is, and maybe the mistake was, is maybe we should stop negotiating.”

Claus Andersen/Getty Images“If you would have asked me back then if I thought this lockout would be still going on now, I would have said no,” said Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman John-Michael Liles (L).

The day served as a microcosm of the entire lockout. Whether it was Bettman’s take-it-or-leave-it proposal to save an 82-game season in October or the decision to meet with U.S. federal mediators in November, the lockout has teased fans by providing false hope that a deal is around the corner. Then, once you get there, you realize that the road keeps stretching on.
“If you would have asked me back then if I thought this lockout would be still going on now, I would have said no,” Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman John-Michael Liles said. “You think something would ultimately be figured out. But ultimately, the players have to agree on a deal that is at least decent for us. And so far, there’s been bits and pieces that have been proposed to us that we can live with.

“Ultimately, we’re not getting anything close to what we had previously. We understand that. But to sit there and say you can have this but you have to take this, it’s hasn’t really been a negotiation. It’s been a lot of take-it-or-leave-its.”

The problem during this whole mess is that the two sides have always had an end date in mind. It was not the start of training camp, or the start of the season, or the Winter Classic or any other artificial dates. It was probably always mid-January. So with about three weeks to go, both sides continue to move their pieces around the chessboard looking for that final strike that will take the other side down. Last Friday, the NHLPA reportedly voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving its executive board the power to file a disclaimer of interest. The next step would be to file an anti-trust lawsuit against the owners, if it goes that far. If it does, it is a move that could potentially turn every single player into a free agent, and just might be the biggest moment of the lockout — and potentially in the history of the NHL. Either way, something is coming. We do not know what it is or if it will be good or bad. But this thing is far from done yet.

Is it too late to save this season

NHL fans will not be getting any surprise gifts from the NHL or NHLPA. The two sides have not met in the last few days and legal battles are set to mount over the next few weeks. However, a number of reports indicate that the two sides could be meeting again Wednesday or Thursday in attempts to save the season before the January 15 deadline. According to Larry Brooks of The New York Post, "negotiations are expected to resume either Wednesday or Thursday." According to Eklund of Hockeybuzz, the two sides held secret meetings today to get a few minor issues organized and will likely do the same tomorrow.

The league and NHLPA are still at odds regarding the length of the collective bargaining agreement and the lengths of player contracts. The league wants a 10 year CBA with an eight year opt-out while the players want an eight year CBA with a six-year opt out. Owners want player contracts to be limited to five years, while players want at least seven year contracts.
Over the weekend the NHLPA held a vote on whether they would like to disclaim interest. The final tally favored the disclaimer by a vote of 706 in favor and 22 against the motion. The board of the NHLPA still has until Jan.2 to decide whether to disclaim interest, but it looks like the Union is interested in attempting one more round of negotiations with the league to avoid further extending the process.

Lockout Day 99

CBA roundup
• The NHL has wiped out 626 regular-season games, lost the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the All-Star weekend in Columbus.
• Another Sunday means another anti-Gary Bettman story from Larry Brooks. This week, he accused the commish of not seeing the whole picture and how the owners' insistence on a five-year cap limit is stupid to cancel a season over.

I would defy any owner to explain why the season should be canceled over the difference of one or three years in maximum contract lengths in the current proposals of the NHL and the NHLPA.
The league's proposed contract term limits are meant to devalue free agency. The league acts as if players spent the seven seasons under the expired collective bargaining agreement fleeing small markets for big markets even as all available evidence contradicts the theory. (New York Post)

• Good news, folks. Don Cherry now believes the NHL will be back in January. (Canadian Press via Montreal Gazette)
• If the lockout were to end right now and a deal were signed with everything unsettled going status quo, the owners would have themselves a pretty nice "win" to show for it. Damian Cristodero spoke with the Lightning's Martin St. Louis, who is just a little frustrated at this point.

"The truth is hockey players, our whole life, we're groomed to stick together and fight; when it gets tough, to dig in," he recently said at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon. "I think we're being more than reasonable.
...
"We've tried to get stuff back," St. Louis said about the league, after seeking changes, agreeing to keep the same rules on entry-level contracts, salary arbitration and unrestricted free agency. "It's not like we're asking for more. If you look back eight years ago, you want a (salary) cap? We gave them a cap. You want 50 percent (of revenue)? We give 50 percent. What are you giving me?" (Tampa Times)

• With Christmas being just two days away and all, we could really use a Christmas miracle to end this lockout and get hockey back in the new year. Of course, a feel-good Christmas story can quickly turn into a horror story for hockey fans according to Tom Gulitti.

Perhaps it will take visits from three of the Montreal Forum's ghosts for Bettman and union chief Donald Fehr to see clearly the NHL's rich past, the ugliness of its present and the dark abyss it is on the verge of falling into in seasons yet to come (assuming there are some).
But, if Bettman and Fehr keep acting like Heat Miser and Snow Miser, it will be another year without NHL hockey. When the door opens, Uncle Billy (deputy commissioner Bill Daly) will have very little in the basket he passed around town. The fans may not be there to save the league and the players from themselves again.

Ah, yes. Hockey's equivalent of coal. (Bergen Record)
• Players have been plenty vocal all lockout long about their feelings toward the commissioner. But just in case you missed it all the times before, here's Jason Chimera's thoughts about Gary Bettman as told to Chuck Gormley.

"This is all part of Gary Bettman's book," Chimera said Friday after playing in a scrimmage game against some of the area's top college players at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
"He seems to be bent on ruining the game. If that's what he's out to do he's sure doing a good job of it. It's disappointing. We're willing to get a deal done and try to sit down and talk with no pre-conditions and they don't want to talk.
"If they set agendas, we're done. We've got to start talking. We're still not that far apart. It's just a matter of getting it done. We want to sit down and they don't want to meet at this point."

Of course, the NHL would say pretty much the same about the players. You know, maybe the Christmas miracle wouldn't be a deal. At this point, it would be great to use one just to get them back to the negotiating table. (CSN Washington)
• The end can't come fast enough for all of us impatient hockey fans, so really think about the people who depend on hockey for a little more than enjoyment, especially around the holidays. One Buffalo restaurant owner is feeling the pain of the lockout in more ways than one. (AP via Star-Tribune)
Hockey fix
It's Day 99 of this stupid lockout, so you can probably guess where we're going. In case you need it spelled out, it's Wayne Gretzky. First, a little 50 goals in 39 games ...

And then Gretzky surpassing Gordie Howe on the all-time points list.

Talks to resume on Boxing Day?

The NHL and NHLPA were back in contact on Saturday, at least reopening the conversation that had been silent for almost a week. The brokers of conversation on each side -- Bill Daly for the NHL and Steve Fehr for the union -- picked up their phones and spoke to each other. Perhaps it was just to wish the other a Merry Christmas, but we've got higher hopes than that. Really, the question that everybody wants to know now is whether that means actual negotiations will resume in the near future. After all, the league just canceled all games through Jan. 14 and the next round of cancellations figures to be the big haircut, not just a trim. The good news is that it does look like they could all be sitting down together just after the holiday.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this won't resemble your typical family meal at the holidays that so many people don't look forward to. It would be nice if they can actually get something done again. It seems like a really long time ago now, but when they last left off, the mediators were once again leaving the scene as no progress was made in a couple of days worth of talks. The massive stumbling block appears to be the issue of contract cap limits. The NHL is insistent be at five years (seven for players who re-sign with their teams) while the players have the number set at eight. There are certainly other issues that remain, too, such as the length of the next CBA deal, but that seems to be the biggest hurdle. Let's hope a little Christmas cheer will go a long way.

Survey Proves Impact of Lockout on NHL

Remember the BP PLC oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010? Well, according to one major survey, BP had it easy compared to the NHL these days. Level5 Stategy Group—a 10-year-old company that assesses the level of attachment consumers place on brands—conducted a survey of 1,066 people recently only to discover that the NHL was doing more damage to itself with this lockout than BP did to itself in 2010. Level5 chief executive officer David Kincaid said, via Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail, “We found damage at levels we have not seen. It’s quite alarming, really." Consider the historic popularity of hockey in Canada. According to the survey, one-third of Canadians polled are passionate about the sport at this point. One-third of Canadians are indifferent and one-third of Canadians have lost interest entirely.

Will the season be canceled?

Yes

87.0%

No

13.0%

Total votes: 740

This paints a much grimmer picture about the state of the sport during this lengthy lockout than previously imagined. Now, as the NHL and NHLPA turn to legal options, the popularity of the sport is in jeopardy. According to Christopher Botta of SportsBusiness Journal, an agreement must be reached by mid-January in order for there to simply be a 48-game regular season.
In the Level5 survey, emotions reportedly ranged from unhappiness to disappointment to confusion to irritation to frustration. Some simply felt cheated.

The NHL has endured lockouts before, but this time might be different. Hockey fans are fed up, and they are clearly fed up with commissioner Gary Bettman, who holds the distinction of being commissioner for three different lockouts since taking over in 1993. Perhaps the NHL and NHLPA would be wise to listen to the fans this time around. They may be surprised what they hear.

Lockout Latest

- First of all, thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families from the Newtown tragedy. So to all those impacted by that madman, we're here for you and praying for you, if it means anything. The Newtown tragedy put the NHL lockout into perspective.

- Every day that passes makes these two sides arguing over $3.3 billion seem less and less significant.

- So the NHL beat the NHLPA to the gun by taking this nonsense to court, eh? It's another brilliant move by the NHL. For those of you who are confused as to why it matters which sides files first (I know there was a lot of confusion) it's because the NHL had the ability to choose which state to file the grievance in. They chose New York because New York is more likely to side with the owners. The players? Word is they probably would have tried to file in California.

- The NHL is trying to make the case that if the union dissolves then all previously signed contracts become null and void. So every single player would be an UFA. That might sound nice to some teams, but do you think every owner is OK with that? You think the Pittsburgh Penguins (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin), the Tampa Bay Lightning (Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman) or even the New York Rangers (Ryan McDonagh, Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, Henrik Lundqvist) want that? How is it that more owners haven't thrown an internal fit about this? (Although to be fair, we wouldn't really know if they did.)

- You can call last Friday the day things truly got ugly. The NHL and the NHLPA have been at each other's throats pretty much from day one. The NHL has been arguing over the NHLPA's negotiating tactics from the beginning. But what Gary Bettman and company seem to forget is that they're the ones who set the tone of these negotiations. They're the ones who have been giving take-it-or-leave-it offers. They're the ones who have tried to take everything from the players from the beginning. And now they're mad that the players are pushing back? What a joke.

- The players have no leverage. They're playing on a tilted surface. The offer the owners gave the players a couple of weeks ago was doable. Donald Fehr saw a reason to push further. And now we're here. I wonder how many people will be pro players if we lose this season and they end up taking a deal they could have had to save this season earlier. It's a very real possibility if we lose this season. The leverage simply isn't on the player's side. And there aren't nearly enough moderate owners who might swing things the NHLPA's direction.

- This insanity doesn't mean a deal is far off, either. Which actually makes this even worse. One way or another we're going to get some closure from all of this. But for now it's just a mess.

9 Contracts that helped create the NHL Lockout

 

The NHL lockout (2012 edition) is now threatening to more or less dismember the league entirely, and while we could argue about which side is to blame for the impending loss of another season, there is one fact that is clear: high-end, superstar contracts are responsible for causing this labor stoppage in the first place. I can just imagine general managers and team owners sitting in the dark corner of their offices as free agency looms, twitching like junkies-in-waiting to throw money at players like Alexander Ovechkin and Zach Parise. They just can't help themselves. Never mind the long-term repercussions of inking superstars to contracts that could very well out-survive team management, coaches, and nearly every other player on the team. Or the fact that signing players to $100 million contracts may not be good for business. And, as it turns out, it hasn't been good for business. Because suddenly the owners don't have the money to honor the deals they gave to players like Ryan Suter, Marian Hossa or Dan Briere. Suddenly they are so strapped for cash that they are willing to lose another entire season of professional hockey, and perhaps even kill the league itself, to get out of the contracts they agreed to in good faith. Make no mistake about it: This labor dispute isn't about the everyman hockey player. This isn't about Dan Cleary or Andrew Brunette. This isn't about Martin Biron or Brian Boucher, the muckers and the grinders and the guys that lay down in front of shot after shot during their 7 minutes of game time.  The lockout is about the superstars, and the obsessed, clueless owners that don't have the sense not to sabotage themselves and poison the game with their greed and selfishness. I don't blame the players for signing long-term, lucrative deals. But at the same time, I don't see Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis fighting tooth and nail to raise the minimum contract floor for the guys on the third and fourth lines. I see them fighting to keep their own ridiculous deals.

Henrik Zetterberg

One could argue that Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland invented the "back diving" deals that the NHL is now ferociously trying to choke out of existence—and one of the first players inked to such a deal was Henrik Zetterberg. After Zetterberg makes between $7 million and $7.5 million throughout the first nine years of his contract, the number plunges to a little over $3 million for the 2018-19 season and sinks all the way to $1 million for the last two years of the deal, thus lowering Zetterberg's cap hit significantly. His contract isn't the most egregious deal in the sport, but it was among the first to create a mechanism that is now causing the NHL to lockout its players.

Ilya Kovalchuk

Ilya Kovalchuck is the original $100 million dollar man himself. Taking one look at the structure of this deal tells you everything you need to know about why it is among the worst offenders in the league, and why Lou Lamoriello is among the craftiest GMs in hockey. Fans will recall the circus that surrounded this deal because it is the highest profile deal the NHL called into question Pundits such as myself saw this as a too-little, too-late move by the league to curtail back-diving deals, and we are living in lockout land now because of these kinds of contracts. The 15-year pact is still tied for second-longest in the league. The deal will end in 2024-2025. That year will be the first that I'd be eligible to run for President of the United States, just to put that length of time in perspective.
 

Rick DiPietro

Rick DiPietro and his contract are too easy of a target for jokes in my honest opinion. The 15-year deal the New York Islanders handed DiPietro was groundbreaking at the time, but has become the classic long-term contract cautionary tale that exactly none of the NHL's 30 GMs have paid any attention to. It's not noteworthy because the Isles are stuck paying a man that seems to be made of glass and bad luck $4.5 million dollars per season. That cap hit isn't too bad, I guess. But the 15-year exclamation mark seemed to get all the other GMs thinking about locking down their assets for decades and decades at a time.
 

Christian Ehrhoff

The deal that the Buffalo Sabres handed to Christian Ehrhoff is one of the finest examples of a team just not being able to control itself. Remember the junkie from the first slide? The one that just couldn't help but throw money around towards the substance that is a star player? That's Darcy Regier and Terry Pegula. Coming off of two rock solid seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, everyone knew that Ehrhoff was poised for a big payday, but no one thought it would be to the tune of $40 million over ten years. This is another long-term deal that was front loaded with a massive signing bonus—another head on the hydra that has consumed 90-plus days of the 2012 NHL season. Ehrhoff's deal is among the longest in the league, and his $5 million dollar signing bonus is good for sixth largest in the NHL.
 

Shea Weber

The Shea Weber offer sheet was among the most tone-deaf and ignorant ploys I have ever seen in the sport. With the league spiraling towards a lockout and various team owners piping up about how they just couldn't survive in a climate where the players make this much money, the Philadelphia Flyers signed Shea Weber to an offer sheet worth $14 million dollars a year over the span of 14 years. The kicker of course was the highly publicized $13 million signing bonus attached to the deal. I understand the logic of why Flyers GM Paul Holmgren would make a grab for an anchor like Weber. All-Star blueliners don't grow on trees, and the Flyers defense was falling apart at the seems through injuries and departures. But the deal literally represents everything that the owners are now trying to combat just a few months later. It's all there. Back diving, a massive signing bonus, and a ridiculous contract length. Some owners have a right to argue that players are making too much money and that less profitable clubs just can't hang. Paul Holmgren isn't one of them.
 

Tyler Myers

After Tyler Myers' three-year entry-level contract was up in 2011-12, the Buffalo Sabres handed the towering defender a signing bonus of $10 million dollars. That bonus makes Myers (tied for) the third highest salary in the NHL. Protecting your assets is one thing. Giving a kid that much money after a few good seasons is a bit on the insane side, and this is yet another example of owners and GMs not being able to control themselves when it comes to signing these types of players.
 

Brian Campbell

A lot of fans have forgotten, but there was a point when the Chicago Blackhawks had to (vastly) overpay players to lure them to the Windy City. The eight-year, $57 million dollar deal the Hawks handed to Brian Campbell may seem like small potatoes now—a good indicator of the direction salaries have taken over the course of the now-defunct CBA—but at the time of the deal it made Campbell one of the richest players in hockey. There are a few times I can remember pulling up NHL.com during free agency and having my jaw drop over a ridiculous number or term. Campbell was the first and it signaled a particular direction for the entire league. Owners and GMs both saw these contracts being handed out and knew that they'd either have to up the ante or be left behind.
 

Alex Ovechkin

 

I was (and admittedly still am) on the fence about including Alexander Ovechkin's contract among those that helped usher in this lockout. On the one hand, the Washington Capitals constructed a fair deal for their All-Star. There is no back diving on the contract and no massive signing bonus to speak of. At the same time, I feel like I'd be remiss if I left out the player with the largest total cap hit in the NHL when counting up the most destructive contracts around. I appreciate the fact that the Capitals seemingly negotiated in good faith with Ovie and also negotiated with the "spirit" of the CBA in mind. At the end of the day though, the Great 8 still will make close to $10 million dollars a season for 13 years, and it's those kinds of deals that have allegedly stripped owners of their ability to make enough profit from owning a pro-hockey franchise.
 

Zach Parise & Ryan Suter

"We're not making money, and that's one reason we need to fix our system. We need to fix how much we're spending right now. [The Wild's] revenues are fine. We're down a little bit in attendance, but we're up in sponsorships, we're up in TV revenue. And so the revenue that we're generating is not the issue as much as our expenses. And [the Wild's] biggest expense by far is player salaries."

This now infamous quote came from Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leopold while talking to the Star Tribune on April 11th, 2012. Or roughly three months before he went out and spent nearly $100 million dollars on two players mere months before the lockout began. I'm not the first person to point out the asinine level of hypocrisy in play here. Needless to say, the Wild can go on to win four Stanley Cups over the matching 13-year deals, but Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will always be burned into the minds of fans as the poster boys of a failed CBA structure and a bleaker-than-bleak lockout.

 

Threat of voided Contracts

The NHL has cleared the 90-day mark of its 2012 lockout, which has resulted in more complications than anticipated. Not only are players not playing, the coaches not coaching and the arenas still closed, but negotiations between the league and the NHL players association have gotten uglier than anyone could have imagined.

ESPN's Katie Strang reported this on Saturday:

The NHL Players' Association moved one step closer to disbanding the union with a preliminary vote toward disclaiming interest.Upon learning the NHLPA's executive board voted Thursday night potentially to dissolve the union, the NHL filed a class-action complaint in federal court as well as a Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

That was followed by an even more shocking report from Toronto Sun reporter Bruce Garrioch:

The NHL requests a declaration that, if the NHLPA's decertification or disclaimer were not deemed invalid by the NLRB, and the collective bargaining relationship between the parties were not otherwise to continue, all existing contracts between NHL players and NHL teams (known as Standard Player's Contracts or "SPCs") would be void and unenforceable," wrote the league.

In other words, every single NHL player would be an unrestricted free agent. Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, you name it—everyone would be available on the open market. That's just a scary thought. If you thought things were crazy now, just wait. If that happens, chaos will be an understatement. The loyalty of fans will be tested as their favorite players potentially sign elsewhere. The front office of every team would be tested like never before, with every possible player sitting right in front of them.

Who do you blame for the lockout?

The NHL

36.6%

The NHLPA

13.8%

Both are to blame

49.6%

Total votes: 1,004

No one wants to deal with that, but it's how bad things have gotten. This is no longer just about money. Feelings have been hurt, and pride has been tested. Neither side wants to back down, leaving all other parties in the cold while they duel back and forth in mediation. It's already difficult enough for hockey fans to stomach. This is supposed to be an exciting time of year, not a time that generates constant disappointment when you turn the channel and find that no game is on. The NHL and the players association have already proven themselves to be nothing better than a circus. The players association should certainly think twice about disbanding. Rather than being stubborn, the players should accept the 50-50 split and play the game that they profess to love so much. The NHL isn't right either, but taking a drastic step such as this in retaliation doesn't make things any better. It only makes things worse, and it makes the league look worse overall. This is the league saying "Oh yeah, look what we can do" to the players. The problem is the league will also be showing the rest of the sporting world what it's willing to do too, and it won't be pretty.

Players from 1994-95 say short season then was fun

 

As much as lockouts seem woven into the fabric of today's NHL, there has been only one shortened regular season before this year. Disregarding the one season when no games were played (2004-05), the only NHL season shortened by a work stoppage came in 1994-95, a 48-game affair that, surprisingly, is fondly remembered by many of the players who went through it. Not that anyone enjoyed missing a paycheck, but some players who experienced a 48-game season say today's players would like it better than they might think if the NHL goes that route.
"Every game felt like a playoff game. It was very exciting as a player in that way," said former Avalanche winger Dave Reid, who was the Boston Bruins' player representative that season. "The puck was dropped and you had to win that game. The playoff race was on from Game 1. You knew you couldn't have a slump at all if you wanted to make the playoffs, so you were just so geared up to play all the time, as opposed to a normal season where you knew you could lose a few in a row and still be fine."

The NHL lockout is in its 90th day, but negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement are plodding along. There seems to be widespread agreement that, if a season is to happen at all, it will be 48 to 54 games in length. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said if a season is to have any integrity at all, it will need to have a minimum of 48 games. Unlike the NBA, whose lockout last year produced a 66-game season instead of 82, starting on Christmas, the NHL is unlikely to squeeze so many games into a shortened calendar. If the Avalanche's 82-game regular season had stayed intact, Colorado would have played its 39th game Jan. 12. The NHL's 1994-95 lockout was over Jan. 11, 1995, and nine days later the season began. That year, the NHL extended the end of the regular season from its intended mid-to-late April finish to May 3, so teams didn't have to play as many games on back-to-back nights as the NBA did. It's possible that could happen again. "I don't remember it being very taxing on the body, any more than if it had been a full season," said Claude Lemieux, the former Avalanche winger whose New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup that season, with Lemieux winning the Conn Smythe Trophy. "We condensed things by maybe a couple weeks shorter than they would have been, but it wasn't bad. And the games were all like playoff games. You knew you couldn't fall off the wagon much, so it was definitely more intense for the players and the fans."

That 1994-95 season was the last in Quebec for Joe Sakic and the Nordiques. The team flourished in the 48 games, finishing 30-13-5 for first place in the Eastern Conference.
"We really came in ready to play," said Sakic, whose team lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Rangers. "We knew that (if we had) a three- or four-game losing streak, we were probably done for the playoffs. It was no fun sitting out those three or four months, but once we got back we kind of forgot about it and were real excited to play. It went great, but we just couldn't follow things up in the playoffs."

For the Avs, or any team to succeed in a possible shortened season, Lemieux said the first week or two back as a team will be the key. "You have to adjust your mind-set a lot," he said. "You get thrown into the deep end of the pool right away."

Then and now

The NHL locked out players to start the 1994-95 season, a dispute that lingered until Jan. 11, 1995. Some key facts from that year, with similarities and differences from today:

• Season was reduced from 84 to 48 games. A similar schedule could result this time, though the regular season now is only 82 games.

• There were 26 teams in the NHL that season, now there are 30.

• If the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals between Detroit and New Jersey had gone to seven games, the final game would have been played July 1 — which would have been the only time in league history to feature a July game. New Jersey won in a four-game sweep, finishing on June 24. 

 

Winger Claude Lemieux in 1995, the year the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup in a strike-shortened season.

 

NHLPA moves closer to disclaimer of interest

The executive board of the NHL Players Association passed a vote on Thursday night to allow the players to vote on whether the executive board will pursue a disclaimer of interest, according to a report by Aaron Ward of TSN on Friday afternoon. A disclaimer of interest would mean that the NHLPA's executive board (the union) would walk away from the players and no longer act as its representation. This course of action would allow the players to pursue anti-trust lawsuits against the NHL in an attempt to have a court rule that the lockout is illegal. As of Friday afternoon, there has been no indication as to whether the players plan to take the vote. The executive board has merely authorized the players the right to do so. If the players were to take the vote and pass the act, the NHLPA could declare a disclaimer of interest by sending the Commissioner's office a letter informing them that the union no longer acts as the players' bargaining representation.

President Obama tells NHL to do right by your fans

The President of the United States doesn't seem to be much of a hockey fan, but when you're giving an interview with a local TV station in Minnesota during an NHL lockout, it's almost a guarantee that you're going to be asked about it. That's what happened on Thursday when President Barack Obama sat down with Frank Vascellaro of WCCO in Minnesota. When asked if he'd be willing to get involved with the lockout personally, POTUS urged both the players and owners to settle this on their own.

You know, look. I've got to say, because we've had an NBA lockout, we've had an NFL lockout during the course of my presidency, the president of the United States shouldn't have to get involved in a sports lockout. My message to owners and to players is, you guys make a lot of money and you make a lot of money on the backs of fans, so do right by your fans. You can figure out how to spread out a bunch of revenue that you're bringing in, but do right by the people who support you. And I shouldn't have to be involved in a dispute between really wealthy players and even wealthier owners. They should be able to settle this themselves. And remember who it is that's putting all that money in their pockets.

It's not exactly a groundbreaking comment of anything. Mr. Obama clearly has better things to spend his time on these days, what with the chance the nation's economy could veer off the so-called fiscal cliff and everything, and his comments here were simple enough that they didn't really require anything more than a basic knowledge of any general sports labor debate.
But, the president talked about the lockout, so it's news. And as simple as his advice may have been, it still rings clear. There's a deal to get done, NHL and NHLPA, and you should probably start working on that.

How Far Will Donald Fehr Push?

As of right now, here's all we know. The two sides met with mediators again Wednesday afternoon/night. No progress was made, mainly because the mediators met with both sides separately and neither side showed a willingness to come off of their respective stances. (Personal note: isn't the mediators job to get both sides to give a little?) We also learned that Gary Bettman was bluffing when he said "everything" was off the table last Thursday, although he wasn't kidding about the three issues (five-year max contracts, 10-year CBA and 5% variance of contracts) being non-negotiable.

The NHLPA met internally for hours after the mediators and NHL left the meetings on Wednesday, and many speculated over what they were talking about. The best guess? Donald Fehr was drawing his line in the sand and figuring out what deal the players would accept before they move forward. Maybe the players would accept the NHL's offer if put to a vote. Maybe they wouldn't. The fact is the NHL has a deal on the table they think is acceptable. And when you take a good look at it, there is a deal to be made here. It's about as obvious as can be. The two sides are even close than they were before. So why hasn't a deal been struck? Because both sides are pushing for more. Well, actually, the NHLPA is pushing for more. The NHL is standing firm on it's offer, but I guess in a way that's pushing, too. So the question is quickly becoming "When will Fehr make a deal." The NHL has a proposal on the table that's not "draconian" and not out of line. It's obvious there are more owners in the room who want to make a deal than not, otherwise the offer still wouldn't be sitting on the table. But the finish line? Only Fehr knows where it is. The players met Wednesday for hours pondering their next move. The puck is in their end of the ice, there's no debate about that, either. The only question is what they do with it.

Could Justin Braun of the San Jose Sharks have a wrist fracture?

 

 

 

The San Jose Sharks will have at least one of their players returning from Europe before the conclusion of the lockout. Defender Justin Braun has returned from Europe to have a wrist fracture examined. Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area has the report. Early reports have Braun suffering from some sort of fracture, but it's unclear whether that report is accurate; Braun's agent has indicated that the extent of the injury has yet to be determined. Braun also might be returning early in hopes that the NHL and the Players' Association will come to some sort of agreement. That agreement would allow for both sides to settle on a new CBA, which would in turn allow for the NHL season to begin. Braun might just be anticipating a potential announcement. At 25 years old, Braun has played a total of 94 career NHL games, scoring four goals and dishing out 18 assists. Braun has been playing overseas at Tappara Tampere in the SM-liiga in Finland.

Secret Lockout Meeting Planned

The NHL and the NHLPA are set to meet on Wednesday at an undisclosed location in what was originally likely meant to be a rather secret gathering. According to nearly every single hockey media personality, federal mediators are going to be involved once again, while no owners will be present. The NHL will be represented by Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and some lawyers while nearly a dozen players will be in attendance along with Donald and Steve Fehr. Ryan Miller will not be present. Ron Hainsey will, however. Did anyone even know who Ron Hainsey was before the lockout? Turns out he has a five-year contract with the Jets worth $22.5 million. The usual conjecture surrounds this meeting once more, with rumblings from both sides about how a deal is "close". We've seen that optimism before from the league, especially last week right before the players put whipped cream all over the owners' proposal and threw it back into their faces. What is good is that they are actually meeting again, less than a week after a circus played out in front of a millions of fans where it went from looking like a deal was imminent to looking like the season would be canceled in less than three minutes of time. If you weren't present for that ordeal, then you're much better off for it. The other interesting fact here is that federal mediators will be present once more. This says that the NHL obviously sees some sort of value to mediators being involved once more, especially since that means details and information leaking will be kept at a minimum. To this increasingly-cynical mind, all of this just follows what is clearly now a very set timeline for these negotiations. A deal was never going to be reached in time for hockey to resume in December, although I think some were surprised with how close they came last week. The NHLPA has been stalling and waiting for a deadline and while the NHL has not officially set one, it's obvious that both sides realize that we're reaching a critical point.
No matter how it is being spun, the players returning from overseas in droves right now speaks to this preparation. They're working out in bigger and bigger groups and practices are getting more intense. We had known Jamie Benn was returning from Germany for a little while now and while it's said he's returning if the lockout continues, from what we can tell he's not exactly preparing to go back anytime soon. But this could all still fall apart. Both sides have shown to be too emotional over the business side of this deal, which is likely why mediators could work this time. They are very close to a deal and throwing the season away over contractual details and term limits would be horrifically stupid. Lets hope they'll reach a deal in the next two weeks and play resumes in the first week of January.

Lockout day 87

CBA roundup
• After Monday's cancellations, the NHL has now wiped out 526 regular-season games, lost the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, MI., and the All-Star weekend in Columbus.
• Happy 20th anniversary on the job, Commissioner Gary Bettman! Wait, you're telling me it's not such a happy anniversary? Oh. Well then, may we propose a toast? Shall the next 20 years (or however many) be better than the previous 20! Surely we can drink to that. (Ottawa Sun)
• Many, but not all of the details from the most recent offer by the league came out in some form on Thursday, some from Donald Fehr and some from reporters. Nick Cotsonika had a few more that he reported on Monday, a few that could be pretty big deals like this one.

The NHL Players' Association backed off on its proposal that the players' share could not go backwards in terms of dollars starting in Year 2. It had been a non-starter for the NHL.

That had been a real sore spot for the owners and something they weren't going to agree to; they weren't interested in taking all the risk on future growth of revenue. Cotsonika also reports the PA proposed a midlevel cap exception, which went nowhere. (Yahoo!)
• Still not feeling any hope that the lockout will end anytime soon? Perhaps Scott Burnside and this dose of optimism will cheer you up as he doesn't see this going much longer at all now.

And really, is there anyone in the hockey world who doesn't fully expect that in the coming days -- and by that we mean within a week -- the two sides will reconvene, somehow pull their collective toes back from the abyss and come up with a deal?
Even in the aftermath of last week's bizarro meltdown of talks in New York City that had both sides going off on emotional tangents that seemed to suggest all hope was lost, it didn't take long for more optimistic mutterings to emanate from both sides.
Call it taking stock, call it self-preservation, but the days after last week's blowout remind us of the aftermath of a party that got way out of hand. You pick up the lamp, you vacuum up the Cheezies ground into the rug, you pick the bottle caps out of the plants and you breathe a sigh of relief that the drapes are indeed fire-resistant and things weren't as bad as you first imagined.

My takeaway? It sounds like Burnside has had some pretty awesome parties. (ESPN.com)
• Thinking of new ways to improve the business of the NHL, Jesse Spector presents his latest radical idea to fix things and it takes a page out of European soccer.

Global soccer already has a successful model in place with its system of transfer fees, the lion's share of which go to the club losing a player, with cuts for agents and the players themselves. In the NHL, transfer fees could be used not only to compensate teams for losing in-demand players, but to fund the revenue-sharing pool as well. If, for example, the Canucks decided to sell Roberto Luongo to the Maple Leafs, money would go to Vancouver, to Luongo, and to the revenue-sharing system. In this way, Toronto actually would be getting something for its continued propping up of the NHL's weaker sisters, rather than just the good feeling that comes from giving to charity.
The Leafs win by getting Luongo and hanging on to their top prospects, the Canucks win by getting a pile of transfer-fee money that they can turn into better players than they would have gotten in a trade, Luongo wins by getting a cut of the transfer fee and a new contract in Toronto, and the rest of the NHL wins by getting more money pumped into the system. (Sporting News)

• It's not too soon to think about how things will go when the season returns. That's what Ian Mendes did by looking at the veteran players from the 1994-95 lockout and how they responded. The data shows not too well.

Some interesting data emerged out of the 1994-95 lockout, which indicated that older players struggled in the shortened season. In that season, the NHL played a 48-game schedule that started in late January. At the end of that compressed season, the top four scorers in the league were all in their early to mid-20s: Jaromir Jagr (23), Eric Lindros (22), Alexei Zhamnov (24) and Joe Sakic (25).
That is in stark contrast to what happened in the previous season, when older players seemed to dominate the top of the leaderboard. In 1993-94, three of the top four scorers in the league were over the age of 30: Wayne Gretzky (33), Adam Oates (31) and Doug Gilmour (30).
That's just part of it, there are other pieces of evidence to suggest Mendes might be onto something. If this lockout robs us of Teemu Selanne's and Daniel Alfredsson's best ... . (Ottawa Citizen)

Considering today is Day 87 of the lockout and there is a certain pretty famous No. 87 in hockey who is very superstitious about his number, we'll just go with Sidney Crosby. Perhaps given that this is his day of the lockout, he can spring into action and make a deal happen. Or probably not. Here is a Top 10 for Sid the Kid, and it doesn't even include highlights from the last year (of which there were obviously not too many given the lockout and his injury, but still).

Next step in talks between NHL & NHLPA

Despite last week's negotiations falling through and the two sides failing to reach an agreement, there is still hope that the NHL will agree in time for half a season. TSN's Darren Dreger reported today that the NHL will cancel games through December 30th, which is much more optimistic then the originally proposed January 15th date. Although cancelling games is never a good sign, the fact that they are only cancelling up until the 30th shows some sort of hope that the season will start soon. Cancelling up until the 30th gives the opportunity for the season to start on New Year's Eve, which would give the NHL a 13 game schedule for opening day. The NHL has already cancelled the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game, so starting on a holiday would give them some sort of momentum going into 2013. According to Sportsnet, the NHL lockout is currently on it's 86th day, and has cancelled a total of 388 games, losing nearly $600 million in player salaries. The window of opportunity is rapidly closing as 2012 comes to an end, and January may be the final chance for fans to see the NHL this season. Dan Rosen wrote today that the NHL and NHLPA are working on scheduling a meeting for next week, but nothing has been confirmed. If they want to start the season by the end of the month, they will have to make significant progress by next Friday.

 

Do You Think The NHL Will Have A Season?

Yes

29.8%

No

70.2%

Total votes: 410

If that doesn't work, January 15th may become the final date before the NHL loses the season. The 1994 lockout ended on January 11, 1994 and started nine days later on January 20th, allowing the league to have a 48 game season. Having 48 games ultimately means that any team could have a chance to make a run at the Stanley Cup, but it is still better then having no season at all. There is no doubt that hockey fans would rather see the Columbus Blue Jackets win the Stanley Cup then not have a winner at all (maybe). Despite the public arguments and constant setbacks in negotiations, these talks are going much better then the 2004 work stoppage. Both sides went months without talking during the last lockout, and at least Daly and Fehr are working to make something happen every week. Everyone is certainly frustrated up to this point, but only cancelling games up until the 30th gives hope that an agreement is right around the corner. Having 48 games is a lot better then zero, but the NHL has a little more than a month to make that happen.

CBA talks set to resume this week

CBA talks are expected to resume at some point this week as time is running out to end the NHL lockout in time to save the 2012-13 season. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, asked about negotiations this week, said in an email, "Yes, I expect there will be talks. But no specifics yet on time or place." The league and NHL Players' Association reached an impasse Thursday following a bizarre sequence of events that included NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr saying the sides were close and reversing course minutes later after a voicemail indicated the league found the union's stance "unacceptable."

Commissioner Gary Bettman appeared so rattled by the NHLPA counter-offering instead of accepting a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that he said the owners' most recent offer was off the table. Players have since told multiple news outlets that they do not believe that to be true. More games are set to be canceled later Monday, through Dec. 30. That's eight more for the Washington Capitals, if you're still counting. Not wiping out the scheduled through New Year's Eve leaves faint hope that the season could still begin for the Caps at the Pittsburgh Penguins, though that's very unlikely. Quickly approaching is a deadline to save a season (perhaps 48 games like in 1994-95) or cancel it altogether. Bettman said last week that the league had not set a date to make that call. It's uncertain where the next collective bargaining talks will be held because, according to Sportsnet's John Shannon, the NHLPA no longer has its temporary office space in New York City. He floated the idea of Chicago and said Toronto (where the players' office is) would be unlikely. Washington, which is easily accessible from both New York and Toronto, could make sense. And, hey, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is right down the street if the NHL changes its mind on not wanting mediators involved again.

Could Major players strike a deal?

Debby Wong- USA TODAY Sports

The 2012 NHL Lockout’s getting ready to enter its 81st day. Before that happens however the two sides took commissioner Gary Bettman‘s suggestion to meet without their leaders. The meeting, which is still taking place at this hour, is being held in New York City with six owners and 18 players in attendance. The most notable players, other than stars like Pittsburgh Penguins‘ captain Sidney Crosby and Chicago Blackhawks‘ captain Jonathan Toews, taking part are the New York Rangers‘ Brad Richards and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Martin St. Louis.

Why are the last two names mentioned so noteworthy? Well, as long ago as it probably seems, those two teamed up in 2004 to help the Lightning win their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2004. Also, though Richards has since moved on from the Lightning, the two remain good friends. They even practiced together here in Tampa for a short period of time in early November.

Another thing both players have that some others don’t is lockout experience. Both were coming off a fantastic year in 2003/04, with Richards winning the Conn Smythe Trophy given to a team’s Most Valuable Player during the playoffs and St. Louis was coming off a year in which he won the Hart and Art Ross trophies, along with the Lester B. Pearson award.

Something else that could play an important role this time around is the fact both Richards and St. Louis are getting older. At 32 and 37 years old it’s easy to see that these two, especially St. Louis at 37, don’t have much time left in their respective careers to waste another entire season. As for their role in our current NHL lockout, these two have a history of teaming up to produce good things. Who can forget them teaming up early into double overtime of Game 6 against the Calgary Flames to send the Lightning back home where two nights later they won the Cup?Regardless, let’s all hope these two find a way to rekindle their magic. If they do we might see hockey as early as January 2013. If they don’t, well, don’t expect NHL hockey to return before October 2013 if not later.

Sidney Crosby considering Europe

 

Just when things were starting to look up in the NHL Lockout saga, they now look just as bleak as ever. After the latest debacle in New York this weekend, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, the most recognizable name in the NHL, is mulling a stint in a European League. According to an Associated Press report (via ESPN.com), Crosby felt "disappointed" after labor talks broke down this weekend. Per the story, Crosby, who was part of the negotiations in New York, thought things were going well until Gary Bettman's disenchanted press conference on Thursday. The commissioner scoffed at the notion that the two sides were close, offering the following pessimistic sentiment:

The characterization that I’ve just heard transmitted to us that we were close, that reminds me of the last time the union said we were close and we were a billion dollars apart. Spinning us all into an emotional frenzy over maybe we’re close and we’re going to be playing hockey tomorrow is terribly unfair to our fans and it’s unfair to this process.

Having heard those words from the Commissioner, Crosby has set his sights on a league that is playing games right now––specifically one of the leagues in Europe. "I just want to play hockey," Crosby declared after working out with some teammates. "As far as whatever option is best there, I'll start thinking of it a lot more because this stuff is getting ridiculous."

The fact that Crosby, the league's most marketable commodity, might be giving up on the process represent a new nadir in the labor negotiations. It sends a message to die-hards and casual fans alike that things are either moving in the wrong direction, or not moving at all. This is the NHL's second lockout in eight years; they canceled the entire season in 2004-05. And if more high-profile players follow Crosby's lead by heading to Europe, we could be seeing more of the same in 2012-13.

Decertification is a gamble that could take years

Months of negotiations have not been enough to settle the differences between the NHL and NHLPA. Last week, federal mediation failed. Tuesday, owners and players meet face-to-face, but without much optimism in the hockey world that anything said will lead to a new collective bargaining agreement or the end of the NHL lockout. What’s left? The one big card that the players have left to play is decertifying the NHLPA—but even taking that theoretical step does not generate a lot of hope for a swift settlement. It's a roll of the dice, and one that could potentially take years to resolve.

Donald Fehr and the players he represent have a crucial decision to make.

 

— Today: Crosby, Toews to join meetings
“I’m not sure I know what they’re going to gain,” said Samuel Estreicher, the Opperman Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University. “They’re trying to do something to change the dynamic. Part of it is getting leverage. The issue is whether the Norris-La Guardia Act would bar an injunction (against the lockout). You’d still have two or three years of lawsuits to determine whether the Brown case applies.”
The Norris-La Guardia Act is a 1932 federal law prohibiting courts from issuing an injunction to force the end of a labor dispute. It came into play last year, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled as improper an injunction against the NFL lockout. The case, Tom Brady et al. v. NFL, overturned a district court’s decision. That sets an unfavorable precedent for the players, but does not preclude the NHLPA from pursuing decertification and an injunction against the lockout.

"You have four federal judges (one on the district court, three at the 8th Circuit) that have basically split on this, so different judges on a different circuit might disagree with Brady, and then there's the open question of whether the players can recover treble damages (for games missed) down the road," said Matt Mitten, a law professor at Marquette University and the director of the National Sports Law Institute. "It would just be presenting a different argument under different circumstances to a different court. It was pretty clear in Brady that that was the strategy of the union, bringing an antitrust suit to prevent the owners from locking them out. This is several months into the season and there has been bargaining for several months. A different court could conceivably reach a different result than the 8th Circuit with Brady."

The other suit Estreicher referred to, Brown v. Pro Football Inc., was a 1996 case in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NFL’s ability to impose salary rules on practice squad players after an impasse with the NFLPA. That precedent—for a league to be able to act unilaterally—presumably would still apply, but with a caveat. “There’s a serious question if there’s no longer a live labor relations relationship,” Estreicher said. “Maybe in a year or two, if there’s no business, you can do something.”

Simply decertifying as a union would not eliminate a labor relations relationship between the NHLPA and NHL. The NFLPA disclaimed interest in collective bargaining in 1989, months before the Brown lawsuit was filed. The union did not reconstitute until 1993, after Jets running back Freeman McNeil led fellow players in an antitrust suit on "Plan B" free agency. After the players won that suit, the NFL reached settlements on other pending lawsuits, and was ready to make a deal after nearly six seasons without a CBA in the wake of the 1987 strike. "What Brady said is that a disclaimer is not enough to take this out of being a labor dispute," Mitten said. "But, if (the NHLPA were to) decide to formally decertify, the union wouldn't be able to collectively bargain on (the players') behalf for a full year. Part of the problem in the Brady case was that there was one foot in collective bargaining and one foot in antitrust, and the court said, 'You can't do that.' You have to make a clearer decision by formally decertifying, and then there could be antitrust remedies. What Brown did was said, 'If there's an active relationship, antitrust law doesn't have a role to play in a labor dispute.' The court suggested that once that collective bargaining relationship ends, and there are steps the players can take to do that, then individual players can bring their antitrust suit. The Brady case is different because what happened there, is there was a lockout and the NFL players wanted to (end it via injunction). ... The strategy would be for NHL players to formally decertify the union and say they've got totally different factors to Brady. Then they perhaps have some leverage and could work out an agreement in the form of a settlement to the antitrust suit. That's what happened in the McNeil case."

The NHLPA has expressed a willingness to do what NFL players did from the end of the 1987 strike through the 1992 season, and play without a CBA, but since a lockout is imposed by owners, would hockey players be able to wait long enough for lawsuits that may not work out in their favor? And are the risks worth that gamble? “Decertifying allows the NHL owners to treat marginal players like hotel workers,” said Stephen F. Ross, the director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research. “It also removes the American labor law restriction on employers going over the heads of the union directly to individual players: NHL owners would be free to try to end the lockout and cut deals with individual players. The only reason to decertify is to file an antitrust lawsuit. … The law is not clear whether the antitrust exemption still applies to protect the owners from monetary liability, which eventually could be in the hundreds of millions.”

The Brown lawsuit was initially filed in 1990, with the players receiving $30 million in damages from a jury before the eventual reversal of that verdict by the Supreme Court six years later. Still, that $30 million was just for practice squad players. The specter of a nine-figure lawsuit would make for great headlines, but given that the Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of the NFL, might not make the NHL worried enough to cave in to the NHLPA’s demands. So, what then?

“(The owners) can withstand this antitrust gambit,” Estreicher said. “I don’t think there’s an endgame. After NFL-Brown, I don’t think there’s an endgame.” If the NHLPA’s best options would be rolling the dice on a different court, or waiting years to see if there is an end-around on Brown, it's hard to see an advantage for the union. That may be because the advantage is not in the United States. “Canadian law is very different than U.S. law,” Ross said. “There is a specific, albeit never litigated, provision of the Canadian Competition Act—their equivalent of our Sherman Act—about unreasonably restricting opportunities for players. There is no case law, and a good argument—disclaimer, I made it in a law review article in 2004—that the American-style labor exemption does not apply. And there is a ‘nuclear’ threat that the Canadian Competition Bureau could file a credible complaint that the NHL is an illegal monopoly and break the league in two.”

If it is going to take a court battle to settle things between the NHL and NHLPA, perhaps the Toronto-based union would benefit from home-ice advantage. Either way, there is only so much that can be achieved through decertification. "Neither the courts nor the National Labor Relations Board can make the parties agree," Mitten said. "The only way they can play hockey is if they both agree on things. Neither labor nor federal antitrust law requires the sides to reach an agreement. Each side is trying to get leverage—the NHL does it by locking out the players and hoping they'll crack or cave in, and the players would like to try to find a way to prevent the NHL from locking them out. That's the crucial part of this, is that it's up to the parties to reach an agreement."