The NHL Lockout has finally come to an end. After 113 days and a marathon 16 hour negotiating session between the National Hockey League and the NHLPA, the two sides have agreed on the framework on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
At 4:40 AM Sunday NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr emerged from the negotiating room to announce the framework of a deal had been reached. "We have to dot a lot of I's and cross a lot of T's. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the basic framework has been agreed upon." Bettman told reporters in a brief statement.
Bettman and Fehr did not immediately release any details on what that framework was and said they would not comment on what the new CBA will include, thankfully TSN knows everything about hockey ever...
According to TSN the new CBA will include the following:
/ The CBA will be for ten years with an opt out clause after season eight of the CBA (Summer 2020). Great news everybody wins here, we won't have to go through this again for a while and making this CBA a long term is better for the League. Imagine where this League will be in ten years and the NHL has grown in revenue roughly 9% in five seasons.
/ The players' share of hockey related revenue (HRR) will be an equal 50-50 split with the owners, steep drop from the 57% stake the players laid claim to last season. Huge win for the owners who've been screwed as NHL profits rose the last five seasons. The players gave up a lot of money here, but it's only fair they share the HRR with the owners.
/ Year One of the CBA will have a salary cap of $70.2M, Year Two will see the salary cap drop to $64.3M. Both seasons the salary cap floor will be set at $44M. The owners gave up a lot here, they wanted Y2 salary cap set at $60M. It gives the teams flexibility in the first two years of the new CBA to get their payrolls in check and slowly bring their cap down to a reasonable amount.
/ Each team will be allowed two amnesty buy outs which can be used to terminate after this season and next season. The buyouts will count against the players' overall share in revenues but not the team's salary cap. Win for the owners who can now terminate these HUGE front loaded contracts *cough* ROBERTO LUONGO *cough* therefore helping themselves meet that salary cap. If I was a player with one of those outrageous contracts I'd be crapping myself right now.
/ A player contract term limit for free agents will be seven years and eight years for a team signing its own player. Lets be honest here, there are very few hockey players that have been given ten or fifteen year contracts that will actually fulfill these obligations...thankfully someone realized this during the CBA negotiations. Huge win for the owners.
/ The salary variance on contracts from year to year can not vary more than 35% and the final year can not vary by more than 50% of the highest year. Good bye front loaded contracts! Giant win for the owners here. Combine this with the term limits on contracts and you have a recipe for success for the owners.
/ The draft lottery selection process will change with all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick. The weighting system for each team will remain, but the four-spot restriction will be eliminated. Wow, so all 14 non-playoff teams are eligible for the draft lottery, and any of those 14 teams could possibly get the #1 pick in the draft...now there's even less reason to tank your season because there's 13 other teams that also have a shot at the #1 pick at the draft.
/ Supplemental discipline for players in on-ice incidents will continue to go through NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan first, followed by an appeal process that will go through NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. For suspensions of six games or more a neutral third party will decide if necessary. The "Shanaban" returns! He's done a fine job so far trying to change the game and make it more safe for the players, no need to change things here.
/ Teams can only walk away from a player in salary arbitration if the award is at least $3.5M.
/ No decision was made on NHL participation in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The NHL and NHLPA have decided to hold separate negotiations with the IIHF and IOC outside of the CBA. There's no way NHLers won't be at the games. They want to play...let them play. Yes the Olympics are supposed to showcase the best amateur athletes in the world...but try telling that to Kobe and LeBron! You can either let them participate in the Olympics or create some sort of professional tournament where players can represent their respective countries.
No date has been set as of yet on when the puck will drop on the 2012-13 season, but rumor is a 50 game season could begin on January 15 or a 48 game season could being on January 19. It all depends on how long it takes to put the framework to paper and how long it takes to get the Board of Governors to approve this new CBA.
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