Sunday 30 September 2012

Krys Barch's Twitter Rant

 
Krys Barch

In an emotional 26-post rant on Twitter Saturday night, written over some drinks in Grand Bend, Ont., NHL tough guy Krys Barch highlighted the concerns of the blue-collar pro in a simple way the league big-wigs, union kingpins or the stars heading to Europe never could express. The New Jersey Devils forward wrote in 140-character-or-less snippets on his Twitter account. The 32-year-old Barch signed a two-year, $1.5 million contract to play in New Jersey after spending last season with the Florida Panthers. The journeyman offered advice for a league determined to force hockey into non-traditional markets. Barch bared his soul about his concerns of the road that lies ahead. He has two sons and his wife is pregnant with a third child. He described himself as an NHLer in a position no different than a truck driver, farmer or line worker who has worked for every second of his hockey service. Barch, a Hamilton native, has 12 goals and 31 points with 669 penalty minutes in his NHL career.

"I wonder if the owners of Boston, New York, Washington, etc., etc., have endured any of the injuries that I or any other player in the NHL have endured,"

"Still they probably sit (there) smoking the same brand of cigar, sipping the same cognac and going on vacation to one of five houses they own...while we sit here knowing the want to take 20 % of our paychecks. One half to 3/4 of my peers will have to work, for the next 50 years of their lives.

"Congratulations to the lucky select few that I have played with who have made salaries that they can choose to do whatever they want when they are done. But I have played (with most) who do not!"

"If the NHL wants to (keep) teams in the South or struggling markets, then the players, along with the financially well-to-do teams, need to start working together,"

"Or they need to start to move teams to the North where they will make money.

"The system allows the owners to continually take money from the players' contract after contract where eventually over 40-some years, the owners will have 80 % of the revenue."

"I haven't been a 1st-round pick, bonus baby or a son of a Hall of Famer,"

"I have made it through sweating, bleeding, cut Achilles, broken hands, concussions, broken orbital bones, 8 teeth knocked out, etc. I have a shot and a beer. Not to deal with the days ahead but to ease the nerves from what my body has endured the days before."

Barch received some positive feedback from fellow players, including Montreal Canadiens forward Brandon Prust, who tweeted simply, "Amen, brother." Barch's agent, Scott Norton, told ESPN he spoke to his client Saturday night and again Sunday morning and the player stands by what he wrote.

"Krys was saying 'This is what my heart says, I"m going to say it, I think he was certainly emotional and speaking from the heart. As I told him, I'm not sure that Twitter was the right forum for him. It might have been better in a radio interview."

Lockout Update

From the Associated Press (via The SportingNews):

The sides met for about four hours before finishing Saturday, and they agreed to meet again on Sunday. The agenda likely will include discussions on health and safety issues—a topic that made up a chunk of Friday's talks—and miscellaneous legal things, such as grievances, game tickets and other topics. Clarifications as to what will fall under the umbrella of hockey-related revenue going forward in the next agreement dominated discussions Saturday. No concrete resolutions were made, and the topic could be revisited on Sunday.

The two sides haven't had negotiations over the key economic disputes in place, such as the owners' desire for the players to go from 57% of the revenue pie to less than 50%, so these meetings call for guarded optimism. Perhaps they are simply enough to displace any feelings of pessimism or desire to watch basketball that NHL fans may now be feeling. Any talks are a good thing at this point, minor issues or not. Especially with talks for 3 days in a row now. This doesn't mean we'll suddenly get a resolution. Unlike in the NFL, NHL players have plenty of alternate leagues where they can earn a wage. And we all know that, given past negotiations, Gary Bettman and the owners are hardly afraid to cancel a season. At least the "I won't budge so we're not talking anymore!" stage hasn't come just yet. At least for now, both sides are willing to talk, even about the little stuff. It's a small shred of hope, it's hard to imagine at least a part of the season won't be lost, but I'll take whatever shreds of hope I can get, and I know you will too. We can at least have extremely guarded optimism, but until they start talking about the serious issues, we best not get carried away just yet.

The success of the 2011-12 NBA season gives hockey fans hope that their favorite superstars will return to the ice this winter. Similar to the NBA a year ago, by far the biggest issue keeping both sides from agreeing on a new NHL collective bargaining agreement is the sharing of hockey-related revenues. According to ESPN.com, via The Associated Press, "Players received 57 percent of the net hockey-related revenues in the previous collective bargaining agreement, and owners want to bring that number down under 50 percent."

If you remember back to last fall, the NBA was in a very similar situation in terms of revenue sharing. The owners wanted more and the players wanted the same. Although the lockout went nearly a month into the regular season before it ended, the league managed to salvage a 66-game season that ultimately led to one of the most exciting postseasons in the Association's history. Though, looking back now, last year's NBA lockout seems irrelevant and harmless. There were plenty of times when basketball fans had little hope to cling to an agreement that would be reached in time. The same can be said for hockey fans in North America this year. With regular-season games at risk of being lost, and precious hockey going un-played, hope gets smaller and smaller by the day. If the NBA's recent agreement and even the NFL officials' new CBA has taught us anything, though, it's that it doesn't take long for these leagues and organizations to realize what they're wasting. Sooner or later, if a deal doesn't get done, no one will make money and everyone loses. In any good deal, both sides must be reluctant to accept, but all that matters is that they accept. The NBA showed us last fall that if the threat of losing profit is great enough, one or both sides will cave. The NBA couldn't withstand a lost season, and basketball is arguably the second-most popular sport in America. With the NHL already trailing the NFL, NBA and MLB, it can't afford to suffer a lost season. In that, hockey fans have hope. As the holidays approach and players and owners alike begin to feel the pressure of being the reason why a season was lost, they'll give in. It's a simple lesson that the NBA learned a year ago: play and generate revenue for both sides, or bicker and make zero profit. After all, 57 percent of nothing is nothing.

Evander Kane is the latest locked out NHL player to sign in the KHL, agreeing to terms with Dinamo Minsk. Once the contract is finalized, Kane will be able to play with the Belarus team until the end of the NHL lockout.

Dinamo director Igor Matushkin: "We were able to reach an agreement in principle during the lockout for the NHL club's young forward Evander Kane, despite his young age, is already a star of the NHL."

Kane had a good season for the Winnipeg Jets last year, scoring 30 goals and adding 27 assists in his best NHL season to date. That helped earn him a six-year, $31.5 million contract from the Jets, which he signed earlier this month, just before the lockout started. But with the lockout looking unlikely to end anytime soon, Kane has found somewhere else to play and collect a paycheck. Minsk is currently out of a spot for the postseason, sitting in 10th place in the Western Conference with 11 points after 10 games. The top eight teams in the 14-team conference make the playoffs.

Thursday 27 September 2012

NHL stars moving to Sweden

The NHL and NHL Players Association are meeting tomorrow (Friday) with a sliver of hope for a full regular season. The league has already cancelled the rest of the exhibition schedule.
All of the games in September were whacked last week and with Oct. 1 coming up Monday, it's now been confirmed the rest of the exhibition schedule has gone too.

San Jose Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray has signed with the Djurgarden hockey team based out of his hometown of Stockholm, Sweden. Murray moved to the United States as a youngster to play collegiate hockey, but not before he played with the Djurgarden junior squad during the 1996-97 season. The return home makes Murray the sixth Sharks player who is already back in Europe or soon plans to leave the United States because of the NHL lockout.  Four of those players went to their home countries while the rest remain in the states, but the numbers of players practicing with one another in San Jose are dwindling. The 6'3, 240 pound defenseman has spent all seven of his NHL seasons with San Jose after the team took him in the 1999 draft. He played in 60 games for the Sharks last year.

A large contingent of players are set to seek employment overseas as the NHL lockout stretches into its second week, with no foreseeable end in sight, and Sweden could be one of the more desirable destinations for locked out players should it appear the work stoppage is set to go on for months. Along with the KHL and Swiss A-League, Elitserien, or the Swedish Elite League, is regarded as one of the premier hockey leagues outside of the NHL, with an extremely high level of talented players. After all, the country had produced such elite NHL players as Borje Salming, Mats Sundin, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mats Naslund, Pelle Lindbergh, Markus Naslund, and Peter Forsberg, to name but a few. The SEL was founded in 1975 as a 10-team organization, before adding two more clubs in 1987 to form the current 12-team composition. Those teams are: AIK (Stockholm), Brynas IF (Gavle), Frolunda HC (Gothenburg), Farjestad BK (Karlstad), HV71 (Jonkoping), Linkopings HC (Linkoping), Lulea HF (Lulea), MODO hockey (Ornskoldvik), Rogle BK (Angelholm), Skelleftea AIK (Skelleftea), Timra IK (Timra), and Vaxjo Lakers (Vaxjo).
Despite the difference of playing on an international sized ice surface, SEL games work much the same way as in the NHL -- three 20 minute periods (of course), a five-minute overtime period in the event of a tie after regulation, and a shootout if the overtime does not provide a winner.

The playoff system sees 8 of the 12 teams qualify for a three round best-of-seven series postseason. The club that finishes first overall gets to select between the seventh and eighth place finishers as to which team it will face in the first round, then the second place club picks from the next two, etc. One of the more interesting features of the SEL is that the member clubs may change from year-to-year. The bottom 2 teams in the regular season standings participate in a round robin tournament against four teams from Allsvenskan, the Tier 2 league in Sweden, with the top two teams in the tournament qualifying to play in Elitserien the following season.
The SEL almost wasn't even an option for players during this latest round of labor strife, as the league had decided not to sign any NHLers to short-term lockout contracts during the ongoing CBA turmoil. That all changed late last week, when an anti-trust ruling by the Swedish Competition Authority overturned the ban on importing North American players. While that decision could still be appealed, the floodgates to play in Sweden seem to have been blown wide open, and some players are rumored to be close to signing since that decision was handed down. Reports in the Swedish Expressen say that St. Louis Blues forward Alex Steen and the Winnipeg Jets defender Tobias Enstrom could be two of the first players to join a SEL team, as the pair are rumored to be headed to MODO as a result of the lockout. Some of the NHL's top Swedish-born stars, New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Ottawa Senators Norris Trophy winning defenseman Erik Karlsson, the Vancouver Canucks Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, Detroit Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg, and Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson, all could be heading home to play in their native land while they're denied NHL employment. Zetterberg led the SEL in scoring during the 2004/05 lockout, and the Swedes excelled, as well. A couple other noteable Swedes that are likely on hockey Sweden's radar are ironically at opposite ends of their respective career paths: last season's NHL Calder Trophy winner, Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche, and Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson. Landeskog is just 19 years old and played with such maturity and intensity last season, he was given the "C" to wear on his Avs jersey heading into next season, whenever that may eventually come about. Unconfirmed reports have Landeskog ready to sign with Djurgarden of Allsvenskan. Alfredsson is a Swedish icon, having recorded 416 goals and 1,082 points in 16 seasons with the Sens. The 39-year-old decided to come back for one more NHL season, a kind of farewell tour as the veteran leader on a young and improving Ottawa club. That was until Gary Bettman and the owners locked the players out on September 15. Now it appears as if Alfredsson's time in North America may end up being a thing of the past if the lockout were to wipe out the entire season, as it did in 2004/05. It could be that Alfredsson could be in line for several months in front of an adoring, truly "home" crowd in Sweden, but it's unclear if the cancellation of the NHL season would affect Alfredsson's decision regarding the 2013/14 NHL campaign. As players continue to become disenchanted at merely practicing on their own in an attempt to stay in shape, while it becomes less and less likely that the ugly CBA situation will be settled any time soon, overseas options will look better and better. And Sweden will be one of the more attractive destinations.

Elitserien logo.svg

Teams

8,094
8,585
12,044
8,647
7,000
8,500
6,300
7,600
5,150
6,001
6,000
5,329

 

Lockout set to continue into October, Stars making plans.

Even though the league and NHL Players' Association are set to meet this weekend, there won't be hockey anytime soon. Today the NHL officially canceled the remainder of the preseason, all games through Oct. 8. That means the loss of regular-season games is not far behind, barring a last-minute, miracle deal on a new collective bargaining agreement. The Washington Capitals are set to open the regular season Oct. 12 at Verizon Center against the New Jersey Devils, then travel to face the Ottawa Senators the following day. Given what it would take to have players ready, it's really difficult to imagine any teams playing opening weekend. Thursday's announcement was more of a formality than anything else. Already dozens of players signed to play in Europe, including a few rank-and-file North Americans, which is perhaps an indication that the lockout could go longer than even most expected.
 
NHL fans should have been preparing to attend training camps this week, but the breakdown in CBA negotiations has put the league on hold for the foreseeable future. No NHL season means that hockey is effectively off the TV screens in the United States. However, that doesn't mean there isn't hockey to watch. Players have started to head overseas to play hockey while they wait for the lockout to end. The Dallas Stars haven't had the mass exodus like some teams have, but a couple of players have gone overseas, with a few more possibly on their way. Overall though, Stars fans won't be seeing much of the players that they love unless the lockout ends. It would be a surprise if more than three Stars players go overseas. A majority will just stay in the area and work out to stay in shape. Here are the leagues and teams that Stars fans should try to keep an eye on this season (extended off-season?) in order to keep up with the players on the team (or if they just want to watch good competitive hockey).

Texas Stars (AHL) - Austin, TX

The easiest place for Dallas Stars fans to watch hockey will be down in Austin, where the Stars' minor league team plays. There's really nothing new for Stars fans here and tickets should be pretty easy to get. The future of the team is here and the influx of talent from the locked out teams will provide good competition for the Stars youngsters. The Texas Stars will be able to add NHL ready players in Tomas Vincour, Brenden Dillon, Cody Eakin and Reilly Smith as a result of the lockout. If Stars fans are waiting for an exciting game to watch, any game against the Oklahoma City Barons should be fantastic (there're 12 matchups between the two teams this season). OKC will have the services of young superstars Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. The Texas Stars' season starts on Oct. 3. The AHL can be seen online, but it's quite expensive ($350 for full access, $150 for all the games of just your favorite team).

Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL) - All part of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL)

The next best spot for fans to watch hockey would be the CHL (which is made up of the OHL, QMJHL and WHL), where a number of Stars prospects are playing this season:

F Radek Faksa - Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
F Brett Ritchie - Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
F Gemel Smith - Owen Sound Attack (OHL)
F Mike Winther - Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
F Matej Stransky - Saskatoon Blades (WHL)
D Branden Troock - Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
G Maxime Lagacé - Prince Edward Island Rocket (QMJHL)
D Troy Vance - Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL)

Each of these leagues will cost a fair amount of money for online streams so unless you sleep on a bed of money; it's going to be awfully tough to watch all three leagues. If you're going to spend money on any of them, spend it on the OHL ($290 for full access, $180 for your favorite team) and watch the Kitchener Rangers. Faksa is the Stars best prospect and should dominate the OHL this season. He'll be fun to watch.

Swedish Elitserien (Swedish Elite League)
The Elitserien had made it illegal for any of their teams to sign a locked-out NHL player to a short-term contract but the Swedish government actually stepped in last week and declared that illegal. The NHL is full of top Swedish talent so there should be a good number of players heading to Sweden. The likes of Tom Wandell, Philip Larsen and Loui Eriksson. Wandell's last season before starting his Stars career was with Timra IK, a lower level team in the top division. Larsen and Eriksson spent a good part of their careers with Frolunda HC, one of the better teams. Neither has made the move over, though Eriksson has recently been in talks to rejoin the team, (you'll need a translation for all the Swedish) so there should be a move soon. There are three prospects in the Stars system already playing in the Elitserien:

F Emil Molin - Brynas IF
D Ludvig Bystrom - Modo
D John Klingberg - Skelleftea AIK

Czech Extraliga:

Jaromir Jagr is currently playing for Kladno, a team that he actually owns. His team has already seen four other players from around the NHL join him, so he's playing some high level hockey right now.

Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) - Russia:

There are six teams here and there from Central European countries, but this is mostly still a Russian league. It's usually where most NHL players go during the lockout, but the Stars have not had any players head over to the KHL yet, possibly because they have no Russian players on the pro roster. NHL superstars like Pavel Datsyuk, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin will be playing there. There could be some games on American TV in the near future if the lockout continues, so this might be the only hockey fans can watch.

SM-liiga - Finland:

This is the top league in Finland and traditionally a place where the best Finnish talent will be found. There have been a few players around the league that have gone over to Finland. Kari Lehtonen spent a good number of years playing for the Jokerit youth team and he could always go back there, though there has not been any indication of that so far. Dallas may not be exporting a bunch of players, but they have a couple of draftees playing in the Finnish league this year in G Henri Kiviaho (KalPa Kuopio) and D Esa Lindell (Jokerit Helsinki),

There are a few other leagues in Europe, but very few players go there. Most of the current NHL players will just be skating around in their local area to stay in shape and try to wait out the lockout. The Dallas Stars are just one of those teams that aren't ex
porting many of their players.

I will try to Preview some more of these other leagues over the coming weeks.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Talks Resume - This Week

Talks are set to resume between the NHL and the NHLPA this coming Friday (28th). It will be the first set of talks since the lockout began 10 days ago, but will be centered on non-core economic issues.  

Swiss National League A Preview

The NHL lockout hasn't just driven players overseas. It's also driven hockey-starved fans to seek alternative leagues to follow. One good one to keep track of is the Swiss league, the National League A (NLA), which is one of Europe's better-attended league and which has established something of a habit of attracting NHL stars when they're locked out. San Jose Sharks star Joe Thornton and New York Rangers acquisition Rick Nash have both returned to Switzerland, where they won the championship with Davos during the 2004-05 lockout, but there are plenty more on the way. What kind of league are they joining? Here's an overview of the top league in the small but wealthy Central European country. The NLA consists of 12 teams that play a 50-game season, after which the top eight battle in a playoff tournament similar to the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs. The bottom four teams enter a relegation tournament with the second tier (National League B) champion, although that's no guarantee that an NLA team gets relegated. Last year, all four bottom teams survived the tournament and avoided relegation. In fact, the last team to be relegated was Basel at the end of 2007-08. Like international tournaments, the NLA works on a three-point system: Regulation wins are worth three standings points, overtime wins are worth two points, shootout wins (and overtime losses) are worth one point. That's how you end up seeing last season's regular season champs, EV Zug, finishing with 98 points in a 50-game season while the last-place team, Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, managed only 48 points (and an ugly minus-73 goal differential at that). As mentioned above, a team hasn't been relegated in five seasons now. The playoff champions are also fairly consistent too. The Zurich Lions won the title in 2011-12 despite finishing in seventh during the regular season. That was Zurich's fourth title since 2000, and they have combined with HC Davos, SC Bern and HC Lugano to cover all of the championships since 1999. In any given year you'll see some marginal ex-NHL players dot the scoring leaderboard in the NLA. Rico Fata, Jeff Tambellini and Glen Metropolit are some of the NHL/AHL tweeners who have found success in the Swiss league. And of course no mention of the NLA is complete without referencing Hnat Domenichelli, the Edmonton-born former Hartford Whaler and Calgary Flame who has compiled over 350 points with several NLA teams since 2003-04. This year, another NHL lockout means the return of more legitimate NHL stars like Nash and Thornton. In 2004-05, both of them found themselves in the top 15 in the league in scoring once they joined HC Davos, and this year they're with Davos again and off to a productive start. Other prominent NHLers headed to the NLA during the lockout include Tyler Seguin (Biel), Jason Spezza (Rapperswil), Logan Couture (Geneva) and Tyler Ennis (Langnau), as well as Swiss nationals Mark Striet (Bern), Luca Sbisa (Lugano), Roman Josi (Bern) and Yannick Weber (Geneva). Obviously the NLA does not measure up to NHL hockey, but NHLers don't simply run roughshod over the league when they show up. Better yet, the league plays well and draws well for European leagues, drawing great crowds full of energy. Contracts can include a car and place to stay, so it draws good players looking to earn money playing hockey in a beautiful country.

National-league-logo.svg
Current Teams
TeamCityArenaCapacity
HC Ambrì-PiottaAmbrìValascia7,000
SC BernBernPostFinance-Arena17,131
EHC BielBiel/BienneEisstadion Biel7,000
HC DavosDavosVaillant Arena7,080
HC Fribourg-GottéronFribourgBCF Arena6,800
Genève-Servette HCGenevaPatinoire des Vernets7,382
Kloten FlyersKlotenKolping Arena7,719
SCL TigersLangnau i.E.Ilfis Stadium6,500
HC LuganoLuganoPista La Resega7,800
Rapperswil-Jona LakersRapperswilDiners Club Arena6,100
EV ZugZugBossard Arena7,015
ZSC LionsZurichHallenstadion10,700

Monday 24 September 2012

CBA progress this week?

Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr are sitting out a meeting between the NHL and NHL Players' Association. The sides are gathering Monday to sign off on accounting of last year’s hockey-related revenue. With no collective bargaining talks scheduled, the NHL commissioner and executive director of the NHLPA didn’t take part. The NHL locked out its players nine days ago and no CBA talks have been held since.

The first official week of the 2012 NHL lockout consisted of no official meetings, a series of informal phone calls and e-mails, a hearing in front of the Alberta Labour Board and no official meetings. Neither side met officially last week. It was a major blow to the fans who were hoping/expected a quick resolution to the lockout, and lack of negotiations forced the league of cancel all preseason games through September 30th. Currently no regular season games have been cancelled, but it's only a matter of time at this point. This week can change all that, however. The good news from last week? Both the NHL and the NHLPA are talking, something both sides have pointed to as being a positive. At this point in the 2004 negotiations the 2 sides were mum, a silence which laster for months. We're not at that stage yet. And if the fans are going to see hockey this year the 2 sides can't get to that point ever.

There haven't been any negotiations since September 15th passed. Some of that might have had to do with the 2 sides having to make their presentation to the Alberta Labour Board on Friday, but that excuse is invalid this week. The 2 sides have nothing to keep them apart from one another now, and with the cancellation of regular season games seemingly next on the docket, it might be enough to get the 2 sides to the table. Remember, as of right now, only the NHL is loosing money. The players won't start missing checks until regular season games are missed. The teams make an estimated $400,000 per preseason game, so you can see how that adds up. Hence the frustration from the fans that we haven't seen any real negotiations. Well, that, and the lack of hockey being played. The New York Rangers were supposed to open training camp on September 21st. Instead, fans have seen no hockey. The lack of meetings, especially after the NHL's official statement right after the lockout, has many people irate. The only people who seem calm and patient are the people on each side of the negotiating table. Hopefully that changes this week. And hopefully that changes the tone of these negotiations. |

Lockout Day 9

CBA roundup
The games-missed counter, for the time being, remains at 60 exhibition games.
As many expected, the Swedish Elite League changed course on its policy to sign NHL players to short-term contracts during the lockout. The first two players headed to the SEL this time around? The Blues' Alexander Steen and Tobias Enstrom of the Jets, who are both going to play for Modo and GM Markus Naslund. (The Fourth Period)
Well here is a new idea to try and solve the labor impasse at the moment: Cut the league down by folding teams and moving others to Canada. This is what Barrie McKenna calls the "hoser effect."
 
 

We all know by now that the battle in the court of public opinion means very little to the actual negotiations between the union and the league. Still, Bruce Arthur notes that the NHL couldn't have had a worse week for its image if it had tried.
"But this week stunk for the NHL, too. Worse than the hockey bags would, by a mile." (National Post)
The money remains the biggest part of the negotiation conversations between the two sides, but there is a lot more on the table that needs to be discussed. Whenever they get somewhere on the makeup of the next CBA in terms of how to split the money, John Shannon points to seven issues that will have to be sorted out next, including how to treat the Olympic Games.

Sunday 23 September 2012

More NHL stars move abroad

The NHL lockout has begun. Unfortunately, there seems to be no sign of it ending anytime soon.
Owners are attempting to get a larger percentage of profits from the players, but there have not been too many useful negotiations to this point.

In a message to the fans, the NHL.com said:
While our last CBA negotiation resulted in a seismic change in the League's economic system, and produced corresponding on-ice benefits, our current negotiation is focused on a fairer and more sustainable division of revenues with the Players—as well as other necessary adjustments consistent with the objectives of the economic system we developed jointly with the NHL Players' Association seven years ago.
Basically, the players have been getting too much of the revenue compared to other leagues and the owners want that to be changed. Unfortunately, they do not have the leverage in this scenario. Hockey players have a built-in advantage for when the league begins a lockout: They can play overseas. When the NFL had a lockout before last season, there were no options for players looking to earn a paycheck. While there are lesser leagues in America and Canada, it would not provide players with anything more than a chance to stay in shape.
Basketball players had more options when the league was forced to cancel part of its season. There are leagues throughout Europe and Asia that can afford the salaries of some of the best in the sport. According to HoopsHype, about 70 athletes chose that option and signed with a franchise in another league. However, these were mostly players that would struggle to make a team anyway. Some stars like Deron Williams and Tony Parker made the trip, but most key players decided to stay home.
Hi-res-143381474_crop_exact 

Still, this is nothing compared to the exodus of NHL players that leave once playing in North America is no longer an option. The New York Times reports that about 400 players signed with other leagues during the 2004-2005 lockout. This represents more than half of the league. Stars like Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar have already agreed to play in Russia. While the 2 sides attempt to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, the players have no urge to hurry the process. They are making money while playing and they are the ones that must give up their revenue. Conversely, the owners are losing money. According to Forbes, the league generated $3.3 billion last season, but most teams still finished in the red for the year. These people cannot afford to waste the opportunity to sell tickets and merchandise for too much longer. Eventually, both sides will come to an agreement. For once, however, it is the players who have the upper hand in the negotiations. Hopefully, this will come to a quick end for the benefit of the fans.

Would the NHL be better without its current owners?

NHL Lockout 2012 is in full swing: Games are cancelled, fans are alienated and forgotten, and players are headed overseas – but what if there were no owners?
 

The NHL lockout is a symbol of greed triumphing over loyalty. Owners offer alluring, seismic contracts only to debate their validity each time the collective bargaining agreement expires. Players paid to play hockey for a living refuse to take a pay cut and stand united in their refusal to take the ice. A controversial commissioner fails to prevent a work stoppage yet again. Blame is publicly passed back and forth between the owners and NHLPA – but what if there were no owners?


The NHL was initially designed as a not-for-profit association as defined by its constitution. In recent years, profitability is ironically the sole focus of the game and the fundamental cause of the 2012 NHL lockout. Franchise owners complain that because of player salaries, the result of contracts voluntarily offered by franchises to the players they employ, profitability is restricted. The Minnesota Wild owner, Craig Leipold, had the audacity to spend 196 million dollars this offseason on Zach Parise and Ryan Suter only to explain the lockout as a necessary negotiation to alleviate the financial struggles that arise from profit-crippling player salaries. The NHL lockout is a cruel irony that leaves fans of the NHL lost. With preseason games officially being cancelled, it seems the cancellation of games that count is inevitable as the NHLPA and the owners fail to come to a resolution. We were told that the lost season that resulted from the last NHL lockout was necessary to save the game. Rules were changed to make hockey more exciting and alluring to casual fans, an unprofitable NHL system was rebuilt, and the NHL prospered under the last CBA. In fact, last season was the most profitable season in NHL history. Somehow, owners claim to have failed to sustain profits despite the most successful season in NHL history. What if owners were eliminated all together?


Each NHL organization could still have the same personnel without an owner. Each franchise could fill all positions necessary to effectively run an organization, acquire advertising and sponsorships, and aim to accrue a profit each season in the same way NHL franchises do now. However, instead of allowing owners to rake in surplus funds, what if the league “owned” each franchise and its rights?


Profits would be circulated through organizations in the same way they are now, with the exception that one greedy person at the top of the pyramid didn’t siphon money from the NHL. Revenue sharing would be the only type of revenue in the league, as all markets filtered into a communal hockey pot back to the players and employees. Ticket prices would fall without the need to satiate ownership and hockey fans would gain a better NHL experience. To prevent ownership from simply controlling a presidential role, top positions could have salaries restricted by the league in the same way player salaries are controlled. In short, the NHL could take back control of their product from the corporate world. Sports is most assuredly a business – but imagine if it wasn’t.

Is the 2012-13 NHL season over completely?

While no actual negotiations have taken place between the NHL and the NHLPA, a flurry of activity has occurred over the past few days in the wake Detroit Red Wings vice president Jimmy Devellano's comments. Devellano recently stated that the players were mere "cattle" in the eyes of the owners, a comment that sent the hockey world into a bit of a fit.
 
"The owners can basically be viewed as the ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle," Devellano said. "The owners own the ranch and allow the players to eat there. That's the way it's always been and that the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren't going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen."

Devellano was fined $250,000 by the league for his comments, with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly distancing the NHL as far away from this stance as possible. We'll have more on Devellano's comments tomorrow, and how they've been received around the league.
What is most alarming, however, is the recent reports of Gary Bettman's plan for the Winter Classic. With those plans, it seems the league may be considering canceling the entire season earlier than anyone would expect. Is this even possible?
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On Friday, the Toronto Star reported that, according to a league source, commissioner Gary Bettman is planning on canceling the Winter Classic in November. The move would obviously be a major blow to the players, as that was one of the few points of leverage the NHLPA actually possesses.
"Gary told (the board of governors) he was going to cancel the Winter Classic in November because he didn't want the players to use the game as leverage,"
 The NHLPA had heard the same thing.
"It's a scare tactic," the union source said. "It just proves the NHL has no intention of negotiating any time soon."
Who to believe? At this point, any leaks from from the NHL or NHLPA have to be taken with a grain of salt as each side fights for leverage in the case. The Winter Classic is a major, major revenue stream for both the NHL and the NHLPA and the theory is that both sides are supposedly wanting to get a deal done so the Classic isn't canceled. Over 100,000 people are expected for this game, not to mention the money that comes from HBO for the 24/7 series.
The players know how much money this event brings the league and they're going to use it for as much leverage as possible. Unless, of course, Bettman goes ahead and sweeps that out from beneath their feet. Jesse Spector makes a good point about this possibility, however, stating that taking away the one major, publicity generating game would be "lunacy" for Bettman to actually do.
As cruelly brilliant as it would be for Bettman to nix the Winter Classic as a negotiator, it would be lunacy for him as the commissioner of the NHL, a league that plays 1,230 regular-season games, of which one generates any kind of buzz among the general public. You don't willfully and spitefully cancel that game two months in advance. Instead, you should wait until the very last minute, then blame the other guys for their intransigence when you finally do cancel it, if it comes to that.
Lunacy or not, if the league does cancel the classic to take away most of the leverage the players have, why wouldn't they be willing to take away all semblance of leverage the players might possess? The players have stated that they are willing to wait out season after season before they cave into the league's demands, certainly not adding any optimism to the pot for those hoping for a short lockout. The NHL could test that resolve by going ahead and canceling the entire season. See just how steadfast the players plan on holding to their hard stance when the reality of the entirety of the season is actually gone much sooner than expected. Sound insane? Larry Brooks of the New York Post says it's certainly possible.
A well-placed source reports Bettman has told people he believes the NBA and Stern caved in to save the 2011-12 season by giving the players between 49 and 51 percent of basketball revenue as part of the agreement that ended the lockout last December, and Bettman is resolute in his stance against giving more than 48 percent to the union over the life of the next NHL agreement. It is this extreme stance that has created a sense of fear throughout the industry that 2012-13 might go the way of 2004-05, even without the cultural and philosophical divide that existed the last time.
Brooks is one of those that believe that if the NHL were serious about wanting to actually play games sooner than later, then a deal could be reached in a relatively short amount of time. A source on the players' side stated that a deal could be reached in weeks, with an actual 50-50 revenue split, if the league was willing to make a few concessions and get serious about negotiations. Instead, the league is apparently ready to wait the players out to get the best deal possible for the owners. What's also interesting is that Brooks says that a substantial number of teams are not looking to "hammer the players into submission," and would actually take a deal that favors both the players and the league. If this is true, and this is all based on unnamed sources, then it's clear as day that there is most certainly a divide amongst the owners -- no matter what Bettman might say. It hasn't exactly been a good week for owners, as the league tries to convince anyone that will listen that the only solution to the problem is to cut the players salaries. Daniel Katz, the Edmonton Oilers owner, pulled a fast one on the city this week and demanded more assistance from the public in paying for the new arena. Yesterday, the Oilers twitter account basically threatened relocation if the "requests" of the city were not met. The second wealthiest owner in the league, Phillip Anschultz, is putting his team up for sale after winning the Stanley Cup. And Devellano, apparently attempting to speak for all owners, basically said that the players are mere sheep. Meanwhile, the league is apparently leaking the threat of the early annihilation of the 2012-13 season, just because that would be the best way to pound the players into the exact deal they want. This exact scenario essentially happened seven years ago; the owners just weren't smart enough to make that plan work, apparently. The same process could be carried out again, however Bettman would just skip the formalities and cancel the season now than later. What would a cancellation of the season, or even the Winter Classic, do to the fanbase? I'm already figuring that the NHL is grossly underestimating the damage another lost season will do to this sport. Just because the fans came flocking back the first time doesn't mean they will again. And franchises that have been in trouble, the ones that are apparently causing the league so much trouble, will fall farther into financial despair.
I sincerely hope that Bettman and the league isn't on the verge of breaking the hearts of the league's fans just like that. I hope that they sincerely want the sport actually being played, how foolish the league looks with another lost season on the horizon. This is what we hope, but so far nothing has shown us why would have any.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Winter classic 2013 cancelled?

If we needed any more proof that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was going to be ruthless in negotiations during the lockout, we got it on Friday when the Toronto Star reported that Bettman plans to cancel the 2013 Winter Classic. There was hope that the NHLPA and the league would come to a resolution because of the Winter Classic, which brings in a great deal of revenue for the NHL. But the leverage the players thought they had may be up in flames now because Bettman makes his stance clear with his latest strategy: the league is prepared to wait it out until it gets what it wants.
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You'll remember that Bettman and the owners asked players to take a 24% cut to their salaries in the original proposal for the new collective bargaining agreement, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. When that didn't work, the NHL cut that number down to 9.7%, but the number was still too high for the players. Players agreed to take a pay cut, but wanted revenue sharing included in the deal. Bettman wouldn't budge, and now here we are, in danger of the entire 2012-2013 season being forfeited, including the Winter Classic. The fact remains, like in most lockouts, that the owners are better prepared than the players to wait this one out. You hope that the owners and Bettman compromise to get the season underway, but the latest plans to axe the Winter Classic reveal that the league at present is truly in it for the money and not the game. It's hard to imagine the league budging on account of the Winter Classic anyway. Professional sports leagues prepare for this kind of thing, and the NHL could just as well have pocket aces in its hands as it could a seven-deuce unsuited.

Problems for New Jersey

We are now well into the NHL lockout, and many of the league's top stars have begun to find employment elsewhere. As for the New Jersey Devils, the defending Eastern Conference Champions have put the NHL's waiver agreement to good use, sending 24 players to their AHL affiliate in Albany. Other star veterans like Ilya Kovalchuk and Martin Brodeur will likely head overseas to Europe as negotiations continue.

Here is a rundown of where the current Devils' roster has ended up since last week:
AHL: Adam Henrique, Jacob Josefson, Adam Larsson, Mattias Tedenby, Bobby Butler. Due to the waiver rule agreed upon by the NHL and NHLPA during negotiations, the Devils were able to send a majority of their young talent to Albany to play as a team. Allowing Butler and Tedenby to get familiar with returning players like Henrique and Josefson should benefit the team's offense once a new CBA is reached. The move to Albany will also benefit Adam Larsson, who will gain from the experience playing with future NHL talent and current teammates. Larsson missed most of the 2012 NHL playoffs in favor of veterans, and his time in the AHL will likely improve his game in the United States. Other notable Albany Devils are Tim Sestito, Jay Leach, Alexander Urbom, Steve Zalewski, and goaltending prospects Scott Wedgewood, Jeff Frazee, and Keith Kinkaid. Some of these players saw time at the NHL level last year, and could see time in the pros this year if someone goes down with injury.
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KHL: Ilya Kovalchuk, Anton Volchenkov
According to The Record, last year's point leader Ilya Kovalchuk has agreed to a deal with SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League. Kovalchuk will begin playing for his Russian team on September 23rd, but has an opt-out clause to rejoin the Devils whenever the NHL starts up again. It was no surprise that Kovalchuk would take a deal in Russia considering the KHL strongly pursued him in free agency, and it will be good for the star winger to get playing time after back surgery. Kovalchuk will also get a warmup as captain now that KHA has given him the "C" for his short stint in Europe. Tom Gulitti also reported that D Anton Volchenkov is considering KHL options as well. Volchenkov is the Devils' hardest hitting defenseman and is midway through a six-year deal with New Jersey.

Martin Brodeur
After signing a two-year contract to stay in New Jersey, Martin Brodeur is about to face the fourth work stoppage of his career.

"It's unbelievable. It's kind of an unfortunate thing, especially at this time in my career. I thought I was home free after the last one, but I guess I'm stuck in it a bit more."
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Brodeur is not expected to sign with anyone over the next few weeks, but if the lockout lasts past November, he was quoted as saying he would search for a job in Europe. There are a number of teams over seas that would love to bring in Brodeur for the short term, but for now it seems like he is not in a hurry to search.

Veteran Question Marks
While minimum contract players like Stephen Gionta, Steve Bernier, and Ryan Carter are stuck between the AHL and KHL, veteran players like Patrik Elias are still pondering where they will end up this year. Elias has the skill to earn a contract somewhere in Europe, but he contracted Hepatitis A during the 2004-05 lockout and almost cost himself his career. While it is unlikely that the veteran winger will get sick again if he returns to the Czech Republic, it would perhaps be safer for him to stay in the United States and wait the work stoppage out. The Devils should also worry about players like Bryce Salvador, Marek Zidlicky, Dainius Zubrus, and Henrik Tallinder, veterans all over the age of 34 who can't afford to miss an entire season without playing time. Not only will this cost them a valuable year of playing time, but the contracts of Zidlicky and Zubrus will expire in 2013. Veterans like Salvador and Hedberg have taken advantage of the Devils' practice rink, renting the Amerihealth Pavilion to continue their workouts throughout the offseason. As the lockout goes on, we will be sure to see other players taking deals to play elsewhere until the NHL's two sides can reach an agreement. For now, it looks like a majority of the Devils will begin hockey season somewhere other than the Prudential Center.