NHL is Finally Going to have Talks

Penguinfan · #1 12-09-04, 05:02 PM

Any word on today's talks?

GeoffM · #2 12-10-04, 09:23 AM

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.

BlackCoffee · #3 12-10-04, 12:43 PM

I think smaller markets not being able to compete is a myth. Smaller teams beat bigger teams all the time. The big spenders such as the rangers, flyers , blues and leafs.. what have they done over the last 10 years? Look at New Jersey.. 3 cups and 5 finals in the 10 years of the last CBA. They're by no means a big spender.

There's no such thing as competitive balance. Every sports has good teams and bad teams. Even in the NFL, Teams are 11-1 and 1-11.

I think the players are giving alot back and as you said, the base salaries to work with will be lower (especialy for arbitration). You can't put in automatic fool-proof systems to protect the bonehead owners from themselves. This is like limit poker and no-limit poker

. A salary cap is limit, that's no fun. Let the owner's go 'all-in' on their superstars and then we can all laugh at them when they finish last like the Rangers.

Penguinfan · #4 12-10-04, 04:03 PM

Isn't the salary rollback idea just a temporary solution to a permenant problem? Will be anxious to see the owners counter offer, especially since the NHLPA said there is still some room to negotiate the previous offer.

Tuff Luck · #5 12-10-04, 04:35 PM

What will happen if everything is sorted by the end of the year?

Penguinfan · #6 12-10-04, 05:18 PM

I think they will have a season no matter how short it is, gotta give people a reason to come back next year.

Windbreaker · #7 12-11-04, 08:25 PM

It's about time. Enough of these high priced cry babies lying and saying how they're looking out for the future of the game, when in fact all they've done was kill the league. I'm glad they put together a package that was meaningful....maybe we can't watch some real hockey this year.

BlackCoffee · #8 12-11-04, 02:14 AM

Its a temporary solution yes but it's a huge starting point for the owners to A. save money upfront and B. use these low salaries to set the standard in the future.

Are these owners that stupid that they will allow salaries to sprial out of control AGAIN after what's happened over the last 10 years? If so, there's nothing you can do. You can't legislate stupidity.

Penguinfan · #9 12-11-04, 09:07 AM

I guess I was just hoping for a more permenant solution so teams like my Penguins may actually put something on the ice that won't make me want to throw up in the future.

BlackCoffee · #10 12-11-04, 06:26 PM

It could be a very permanant solution if the owners take it (or something similar) and dont fuck it up again. (ie. dont pay $10 million for useless players like Holik, Guerin, Tkachuk and Fedorov)

Pens just need a new arena no matter what the solution is. But have faith. Everything goes in trends which have nothing to do with economics. Watch for the Detroits, Colorados, Phillys and New Jerseys to start falling off (no prospects) and see the younger teams (tampa, calgary, san jose, nashville, atlanta etc..) to start improving. Pens were good in the 80's, great in the 90's and suck now.. they'll improve, they have good young players (Malone, Morozov, Fleury etc..).

I'm a Flames fan, they sucked for a good 10 years and are now just starting to come around with a good young team.