CBA Implications?

[MadCaptain]

Hey,

I've been wondering what will happen with the new CBA relating to decrease in the salary cap and potential cap relief buyouts.

arguably the top 4 GMs in the league (Holland, Poile, Lou, Chero) have all set themselves to be way below the salary cap or their own spending limit. Either through trading money or losing FAs. Do you guys think this is just a coincidence or maybe they have inside knowledge of whats planned with the CBA and setting themselves up for the next part of the offseason?

 

[Spam only]

im not to sure about it being them setting up for the future in regards to the cba

holland went after the cute couple of parise/sutter
and holland being as good as he is possibly could have thought its either them or nothing incase of payroll decrease
well as i wrote this i changed my mind

so maybe

 

[MadCaptain]

I bring this up again because it's been announced the league wants to lower the salary cap by roughly $13 mil with no amnesty buyouts.

Starting to seem likely that those GMs were aware something like this would happen.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I bring this up again because it's been announced the league wants to lower the salary cap by roughly $13 mil with no amnesty buyouts.

Starting to seem likely that those GMs were aware something like this would happen.

It's really starting to look that way. I really doubt all of those guys put their eggs in 1 basket and just lost out. That just seems too wreckless and shortsighted for guys that have the track record they do.

 

[MCDevils]

The odds of a new CBA making any teams current roster unplayable are pretty low. The Union wouldn't agree to anything that would do that. They'll find some way to recalculate those cap hits in regards to the cap.

 

[Indian Chief]

The odds of a new CBA making any teams current roster unplayable are pretty low. The Union wouldn't agree to anything that would do that. They'll find some way to recalculate those cap hits in regards to the cap.

I agree, but that doesn't mean that some teams won't be in cap hell for the next few years. Such as our beloved Minnesota Wild.

 

[nj_cup]

i will be amazed if the nhlpa accepts a lower cap. hell these owners are the ones writing the checks...no one told the wild to give parise 90 million or hell no one told beek to give kovy 100.

the real scary thing is i'm sure there are A LOT of owners who wouldnt mind this lockout. esp if they lose some games? you know how many teams probably dont make money during the regular season.

if the nhl really wanted to cut costs they should cut the schedule down and cut the players salaries to reflect that. everyone wins....there are too many games as is (high season ticket cost) and it just boring.

 

[nj_cup]

the owners had the public on their side the 5 years ago...this time im on the players side.

but to be honest maybe me just getting older or maybe just going through this 3 times in 17 years i just dont really care anymore lol. i probably read 3 articles about the labor talks since the cup finals. if the season happens great i will always watch a devils game when im free hit one up too. if not o well there are a ton of other stuff on my tivo to watch and i can save the $$$$

 

[MCDevils]

I want to be on the players side, but Fehr is a total bullshitter and since our team just lost our captain because of economics, I am cheering for the league.

Someone needs to double check my math, but Fehr keeps talking about how the league revenues are up, BUT unless I'm mistaken, revenues are up from 2.1B to 3B which is a little less than 50% increase. However, the cap went from 39 to 65M which is an increase of 65% over that time. So I don't believe that a roll back would be the players making huge concessions again. They're earning more than the league can possibly be growing using this basic comparison.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

My problem is the owners got everything they wanted in the last CBA and they are responsible for all of the current problems. It's stupid on both sides.

But seriously, Bettman is now commish for 3 work stoppages. 94 the biggest market in NA had the title, baseball was on strike, Jordan was out of basketball, you had all the momentum in the world to take hockey to another level and you let a work stoppage occur? Now LA wins it, you can capitalize on that and grow the sport and another work stoppage is looming. How is this guy still in charge?

 

[MCDevils]

My problem is the owners got everything they wanted in the last CBA and they are responsible for all of the current problems. It's stupid on both sides.

But seriously, Bettman is now commish for 3 work stoppages. 94 the biggest market in NA had the title, baseball was on strike, Jordan was out of basketball, you had all the momentum in the world to take hockey to another level and you let a work stoppage occur? Now LA wins it, you can capitalize on that and grow the sport and another work stoppage is looming. How is this guy still in charge?

The whole owners got everything they wanted is Fehr BS to me. Yes they obviously won because there's a cap, but it's impossible to predict teh way a document this massive and complex would work out. Sure the GM's broke the system with the Kovy type contracts, and people will say, well don't do that, but IMO if you're a GM you need to do everything you can to get the player you want. You can't handicap yourself because it's better for he overall fiscal health of the league.

Also, the 5% additional escalator was obviously a huge mistake too. I believe the players voted in favor of it every single time, correct?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Here's the thing, players are not going to pass up pay increases. If somebody hands them an absurd contract they will take it. If you can vote to increase your salary, you're going to do it. At the end of the day the guys writing the checks need to show some restraint.

 

[rp2five]

I can't disagree with both sides here.
As fans, people hate Bettman, but he isn't going anywhere, even if there is another work stoppage.

He has grown the sport and the owners love him because he makes them money.
Players also deep down love him because look at how much salaries increased since he took over.

Fans, except Penguin fans, have no reason to like him because we dont care if the players or owners are getting richer. We just want to watch the game and we witnessed too many work stoppages.

In the end, the owners will win and get more of what they want. They can wait this out longer.
The union is larger and once it starts to crack, they will submit to most of the terms the owners want anyway.

 

[MadCaptain]

I disagree about Bettman. He's been compacent if not ineffective for the past 7 years and possibly more if you put blame on the lockout to player strife.

He's made the players rich and the owners very rich during the 90s and the early 2000s. Player Salaries have gone up due to the structuring of the past CBA but there had been even higher contracts made previously.

The problem I have with him is that I do not have any trust in him making a correct decision with all biases aside. Just look at what he did with Kovygate. He had a chance to change the CBA to fix the salary cap holes and his added restrictions were useless and did nothing. The same thing can be said about his 'Victory' in the past CBA. all that really accomplished was a 2-3 year gap where players were not payed outrageously overall. It no longer puts all teams on even ground - Its now two levels, the cap teams and the below cap teams.

 

[MCDevils]

I always try to ignore Kovygate when judging him because obviously we're all biased. I'd also like to point out we don't seem to hate him when we make players pretend to be hurt for entire seasons, or when he advanced us all the money last year to help JVB. Or when he gave us the draft next summer

 

[rp2five]

There was not much else he could do the past few years, because the CBA was already in place. He intervened when necessary.
Remember he works for the owners in the end. When Kovy was signed, I bet you his phone was off the hook from the owners to stop it.

Bottom line is the owners love him. I have never seen an article where owners had anything negative to say about him.
They back him as much as owners back their commish in any other sport.
Therefore, he is most likely here to stay for a long time.

The only people who boo him and hate him are the fans.

 

[rp2five]

In the end, its really the owners fans should hate not Bettman. Bettman just works for them.
But, the owners will not lose this battle. They might give in a little, but in the end they will win this war. That's why in order to avoid the lock out, the players have to give in a lot more than the owners if we want to see the season start on time.

 

[nj_cup]

I always try to ignore Kovygate when judging him because obviously we're all biased. I'd also like to point out we don't seem to hate him when we make players pretend to be hurt for entire seasons, or when he advanced us all the money last year to help JVB. Or when he gave us the draft next summer

but players "acting hurt" for cap circumvention isnt against the rules. there is noway you can prove a player is hurt or not. much like its not against the rules to burry contracts in the minors or overseas. its bs on all acounts but its not against the rules. the kovalchuk contract wasnt against the rules and since other teams didnt get bashed for it we shouldnt have either. i can see if kovy deal was the 1st of its kind and it got shot down but it wasnt.


as for the draft he had to give it to us 1. with the financial situation of the team and wanting to grow the sport in an urban area is only good for the nhl. the draft shouldnt even sniff cities like pitt/minnesota/boston or anywhere in canada. they are all already hotbed of hockey and a draft there wont help grow the game.

 

[nj_cup]

everyone says what a great job betman has done to grow the game? how hard is it to grow a sport? i mean really....add teams when you can to grow the fanbase owners love it because new teams have to pay the fees to get in. players love it because its more jobs. i bet if betman was allowed he would expand again! the top 4 sports (no particular order) nhl/nba/nfl/mlb arent going anywhere htey will never go bankrupt they will never lose massive amounts of fans. so just going by the argument "he grew the sport" no commish will ever get fired...every year more people are born or grow up and spend money on the sport they like its a great job to have.


i dont know the exact number but how many teams have moved under betmans watch? that is the true way to view his success. which is why he is so hellbent on keeping the yotes in arizona and he couldnt give two fucks about the atlanta team

 

[nj_cup]

i agree with rp (hes smart guy) the owners will win. only a small % of players can find jobs playing hockey overseas the top 1% lol. people like cam jansen or steve bernier or steven gionta where are they going to find work? which is what i find so amazingly funny with these "workers" how quickly they leave their brothers behind for paying jobs overseas. how does that even make them a union?