CBA Negotiations Update- 8/14/12

NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr addresses the media

It's been a little less than a month since the NHL first laid out their proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement, and the NHLPA has finally presented their counter proposal yesterday. We all hope that this counter proposal will be accepted by the NHL and put into use
within the next few days, but it would go against pro sports policy for negotiations of any sort to go nice and peacefully, so it will likely be awhile before any sort of progress is made.

I took a careful look at both the NHL's proposal and the NHLPA's, and the aren't all too different. While there are some differences that most likely will have to be resolved if the two sides are to eventually come to a decision, the two sides aren't as far apart as many people expected they would be (or for the matter as far apart as they were before the 2004-05 lockout). Below are some differences in the two proposals.



     - The NHL's proposal consisted of a five-year CBA while the NHLPA's lasts just three seasons with a players' option for a fourth.

     - The NHLPA agreed to accept a reduced revenue share within the new CBA, but only about $465 million over the course of three years; less than was first proposed last month by the NHL.

     - The NHLPA would like to see zero contract changes in the new CBA. The NHL, remember, listed several regulations they would like to see instilled in their first proposal [5-year limit, equally distributed annual salary (instead of front, middle, or back-loaded deals), no salary arbitration, etc.].

     - The NHLPA would like to see a system where a team can go $4 million over/under the salary cap limitations by adding or trading cap space.

     - NHLPA requested that the League set forth a limit on non-player spending by teams.



Those are all of the main points that will be focused upon heavily when the debate picks up in the coming weeks. Of those differences, the two sides are farthest apart in terms of the third one (contracts), and more than likely that will be the bug hump that the two parties will need to get over. Obviously the players do not want more rules and regulations applied to the contracts they sign, but the League sees it as a circumvention-preventer and, in the long-run, a safer and more secure way of going about doing business.

One positive that came out of this proposal by the NHLPA was NHL commissioner (or tyrant, your choice) Gary Bettman said that the Players Association's proposal was "very thorough" and that the league will take a very close look at it, and they will have their response in about a weeks time.

Another positive was that many of the NHL's star players were present and backing up Fehr as he addressed the media. Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, and PK Subban were among the 23 players present at the press conference. It was a good sign that many of the games stars were there to let the owners know that they mean business, so the NHL better not screw around with crap proposals that favor the league immensely, and they better get to working on a deal that works for both sides fast.

Again, the deadline to get a new CBA constructed  before the season is locked out has been set for September 15.