Feature Preview: Bitter Memories and CBA Renegotiation
The lockout was a knife in the heart of most hockey fans.
The worry that the NHL was in serious trouble. The cancellation of an entire season.
Uncertainty as to what a new Collective Bargaining Agreement would bring – or if the rosters in 2005-2006 would be anything resembling the pre-lockout rosters, if the entire 2004-2005 season was indeed canceled and an agreement wasn’t reached.
We don’t want to go back.
But if there’s anything we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that the CBA reached in 04-05 didn’t solve much. Most notably, front-loaded contracts circumvent the cap, allowing teams to pay players more per year than is being counted against the cap – sometimes much more. While their season to season payroll should be approximately around their season to season cap hit, the ability to front-load their contracts allows their payroll to drastically exceed the cap. NHLPA in-fighting is as bad as ever, with the bizarre dismissal of Paul Kelly ushering in more combative and hard-line leadership to the NHLPA.
Fans are rightfully worried – perhaps not consciously so at this juncture – about the CBA coming up for renegotiation. It currently extends through the 2011-2012 season, and the NHLPA declining to revisit it (as was their option) before its expiration means nothing, in the end. Fans are also rightfully worried that it’s going to turn into another dogfight between Gary Bettman and the player’s union.
Particularly when it’s our opinion – that is, the opinion of the writers of an upcoming series of Crash the Crease features on the intricacies and problems of the current CBA (myself and Matt Wilkerson) – that the league needs to negotiate closing loopholes in the CBA in order to make sure that the spirit of the 2004-2005 deal is actually upheld. We also propose to explore how the current contract and free agency climate in the NHL – the prevalence of long-term deals, big-money signings, and acquiring veterans on the cheap – could impact the CBA negotiations.
Over the next month, we’ll be writing a series of features exploring these themes: the problems with the current CBA, what the NHL and NHLPA need to do to improve the next version of the agreement and how current problems may affect CBA negotiations, and how worrying trends in contracts and free agency reduce the competitiveness of the league.
Our first piece – one exploring the problems with front-loaded contracts and how a revised CBA could address the issue – will be posted this weekend by my partner in this endeavor, Matt Wilkerson, Crash the Crease’s Anaheim Ducks blogger.
Yours,
Connor Lewis
Blogger, Buffalo Sabres
