***Official*** NHL Lockout news thread ***Confirmed***

[Grey]

Same with the Devils, oh well. It could be worse getting three balls means your team friggin sucked!

And WHOOO HOOOO WELCOME BACK NHL!

 

[Aquaman]

Cherry's Pick: The owners won

Canadian Press
7/13/2005 3:49:33 PM

TORONTO (CP) - Score one for the NHL owners, says Don Cherry.

"No doubt who won this contest," Cherry said Wednesday of the tentative NHL labour deal. "The Players' Association got a home run in 1994 and they tried to hit a home run now and they should have settled for a double or a single because there was no way they were going to beat the owners this time."

Cherry acknowledged the players won some concessions such as lower age for unrestricted free agency "but not much else," he said from Mississauga, Ont.

"They underestimated the owners' resolve and they pay the price now and they pay a big price."

He said those players complaining about their new deal and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow shouldn't be so quick to criticize, however, as it was Goodenow who helped get the players average annual salaries of $1.8 million US back in 1994.

"They've got to remember the guy who gave them the moon," Cherry said. "You've got to cut him some slack for that."

The NHL lockout began Sept. 15 and Cherry said the next day it would be Armageddon for the league.

"For the league to lose $2 billion dollars and be the only professional league in North America to be out for a year, it was Armageddon as far as I am concerned," he said.

"But I believe it will make the league and the franchises stronger. We had to have Armageddon to get them. Teams like Edmonton and Calgary are going to be all the stronger."

Cherry thinks the league may lose a couple of franchises in the fallout from the lockout and says that might not be a bad thing.

"To tell you the truth, I think some of them shouldn't be in the league in the first place," he said. "I hate to say that because players will lose their jobs, but I really believe the league will be a lot stronger, definitely franchises are going to be stronger and if we lose a couple of those weak sister franchises, then let them go."

The curtain has been down on Coach's Corner on Hockey Night in Canada for an entire season. Cherry, who has spent the winter watching junior and minor hockey, said he was looking forward to getting back in the booth.

"After a year, I got so much to say I can hardly wait to hear myself," he said.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Aquaman]

McKenzie: Picking a winner is premature

TSN.ca Staff
7/13/2005

The lockout is finally over, and now everyone wants to know who the big winner is in all of this.

Everyone is going to want to come out with a definitive answer, because that's what they're supposed to do on this day. Well, I'm not going to do it, and the reason I'm not going to do it is because we don't even have the CBA in hand - I can't sit here and say this side won or that side won.

What I am going to say is this. The NHL went out on a quest for cost certainty - and that mission was accomplished. The league got a salary cap and it also got linkage. But until we see specifically what each system issue is and how the day-to-day operations of NHL clubs are going to go, there's no way of predicting anything.

It could could be that the NHL has made a great economic deal, but individual general managers may have a tough time implementing the new rules and allocating the dollars. All that stuff has to come out in the wash.

So I'm not going to sit here like we did in 1995 and say the players got killed. At face value, it may appear that way, and there's no question they are taking a bit financial hit, but until more information comes in and details are made available, I'm not prepared to say that anyone's a big winner.

I will say this - everyone is a loser.

The game had to be shut down for an entire year for the NHL and NHLPA to reach a collective bargaining agreement. The players have lost millions of dollars. Owners have lost millions of dollars.

You tell me how there is a winner in all of that.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Grey]

And we can hardly wait to hear you Cherry. Not, I don't miss the NHL that much!

 

[Aquaman]

Damn........ NYR have 3 balls............. I hope they don't get him

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Grey]

As a Devil fan I can't stand the idea. It would be good for the NHL to have a star in the media city.. but its the Rangers. Screw em!

 

[BigToque]

DEVILS GET CROSBY!



...


that's what I'm hoping to hear

 

[sandorski]

Game on!!!!!!

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Game on!!!!!!

Post of the year

 

[silverpig]

I really hope NYR don't get Crosby. Geez, they'd kill that kid's career. Vancouver would be insane, and I wouldn't actually mind him going to Montreal either.

 

[meltdown75]

Another nice article copied from Canoe.ca:

(CP) - Once the two sides ratify the proposed NHL labour deal next week, expect a radical makeover to the face of Canada's favourite pro sport.

A legal document that runs into hundreds of pages will mean a severe revision of the NHL landscape. In the stands, good seats may be available if fans who found other things to do during the lost season stay away.

On the ice, free-spending teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs will find themselves suddenly on an allowance. Players will be paid less. Many will find themselves wearing a new sweater as teams restructure their squads.

At the end of a year-long labour dispute that wiped out a season and caused even the most fervent fans to question their faith in the professional game, it appears there are no winners.

"At the end of the day everybody lost," said Hall-of-Fame player and Phoenix Coyotes part-owner Wayne Gretzky. "We almost crippled our industry. It was very disappointing what happened.

"For everyone to say 'all right, let's forgive and forget, let's move forward,' that's all fine and good but it's a lot easier said than done. It's going to take a long time, it's going to take a lot of hard work.

"We disappointed a lot of people and I don't just mean the average fan. I'm talking about TV partnerships, corporate partnerships, the fan, the guy who goes to one or two games a year with his son. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. It's not going to all change and be all nice overnight."

"To me, the players got hurt, the owners got hurt, the game got hurt," echoed Philadelphia GM Bob Clarke, in an interview. "It's pretty hard to sit here right now and say anything that happened is good over the last winter.

"It's a relief that the deal is done but there's been so much damage to everybody involved, now we've got to see how we can come out of it."

The players will gather next Wednesday and Thursday in Toronto to vote on the agreement in principle while the owners will meet next Thursday in New York.

Both sides are expected to approve the deal, paving the way for the NHL to reopen for business this fall.

"We're back to doing what everyone wants to do, which is watch and play hockey," said Gretzky.

Neither the NHL nor NHLPA trumpeted the breakthrough in talks. They released the same three-paragraph statement Wednesday around 12:30 p.m. EDT.

Neither offered any further comment pending ratification. The league is expected to follow that with a news conference to "relaunch" the game.

No word on NHLPA plans, although players generally welcomed the chance to resume playing the game they love.

"Everybody I'm talking to, just in their voice I can tell there's something special going on today," Sabres centre Daniel Briere said from Buffalo. "It's a been a long time. Everybody is just excited to know that hockey is back."

Devils CEO and GM Lou Lamoriello said it was a time to "move forward and not look back." But he acknowledged labour peace comes at a cost.

"There's no question, we all have to be honest, I don't think there's anything that we can sugar-coat," he said from New Jersey. "We went through this process for a reason, maybe some people agree or disagree, but it wasn't by any means out of spite or out of anything other than the sheer economics of where our game had gone."

The deal will be a bitter pill for players to swallow, given its harsh readjustment of the NHL financial equation. But having lost one season already, the alternative was missing more paycheques.

Veteran netminder Sean Burke, for one, expects the players to ratify the deal.

"I don't think the deal that we're going to get would have been ratified last summer," said Burke, a free agent like many of his brethren. "But I just think we've been worn down to the point where at this stage the deal would really have to be incredibly bad for the guys not to vote it in. At least that's the sense I'm getting."

The NHL and NHLPA said details of the agreement will not be released pending ratification.

But it's believed the six-year deal contains the following:

-A 24 per cent salary rollback on all existing contracts.

-The maximum on the salary cap for 2005-06 will be $39 million US while the minimum will be $21.5 million, based on projected revenues of $1.7 billion; Detroit led the league in 2003-04 with a payroll of $82.1 million.

-Player salaries cannot - on a league-wide basis - take up more than 54 per cent of team revenues;

-No player can earn more than 20 per cent of the team cap, which for 2005-06 means no player can earn more than $7.8 million.

-As of 2007-08, players - regardless of age - can become unrestricted free agents after seven years in the NHL, with the 2004-05 wiped-out season counting in the service time. That means any player who began his career in the NHL at the age of 18 can qualify for unrestricted free agency at 25. In the meantime, the age of unrestricted free agency will remain 31 this summer but will gradually be brought down to 27 by the end of 2007-2008 season.

-Revenue-sharing where the top 10 money-making clubs donate to a fund shared by the bottom 15 teams.

-The entry-level system will limit those players to $850,000 a year in salary (which it was 10 years ago) with bonuses not as easily reachable as the previous deal.

-Participation in the February 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

A source said Wednesday that the belated 2005 NHL entry draft will be held in Ottawa on July 30, although it will be a much smaller event with only the very top prospects invited, including Crosby, the consensus No. 1 pick.

A draft lottery is slated to be conducted during Thursday's board of governors meeting.

The lottery, according to a source, will be weighted in favour of teams that have missed the playoffs over the last three years.

The game will return looking drastically different on and off the ice.

But the bottom line is the complicated collective bargaining agreement has given owners their long-desired "cost certainty."

Teams will come back looking vastly different as well.

Mass player movement is expected with a high number of free agents on the market as well as several high-paid players expected to get bought out so teams can fit under the cap.

On the ice, major rule changes are being examined to open up the game and create more excitement, likely including the reduction in the size of goalie equipment, allowing the two-line pass, and the penalty shootout to decide tie games during the regular season.

And there's much work ahead to lure back bitter fans and an apathetic corporate community.

In the end, the players caved in on an issue they swore they never would: the salary cap.

It's clear this isn't a deal NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow was in favour of but he went along with it, respecting the wishes of union president Trevor Linden and the rest of the players' executive committee.

It's been a long and tumultuous road towards a resolution. From the first labour meeting in January 2003 to the last on Wednesday, both sides met 82 times over two and a half years before agreeing on the deal.

The lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 season, including all 1,230 regular-season games, denying hockey fans a Stanley Cup champion for the first time since a flu epidemic cancelled the 1919 final between Montreal and Seattle. The NHL became the first major professional league in North America to lose a complete season because of labour strife.

Once commissioner Gary Bettman announced the season cancelled Feb. 16, both sides returned to the negotiating table March 11 in the first of 44 meetings aimed at making sure the 2005-06 season wouldn't be delayed.

The two sides met every single week starting in early May and didn't let up until the end, cramming in long days in the final six weeks.

A number of player agents are angry with Goodenow, feeling betrayed by his strategy from the get-go.

But while the owners appear to have scored a one-sided victory, it remains to be seen at what cost. The damage to the industry from not having any hockey played for a year may have both sides singing the blues.

Whatever the labour hangover, the NHL has taken a beating in a country where hockey is king.

OILERS IN 2006 BABY!

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: silverpig
I really hope NYR don't get Crosby. Geez, they'd kill that kid's career. Vancouver would be insane, and I wouldn't actually mind him going to Montreal either.

Montreal has a lot of great young players and really made it tough on the Lightning during the playoffs, so they don't really *need* him.

 

[Insane3D]

No, No, NO.

Crosby to the B's to play with old pal Bergeron...

Don't you silly Canadians remember the juniors when Crosby and Bergeron were magic?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: jalaram

Originally posted by: silverpig
I really hope NYR don't get Crosby. Geez, they'd kill that kid's career. Vancouver would be insane, and I wouldn't actually mind him going to Montreal either.

Montreal has a lot of great young players and really made it tough on the Lightning during the playoffs, so they don't really *need* him.

Plus, then he would have to learn how to dive all the time, and fake injuries.

I hear Robeiro is teaching that class...

 

[ElFenix]

the nhl lockout is over. the real question is not who won or lost, it's 'does anyone care'?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the nhl lockout is over. the real question is not who won or lost, it's 'does anyone care'?

I disagree. The fact is, hockey has some of the most hardcore, loyal fans of any sport. It's seems to be the popular theme in all the NHL threads to say who cares, but most of the pople saying it never liked hockey in the first place. I mean, you are in Texas...not too many hockey fans down there other than the few hardcore Stars fans...

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the nhl lockout is over. the real question is not who won or lost, it's 'does anyone care'?

I disagree. The fact is, hockey has some of the most hardcore, loyal fans of any sport. It's seems to be the popular theme in all the NHL threads to say who cares, but most of the pople saying it never liked hockey in the first place. I mean, you are in Texas...not too many hockey fans down there other than the few hardcore Stars fans...

But the game NEEDS casual fans. The league was already bleeding like a sieve... The people I have talked to are either going to watch every game since we were deprived for a whole season (me), or won't watch at all.

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the nhl lockout is over. the real question is not who won or lost, it's 'does anyone care'?

I disagree. The fact is, hockey has some of the most hardcore, loyal fans of any sport. It's seems to be the popular theme in all the NHL threads to say who cares, but most of the pople saying it never liked hockey in the first place. I mean, you are in Texas...not too many hockey fans down there other than the few hardcore Stars fans...

But the game NEEDS casual fans. The league was already bleeding like a sieve... The people I have talked to are either going to watch every game since we were deprived for a whole season (me), or won't watch at all.

In Canada, this is not much of an issue. They have enough fans (diehard and casual) there to survive. Big US cities like Detroit also will do okay. However, in the smaller markets, hockey will take a huge hit.

I remember when I used to live in Toronto and frequented Redflagdeals.com during TB's run in the last playoffs. Everyone was amazed that TB had trouble selling out the arena including the finals. Only through a lot of promotion and the great play of the team did the casual fans start noticing hockey. They could've really built on the momentum last year. Instead, thanks to the strike, many casual fans went back to watching NASCAR (which, I believe, gets better ratings than NHL in the US).

 

[rh71]

All the more reason for the league to now use their creative minds to make the game better. Have faith. Pessimism gets us nowhere. Time to enjoy the game of hockey again. You have no idea how much I'm itching to pay the $150 for NHL Center Ice right now.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: rh71
All the more reason for the league to now use their creative minds to make the game better. Have faith. Pessimism gets us nowhere. Time to enjoy the game of hockey again. You have no idea how much I'm itching to pay the $150 for NHL Center Ice right now.

Hey, I'm planning on seeing the first game here in Dallas, and with cheaper prices (Stars announced today they will lower prices) I might be there on center ice too!

But not all cities have "hardcore" fans, like a lot of the newer markets in the south. Sure Canada and Detroit will be OK, but the league must survive in order for them to play. Heck, Dallas is one of the exceptions in the south. I'm still worried.

No national TV contracts either yet right?

 

[Aquaman]

GMs to get crash course on new deal

Canadian Press
7/14/2005 7:52:20 PM

NHL general managers will get a look at the new face of the NHL, starting Friday in New York.

Bill Daly, the NHL executive vice-president and chief legal officer, will give the GMs a crash course on the new deal in small-group sessions that run through Monday.

It's a crucial meeting for the GMs. This is the document that will dictate the next six years of their lives.

"You're looking forward to getting a peek at it," St. Louis Blues GM Larry Pleau said Thursday. "We've read so much about it. Now we'll see it. I really can't wait, to see what it really looks like and how you're going to structure your team and some of the decisions you're going to make."

Time is not a friend right now for the league's GMs. Once the deal is ratified next Thursday by both the players and owners, clubs will have 10 days to decide on player buyouts and qualifying offers to restricted free agents before free agency is expected to open around Aug. 1.

So this weekend's orientation session is critical.

"They say it's a huge document so there'll be lots to cover but I look forward to seeing it," Boston Bruins GM Mike O'Connell said Thursday. "I look forward to meeting with them and find out how it translates to each team.

"It'll be nice just to find out how we stack up now. What it means to the Bruins."

Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier said it will be nice to separate fact from fiction.

"It's exciting, I'm looking forward to it because up until this point it's all been speculation, everything has been through the media and nothing's been official," Regier said Thursday before boarding a flight headed for New York. "We'll get to know for real what we're dealing with and go from there."

Player agents will also need to cram in some study time. They'll get their orientation session with the NHL Players' Association next Thursday and Friday.

Also high on the agenda for the GMs is finding out where they'll pick in the July 30 entry draft in Ottawa. The draft lottery is slated to be held behind closed doors during next week's board of governors' meeting in New York, which is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Commissioner Gary Bettman would then announce the draft lottery results at his ensuing news conference, which will also be used to outline new rule changes and general "re-launch" the game.

Notes: New Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke dipped into his Vancouver ties with Thursday's announcement that Bob Murray was Anaheim's new senior vice-president of hockey operations. Murray was a professional scout under Burke with the Canucks from 1999 to 2005 ... The Dallas Stars announced Thursday that their season ticket prices for next season will be reduced by an average of 16 per cent per seat ... The Stars also announced they had hired John Weisbrod as professional scout and Shane Churla as amateur scout ... The New York Islanders announced Thursday that 3,000 tickets will be available for only $10 at each of 10 games in the first half of next season. "It's a thank you to our fans," Islanders GM Mike Milbury said in a statement. "We want them back, and we also believe $10 for an exciting Islanders game at the Coliseum will introduce a new wave of fans to our team."

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Aquaman]

Source: NHL CBA has drug policy

Canadian Press
7/14/2005 8:28:54 PM

TORONTO (CP) - The NHL's new collective bargaining agreement will include a stiff drug-testing policy, a league source told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

The policy would see players subject to a minimum of two drug tests a year with no advance warning. A player would earn a 20-game suspension for a first-time offence, a 60-game ban for a second offence and a permanent suspension from the NHL after a third violation.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow suggested the league and union would introduce such a policy after the two appeared before a U.S. congressional hearing on steroid use last May.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Aquaman]

CBA details begin to filter out

TSN.ca Staff
7/14/2005

Reaction to the new CBA has been muted because few people in hockey know exactly what's in it. That will start to change on Friday, when the first wave of general managers visit New York to get a primer.

That process will continue Friday through Sunday and it won't take long for the executive summaries the GMs get to find their way into the public domain and we'll all see what there is to see.

In the meantime, some additional CBA details are filtering out for us to consider.

One of the most significant is that the players' share of revenue will rise as revenues rise. We all know it starts at 54 per cent, but it goes up to 55 per cent at $2.2 billion, 56 per cent at 2.4 billion and 57 per cent at 2.7 billion.

Another key thing to understand is the cap figure. Yes, it's $39 million, but that doesn't mean you can't have players on your roster whose annual salaries add up to more than $39 million.

You just can't have them on your roster for the whole year. That $39 million figure is not some mythical paper-number, it's how much a team can actually spend on salaries in one year.

So a team that runs way below the cap for most of the year could conceivably add a big salary player at the trade deadline and, on a paper payroll, go over the cap - so long as the actual money spent on salaries stays below $39 million, it's not a problem.

A team could conceivably go into the playoffs with a roster whose salaries add up to more than $39 million. It's all a matter of balancing the books.

Speaking of the trade deadline, it will be moved up by two weeks to now be 40 days before the end of the regular season instead of the 26 it was before.

There is now also a signing deadline for restricted free agents. If they aren't signed by December 1, they are ineligible to play for the rest of the season.

Perhaps the most complicated aspect of this CBA will be the revenue sharing section. All anyone is saying at this point is the top 10 revenue teams will contribute money to the bottom 15 revenue teams, but no one is saying how much or how.

Some of the lower revenue teams are a little nervous right now, waiting to see how much they'll get and whether that allows them to close the $17.5 million gap between the low and high ends of the new payroll range.

By the way, that gap will close to $16 million after the first year of the deal.

In the meantime, it looks like the CBA train is rolling down the track. The GMs will get their tutorials this weekend, and NHL hockey operations is wrestling with what rule changes to include and will get that improvement package ready.

The players will have their membership meeting on Wednesday with a ratification vote on Thursday. The NHL Board of Governors will meet and vote on Thursday as well, at which time the draft lottery will be done and the rule changes will be revealed.

Assuming the deal is ratified, then there will be the week-long transitional period for the buyouts and the signing of 2003 draftees to be completed, with the full-up free-agent signing period and unfettered business starting on or around August 1.

It's likely to be a wild ride.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[murphy55d]

Maybe I missed it in the millions of articles, but has anything been said about when a schedule will be released?

 

[NakaNaka]

Originally posted by: murphy55d
Maybe I missed it in the millions of articles, but has anything been said about when a schedule will be released?

They are saying hopefully by this Friday, the 22nd. Which is only a week or so later than usual.

BTW guys, I started an NHL is Back blog for fun, because I love talking about hockey and missed the sport so much. The link is in my sig. Just a little thing on blogger for now but maybe expanding it in the future.

Oh, and if you can suggest a better name, please PM me. I'm all ears.