Category Archives: HTR Feature Article
Likely Buyout Contracts
Here are a few possible candidates:
* Roberto Luongo, goalie, Vancouver Canucks: He is signed through 2021-22 with a cap hit of $5.3 million. If the Canucks aren’t able to deal him to Florida or Toronto, he’ll definitely be sent packing.
* Ilya Bryzgalov, goalie, Philadelphia Flyers: This would have been the second season of a nine-year deal with a cap hit of $5.6 million. It would be pretty bad if the Flyers made this move.
* Scott Gomez, forward, Montreal Canadiens: He has a $7.3 million cap hit through the end of next season. He had two goals in 38 games last season with the Habs and has been a disappointment.
* Wade Redden, defenceman, New York Rangers: He has a hit of $6.5 million that the club won’t be able to bury in the minors. He’d welcome the chance to get another shot in the NHL.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/01/04/nhl-wants-teams-to-have-two-freebie-buyouts
Lebrun Tweets
Not set in stone yet but probable that NHL’s Board of Governors convenes Tuesday here in NYC obviously to vote on the deal
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013
NHL AND NHLPA REACH DEAL ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT
After 113 days and a 16-hour negotiation marathon that wrapped up at 5am et on Sunday morning, a tentative deal on a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement has been reached between the National Hockey League and NHL Players’ Association.
“Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement, the details of which need to be put to paper,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed to reporters early Sunday morning. “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.”
The next stage is documentation and ratification of the deal, with the start date and number of games in the 2012-13 season still to be announced depending on how long the final process takes.
“Hopefully we’re at a place where all those things will proceed fairly rapidly and with some dispatch,” said NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr. “We’ll get back to business as usual just as fast as we can. Hopefully within a very few days the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us.”
Will disgruntled NHL owners stand up to Gary Bettman over length of lockout?
Gary Bettman has some explaining to do.
The NHL commissioner may lose sleep Tuesday night in the city that never sleeps as he prepared to sit down with the board of governors Wednesday at the New York law offices of Proskauer Rose in Times Square.
League sources told QMI Agency they expect Bettman to face pointed questions from some owners who have bitten their tongues long enough as the NHL lockout hits Day 81 Wednesday with an estimated $1.2 billion in lost revenues.
“I would think the owners who haven’t said anything are going to finally have their say after they get updated on where the discussions are at because nobody is happy where this is at,” said a league insider Tuesday. “Most certainly, (Bettman) has his allies, but if one owner who isn’t happy with the fact that the business is being damaged by this lockout stands up, then I think you could see a group of owners stand up to have their say.
“Nobody wants the league to give the players everything they want, but not everybody is prepared to lose the season because they’re concerned with how the business is going to recover from this, especially in the United States.”
Now, it should be noted Bettman likes to be in control at board meetings and, quite frankly, the first two hours are likely going to be spent updating the owners of all 30 teams on how the league got here.
NHL closer than ever
Optimism is flowing here at the Westin Times Square, where it appears that traction has finally been made in this maddening 81-day NHL lockout.
We do not know what went on in those closed-door meetings today between 18 players and 6 owners. Neither side was available for questions afterward, clearly not wanting to trample on any progress that had been made.
“It may be the best day we’ve had so far,” NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr said.
“I appreciate the efforts of the players in particular in there today,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.
Yes, we don’t know the discussion, how it went and who led it. But we do have some facts. Consider the following:
- When Daly and Steve Fehr addressed the media, they did so standing side-by-side for the first time during this process. They did not take questions. Neither did the players.
- The two sides met for more than 8 hours, beginning at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and extending to just before midnight, with a dinner break spliced in between to update the brass who was not in on the negotiations. The two sides also exited frequently to update the brass on proceedings.
- Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr did not participate in negotiations.
- Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux was also present at the Westin, where the meetings were spearheaded by Sidney Crosby and co-owner Ron Burkle.
- The two sides will reconvene meeting on Wednesday morning before the NHL’s Board of Governors meeting. It is believed they will use the same format as Tuesday. It is also believed that they will either take a break in the meetings for Bettman to attend the Board of Governors meeting or that Bettman will break himself to run the meeting.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/frequentflyers/NHL-talks-closer-than-ever.html
Penguins’ power play brings deal closer
The players emerged from the room around midnight and scurried down the hotel escalator past reporters, unwilling to share much, if anything.
The smiles on some of their faces, however, suggested it wasn’t a bad day at all.
As one player would later share via text message to ESPN.com, “There was certainly traction. But I don’t want to say more.”
That cautious optimism — the key word being cautious — was on full display when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA outside counsel Steve Fehr stood shoulder to shoulder in a joint media availability after the marathon sessions, Fehr calling it possibly the best day in the entire process, while Daly nodded in agreement.
But other than that, both sides were tight-lipped. Like a pitcher working on a no-hitter through six innings, it’s too early to get too excited.
I’d be ready to say this, however: I’m willing to bet there’s a far greater chance of hockey this season than not after Tuesday’s developments.
At the center of this fragile momentum is the presence of the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by reclusive billionaire owner Ron Burkle, who shined brightly in talks Tuesday, according to sources, the players receptive to his tone.
Burkle’s first appearance in labor talks comes at a critical time in the process, with both sides having tried nearly everything else — mediation, large group meetings, small group meetings, etc.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/20572/penguins-power-play-brings-deal-closer
Next meetings critical for NHL, NHLPA
When it comes to lawyers, you must be careful about using the word “offers.” It’s possible no official offers were presented. But, what these two often do is say, “If we proposed this, what would your side think?” or something along that line. So, what you can expect is that Bill Daly and Steve Fehr went through a lot of that, trying to see how far their adversary is willing to go and what really are the cornerstone issues here.
It’s the next meeting that’s going to be critical.
Why? As I checked Sunday morning, there weren’t a lot of details available (if any) to those who were outside the meeting. Over the next 24-48 hours, both the NHL and NHLPA are going to digest what happened and send updates to their constituents. That will determine the true tone of where we are and whether any real traction was made. Once the players and governors get their memos and begin to react, strategy for the next get-together will be shaped.
It’s at this moment both sides will decide how much farther they are willing to bend, if it all. If there’s room for compromise, we’ve got a chance. If there isn’t, we’re in trouble.
The danger is in the toxicity. Make no mistake, a lot of anger remains in the process. It doesn’t take much to ignite those feelings, especially when the lightning rods — Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr — are in the room.
Toronto D-man Gardiner too valuable to flip
When the Roberto Luongo rumour mill went into full churn, promising Toronto defenceman Jake Gardiner knew who to lean on.
Who better than Luke Schenn?
Wait, a minute, Schenn did get traded.
“Sure, but it took four years,” Gardiner said. “He had rumours from the first time he got to Toronto. He had four years of it.
“I talked to him and he said, ‘Rumours are going to happen. You have to push them off. You can’t can’t ever worry about it.’”
From that point, Gardiner hasn’t, and with good reason.
Since a mid-season sag that saw him sit seven consecutive games in January, there hasn’t been a lot for Gardiner to be concerned about.
Even the rumours have been an ego stroke. The Canucks wanted him in a Luongo trade. His skating and transition game fit Vancouver’s attack like a longboard suits a hipster. The Leafs responded with their position that they can’t possibly give him up.
“I’m happy Toronto wants me, I don’t want to leave,” Gardiner said.
Even some owners don’t like what’s under the cap in NHL labour dispute
The NHL owners and players may be back at the bargaining table, with the major issue of a 50-50 revenue split complete with fully paying existing contracts in sight, but trouble looms from a couple of surprising groups on each side of the labour divide.
At issue are two changes from the former collective agreement in what goes into the salary cap, in particular the payroll floor. In his last offer, before the previous round of talks broke off on Oct. 18, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said teams would no longer be allowed to count player bonus money on their payroll in order to get to the floor. He also proposed all player salaries above $105,000 (all currency U.S.), even those on a team’s minor-league roster, would now be included under the salary cap.
This alarmed two groups. One is a lot of NHL owners, many of whom were considered moderates, who are not happy that under this proposal they could no longer include on their payroll bonus money that would likely never be paid in order to get to the salary floor, which was $48.3-million in the 2011-12 season. This means they will have to pay real cash to get to the floor, a daunting prospect for clubs operating on razor-thin margins.
The other unhappy group is all of the players in the AHL, who would effectively see their salaries capped at $105,000 under Bettman’s offer. This is alarming because a veteran can make as much as $300,000 on an AHL contract, which is currently not included in the NHL team’s cap payroll.
The unhappy owners may or may not prove to be a breaking point because of an NHL bylaw Bettman smartly instituted before the 2004-05 lockout. While it takes only eight supporting votes from the 30 NHL owners to allow Bettman to reject an offer from the NHLPA, it takes 23 owners to overrule any offer Bettman makes to the players.
Roberto Luongo trade to Leafs isn’t a done deal, at least not yet: Cox
No NHL player can be traded during the lockout. But that doesn’t mean nobody is talking trade, or that trade rumours can’t gain life while the players are locked out.
That seems to be the case with the Leafs and their pursuit of Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, with multiple reports this week indicating that a deal was either close or completed in principle.
Well, not true. At least not yet.
Yes, the Leafs remain very much interested in securing the services of Luongo, and the talks are very much alive. It’s believed Leaf GM Brian Burke and his Vancouver counterpart Mike Gillis spoke as recently as two weeks ago, at which time the Canucks demands were reduced from the bounty they requested at the draft, but not enough for the Leafs to agree to anything.
At the draft, reports indicated Vancouver asked for centre Tyler Bozak, defenceman Jake Gardiner, a first-round pick and winger Matt Frattin in exchange for the 33-year-old Luongo. The Leafs had no interest in paying that kind of price, largely because there is no significant market for the services of the veteran goaltender.
The Leafs, however, have only James Reimer on their NHL roster, and he’s a goalie in search of bounce-back season himself. So they have a definite need for quality veteran goaltending and the Canucks need to get Luongo out-of-town.
So talks have continued on and off, with Bozak as the centrepiece. Vancouver believes Bozak would be a good fit as their No. 3 centre behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler. The Leafs might be willing to pay more than Bozak, but how much more is unclear.
The most recent owner’s CBA proposal, meanwhile, may have altered the temperature of talks between the two clubs.
Luongo has 10 years remaining on a contract that comes with a cap hit of $5.33 million per season and expires in 2022. His actual salary is $6.714 million for the next six seasons, including the 2012-13 campaign, but then drops by 50 per cent in the seventh year and to $1 million in each of the final two.
The belief has long been with this contract that he’ll play for six years, then retire, taking the Canucks off the hook for the cap hit in the final four years.
NHLPA is more likely to reject #NHL’s 50-50 offer than counter it
From what I was told earlier today, NHLPA is more likely to reject #NHL‘s 50-50 offer than counter it. PA is planning response right now.
— L.A. Lariviere (@L_A_theRiver) October 17, 2012
shocked if a week from now whatever the “final” offer is that it doesn’t go to NHLPA membership for a vote
I’d be shocked if a week from now whatever the “final” offer is that it doesn’t go to NHLPA membership for a vote.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 17, 2012
NHL OFFERS 50/50 SPLIT ON HRR IN PROPOSAL FOR NHLPA
The NHL put a new offer on the bargaining table for the NHL Players’ Association on Tuesday morning, which includes a 50/50 split of hockey-related revenue across the board and contingent on an 82-game season beginning Nov. 2.
“We hope we’ve given our best shot,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
Bettman added that the offer calls for no salary rollback and the revised schedule – if implemented – would see one week of training camp and every team playing an extra regular season game every five weeks.
NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said the offer – which is at least six years in length – would be discussed with his membership in a 5pm et conference call.
“I would like to believe that after we’re done with this, as I said, that it’ll be an excellent starting point and we can go forward and see if there’s a deal to be made,” Fehr told reporters on Tuesday.
“Our hope after we review this is that there will be a feeling on the players’ side that this will be a proposal from which we can negotiate and try and reach a conclusion.”
When asked if the new proposal was an improvement over previous offers tabled by the NHL, Fehr added: “In some respects I think it is in other respects I’m not sure. We have to look at it.”