[GeoffM]

Players offered:

24% salary roll-back, saving somewhere between $500 and 600 million for owners instantly.

The problem is they only offered a 20% luxury tax on payrolls over $45 mill. Don't know if the owners will like this point. However, when you think about it, if they take that rollback and just use the contracts that come out of them, they could easily just use the new contracts as the standard for all future contracts. But the problem is owners are rich and have nothing better to do with their money.

I hope they take this. The Leafs will have a payroll in the $60 million range anyway, so bringing them down to $45 will allow them to spend about $13 million more, which means they could go after Glen Murray as has been rumoured, and perhaps even a guy like Demitra to stack our third line. I like this deal for the players and the owners if they can keep their wallets from jumping too much.

But I think the problem with this deal is that it will also allow the big spenders to spend more. Since their players are now worth less contract wise, they can elevate their payrolls further as mentioned above about the Leafs. I mean, when you think about it, just about every NHLer wants to play with the Leafs, so they will be able to stack their roster even further. Ditto for the Wings and Avs and Rangers, yadayadayada. This will, IMO, make smaller market teams unable to compete still, maybe even more than the current system.