On Friday, the NHL fired the first shot in the CBA negotiations with their proposal to the NHLPA for the latest CBA. Here is a quick breakdown as broken down by Greg Wyshinski:
1. Reduce players’ hockey-related revenues to 46% from 57 %.
2. 10 seasons in the NHL before being eligible for unrestricted free agency.
3. Contracts limited to 5 years.
4. No more salary arbitration.
5. Entry-level contract are 5 years long instead of 3.
Follow the jump for our analysis.
The biggest thing to take note of is the role back of the player’s share of hockey related revenue. All of the leagues that have gone through lockout recently have had major battles over the share of revenues. The NBA worked their way down to 51% while the NFL was able to work the players down to 48%. If the hockey related revenues come in at 46%, the salary cap goes down to $54 million.
The league is also trying to lock in their drafted players for longer periods of time. The entry-level contracts being extended to five years instead of three and having a player not go to unrestricted free agency until 10 seasons means that teams can lock their players into two relatively long and inexpensive contracts before the player gets the chance to test the free agent market.
For older players, the length of contracts being maxed out at five years and the fact that the salary being paid every season doesn’t fluctuate means that those long term contracts that pays a ton of money up front would be done away. That is going to mean that teams are going to offer less overall money because they will not have the chance to take on extra years to make the salary cap hit more manageable.
The demands in it are lofty at best, but it should be expected when negotiations are starting on something. If the league doesn’t ask for the moon in their first offer, they aren’t going to get much of what they are asking for. The players are going to counter with a very player friendly proposal and the two sides should meet in the middle. The time to freak out is when the league is two weeks away from the end of the current CBA and they are still as far apart as they can possibly be.