A Deal!

[Habit]

According to a poster at HF Boards quoting a LA times article:

www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=149818

According to the LA Times, the NHL and NHLPA have reached a tentative deal:

www.latimes.com/sports/hocke...ack=1&cset=true

Floor @ $24M
Cap @ $37M

Draft= 1 ball per team

No Luxury tax!

Free agency at 31 this year; 30 next year & 28 for the last 4 years

Rookies have to sign for 4 years @ a max of $850K

Not one player can make more than 20% of the team's salary. In other words, if a team is at the max, their best paid player can't make more than $7.4M

I cannot get into the LA Times website from work. Can someone confirm?

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

July 7, 2005

NHL on Its Way Back
League, players' association agree in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement that includes a hard salary cap.

By Helene Elliott, Times Staff Writer

The NHL and the players' association have agreed in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement that will feature a hard salary cap linked to 54% of league revenue, a 24% rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers, and a provision that will limit the salary of any single player to 20% of the team cap figure in any year, sources familiar with the labor negotiations said Wednesday.

The agreement, which is expected to be announced next week, also includes an NBA-style escrow provision under which 15% of each player's paycheck will go into an escrow account until revenue is calculated after each season. If league-wide spending on salaries exceeds 54% of revenue, the difference between the salaries paid and the negotiated percentage will be paid to teams from the escrow account. If teams spend less than 54%, the escrow money will revert to players.

Negotiators are estimating revenues will be $1.8 billion next season, down from $2.1 billion in 2002-03. The salary cap will be $37 million and won't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments. The floor will be about $24 million.

The league also agreed to let players represent their homelands at the Turin Olympics next February and will take an 18-day break to accommodate players' travel and participation in the Games.

The All-Star game will be dropped next season, mollifying owners who opposed repeated interruptions.

A source also said each team will have an equal chance in the lottery for the No. 1 pick in this year's entry draft. Canadian forward Sidney Crosby, touted as the next Wayne Gretzky, will probably be the top prize.

Overall, the agreement is a resounding victory for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who locked players out Sept. 15 in an effort to bring about sweeping economic changes and achieve cost certainty for owners. The average NHL salary rose from $730,000 in 1994-95 to $1.83 million in 2003-04, but Bettman contended that revenue did not keep pace and that teams lost a collective $1 billion in the decade preceding the lockout.

The NHL, which became the first major professional sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute, will become the last of the major North American leagues to adopt salary controls.

The agreement will be presented to the 10-member NHL executive committee in New York on Monday, and the Board of Governors will rubber-stamp it late next week.

Players will debate and vote at a meeting that could be contentious; if they approve, a 10-day period will begin for teams to sign players they drafted in 2003 and other players on their reserve lists. The season probably would start in early to mid-October.

King President Tim Leiweke, a member of the NHL executive committee, declined to discuss specifics of the negotiations. "I do think the union and the league have made a lot of progress," he said. "They're not there, but hopefully, they'll be there in the very near future."

The largest unresolved issue, a source said, is the disposition of contracts for the 2004-05 season. The NHLPA wants obligations for the 2004-05 season to be respected, and the NHL opposes that but might yield, a source said.

The new deal has no luxury tax but addresses revenue sharing through a complex formula under which the top 10 revenue-earning teams will give a percentage of their revenue to small-market teams at the conclusion of each season.

Salary arbitration will be conducted "baseball style," with each side presenting a figure and the arbitrator obligated to pick one figure or the other. Provisions will allow teams to walk away from a specified number of awards. Also, the minimum age to qualify for unrestricted free agency will be 31 in the first year of the deal, 30 the following year and 28 for the remaining four years.

In another key change, players' performance bonuses will be restricted according to a standardized formula. Criteria such as points, ice time and plus/minus ratio will govern bonuses available to forwards. Another set of standards will apply to bonuses for defensemen, and a third set will determine bonuses for goaltenders.

As expected, earnings will be limited for entry-level players. They will be subject to salary limits for their first four seasons instead of three, as in the old agreement, and their maximum earnings will be $850,000.

*

Salary rollbacks

Some sample NHL players' salaries under terms of the pending collective bargaining agreement, with scheduled 2004-05 figure, salary minus a 24% rollback and minus 15% to escrow:

Player/Team	Scheduled salary	Minus rollback	Minus escrow
Sergei Fedorov, Mighty Ducks	$8 million	$6.080 million	$5.168 million
Jaromir Jagr, N.Y. Rangers	$11 million	$8.36 million*
Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit	$10 million	$7.60 million*
Dan Boyle, Tampa Bay	$2.75 million	$2.09 million	$1,776,500
Sean Avery, Kings	$600,000	$456,000	$387,600

*Subject to maximum salary of 20% of the team's cap per season. With the cap expected to be $37 million, Jagr's salary would be $7.4 million, minus 15% to escrow, or $6,290,000. The same provision applies to Lidstrom.

- tinyurl.com/8rrxe

[Deleted]

Even with Jagr's salary after the rollback, it's still too freakin' much.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

mattdhf said:

Even with Jagr's salary after the rollback, it's still too freakin' much.

Oh, I don't know, $6.29M sounds fair, for a productive Jagr. That's a 42.8% pay cut.

[Deleted]

mrbozo said:

mattdhf said:

Even with Jagr's salary after the rollback, it's still too freakin' much.

Oh, I don't know, $6.29M sounds fair, for a productive Jagr. That's a 42.8% pay cut.

My bad, I didn't see the original figure in the chart.

[Ryan]

All along I don't think I had ever heard of a cap on individual player salaries, but it appears that has happened as well.

If I understand correctly no player's salary can exceed $7.4 mil next year (20% of $37 mil). That number would rise and fall as the cap does I assume.

Pretty interesting...all in all the owners really took Goodenow for a ride here and it looks good on him. I'm not sure if even the owners ever expected this good of a deal.

[Habit]

ryan said:

All along I don't think I had ever heard of a cap on individual player salaries, but it appears that has happened as well.

If I understand correctly no player's salary can exceed $7.4 mil next year (20% of $37 mil). That number would rise and fall as the cap does I assume.

Pretty interesting...all in all the owners really took Goodenow for a ride here and it looks good on him. I'm not sure if even the owners ever expected this good of a deal.

Lets say the Habs have a Salary or $32M. Does that mean that the highest paid player can only make $6.4M?

- or -

If Boston has a $24M payroll their highest paid player gets $4.8M?

How I read that is it cannot be more than 20% of "Their" payroll, and not the cap. If the Rangers want to get dirty and cut Jagr's salary more, just put a cheap team on the ice and only pay him $4.5M or so.

However the artical is just another re-hash of the same-old-same-old.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

...a provision that will limit the salary of any single player to 20% of the team cap figure in any year...

[Boston_Habs]

UFA status going to age 28, if this is correct, is a nice win for the players.

But if all this is correct this represents a huge win for the owners and a total disaster for Bob Goodenow. It's the right kind of economic arrangement for the league and Goodenow should be ashamed that he never saw this coming.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

First contract now 4 years duration instead of the previous 3 years—a maximum yearly salary of $0.85M.

Hmmm, Ovechkin and Crosby on the same line...for Moscow Dynamo...

[Habit]

mrbozo said:

mattdhf said:

Even with Jagr's salary after the rollback, it's still too freakin' much.

Oh, I don't know, $6.29M sounds fair, for a productive Jagr. That's a 42.8% pay cut.

Add into that the 7.7% income tax for NY State also!!!

[Ryan]

mrbozo said:

First contract now 4 years duration instead of the previous 3 years—a maximum yearly salary of $0.85M.

Hmmm, Ovechkin and Crosby on the same line...for Moscow Dynamo...

To be honest I'm glad that is part of the deal. The NHL is saying they will not be held hostage to 18 year old punks that have yet to play a game in the NHL.

This is the finest hockey league in the world (although sometimes you really start to wonder...) and if you would rather play elsewhere then go right ahead. There's only so much money to go around in Europe. If Crosby wants to line-up beside Paul DiPietro and Lonny Bohonos for the next 3 years, please be my guest.

[Bob]

mrbozo said:

First contract now 4 years duration instead of the previous 3 years—a maximum yearly salary of $0.85M.

Hmmm, Ovechkin and Crosby on the same line...for Moscow Dynamo...

Or Lugano

[Rimmer]

mrbozo said:

mattdhf said:

Even with Jagr's salary after the rollback, it's still too freakin' much.

Oh, I don't know, $6.29M sounds fair, for a productive Jagr. That's a 42.8% pay cut.

yes, but who says it won't grow back to $7.4M? the escrow money is paid to the players if the total sum of their salaries doesn't exceed 54% of league revenues at the end of the year.

R.

[Bob]

The owners of the high revenue teams will now find out how astute their GM's really are. In the past it was easier for them to build a team by shelling out more money than their low revenue counterparts. Now it gets interesting.

[Rimmer]

ryan said:

mrbozo said:

First contract now 4 years duration instead of the previous 3 years—a maximum yearly salary of $0.85M.

Hmmm, Ovechkin and Crosby on the same line...for Moscow Dynamo...

To be honest I'm glad that is part of the deal. The NHL is saying they will not be held hostage to 18 year old punks that have yet to play a game in the NHL.

This is the finest hockey league in the world (although sometimes you really start to wonder...) and if you would rather play elsewhere then go right ahead. There's only so much money to go around in Europe. If Crosby wants to line-up beside Paul DiPietro and Lonny Bohonos for the next 3 years, please be my guest.

is it fair that, should they lead their teams in scoring or be their teams' best players, they are held hostage by the league with their entry level contracts that don't show their real value to the team and the league?

R.

[Boston_Habs]

bob said:

The owners of the high revenue teams will now find out how astute their GM's really are. In the past it was easier for them to build a team by shelling out more money than their low revenue counterparts. Now it gets interesting.

What's kind of shocking to me is that the NHLPA wasn't even able to negotiate some NBA-style exceptions to the cap. Some of which actually make sense in terms of allowing players to stay with their current teams.

For example, the NBA has the "Larry Bird Exception" which allows teams to exceed the cap to re-sign their own UFAs up to the league maximum salary. And every team has the "Mid-Level Exemption" which allows each team to sign one player to the league average salary, even if they exceed the cap.

[Habit]

bostonhabs said:

bob said:

The owners of the high revenue teams will now find out how astute their GM's really are. In the past it was easier for them to build a team by shelling out more money than their low revenue counterparts. Now it gets interesting.

What's kind of shocking to me is that the NHLPA wasn't even able to negotiate some NBA-style exceptions to the cap. Some of which actually make sense in terms of allowing players to stay with their current teams.

For example, the NBA has the "Larry Bird Exception" which allows teams to exceed the cap to re-sign their own UFAs up to the league maximum salary. And every team has the "Mid-Level Exemption" which allows each team to sign one player to the league average salary, even if they exceed the cap.

But then that is not a Hard Cap. That is a soft cap system. I read somewhere that the NBA's cap system doesn't work. Something like 6 teams are below the "Cap".

What was the payroll for the Lakers: $64M

What is the Cap: $43.87M

Cap... what Cap?

[Ryan]

rimmer said:

ryan said:

To be honest I'm glad that is part of the deal. The NHL is saying they will not be held hostage to 18 year old punks that have yet to play a game in the NHL.

This is the finest hockey league in the world (although sometimes you really start to wonder...) and if you would rather play elsewhere then go right ahead. There's only so much money to go around in Europe. If Crosby wants to line-up beside Paul DiPietro and Lonny Bohonos for the next 3 years, please be my guest.

is it fair that, should they lead their teams in scoring or be their teams' best players, they are held hostage by the league with their entry level contracts that don't show their real value to the team and the league?

R.

Sorry, but these kids can wait 4 years for their pay day. Wasn't Daigle supposed to lead the Sens in scoring? Weren't they paying him to do so before he ever stepped foot on the ice? Didn't work out so well.

The poor kids will have to somehow get by on $800,000 for the first 4 years. If you're the real deal, don't worry, someone will pay for you.

[Ryan]

I love how all other media sources refute the story based on their sources. Well why should we believe your sources over the LA Times' sources?

Everyone is so determined to break the story that any other story must be false, and all you have to do is get one source to declare it false.

Odds are the NHL will not make a formal announcement until the BOG and PA have signed off on it, but that doesn't mean the deal isn't done at this point.

Sour grapes.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

ryan said:

I love how all other media sources refute the story based on their sources. Well why should we believe your sources over the LA Times' sources?

Everyone is so determined to break the story that any other story must be false, and all you have to do is get one source to declare it false.

Odds are the NHL will not make a formal announcement until the BOG and PA have signed off on it, but that doesn't mean the deal isn't done at this point.

Sour grapes.

Sour grapes indeed:

LA Times' Helene Elliott Honored

by Michael Zampelli

Bill Hay, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, announced today that Los Angeles Times columnist Helene Elliott will be presented with the 2005 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for distinguished hockey writing.

"Helene Elliott is a pioneer among female sports journalists,” said Kevin Allen, president, Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. “But she has truly been a role model for sportswriters of both genders. Her ethics are unquestionable. Her reporting is beyond reproach. Her prose is lively. Her professionalism is of the highest order. There is no one in this business any more respected than Helene."

Helene has covered every Stanley Cup final since 1980 and is currently the NHL and Olympic columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Being a hockey writer in Los Angeles can be an uphill battle, but local fans are appreciative of her intelligent hockey topics and exclusive breaking news. She has kept LA fans in touch with the roller coaster ride of the CBA negotiations by traveling to NHL meetings for first hand information, opinions and breaking news. In today's Times she contributed to a piece on sports and steroids.

She began her career in Chicago and New York, blazing the trail as a female hockey journalist. Only 10 percent of all American sports reporters are women. (Lannin March 1987.) Despite the fact that every major daily newspaper with a circulation of over 175,00 has a woman on its sports staff, 40 percent of American newspapers have no female sports reporters at all.

I remember the my first visit to the Kings locker room after a game and there was Helene in the media scrum when hairy Bryan Smolinski came out buck naked and calmly wrapped a towel around himself. I was a little flustered after not being in this situation since high school, and wondered how it affected a seasoned pro like Helene as the door to the showers opened to reveal the rest of the team in all their glory. When she was reportedly "harassed" by a New York Ranger player's wife who wondered if she ever stared at the players, her reply was, "I can tell you the eye color of every guy on the team".

She eventually moved out West to continually provide LA hockey fans with the award winning quality of NHL reporting that will honored at a luncheon on Monday, November 7, 2005.

Long time New York Rangers analyst Sal Messina will receive the 2005 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his work as an NHL broadcaster.

[Ed note - Hopefully there will be an NHL season to coincide with this event so Helene will get proper recognition for this accomplishment [not that a plaque in the Hall of Fame is so bad]. It's great to see the big wigs back East give major props to a West Coast journalist and it will silence anyone who thinks we get second hand talent in Southern California hockey coverage.]

- www.letsgokings.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=87800

[franko]

Still waiting for the definition of "revenue".

[Boston_Habs]

franko said:

Still waiting for the definition of "revenue".

Using the NBA as a comparison, this how "Basketball Related Income" is defined:

• Regular season gate receipts
• Broadcast rights
• Exhibition game proceeds
• Playoff gate receipts
• Novelty, program and concession sales (at the arena and in team-identified stores within a 75-mile radius)
• Parking
• Proceeds from team sponsorships
• Proceeds from team promotions
• Arena club revenues
• Proceeds from summer camps
• Proceeds from non-NBA basketball tournaments
• Proceeds from mascot and dance team appearances
• Proceeds from beverage sale rights
• 40% of proceeds from arena signage
• 40% of proceeds from luxury suites
• Proceeds received by Properties, including international television, sponsorships, revenues from NBA Entertainment, the All-Star Game, the McDonald's Championship and other NBA special event

[Ryan]

Under this deal the Habs would be in excellent shape for next year with regards to finances.

We currently have 12 players signed for 05/06 at a total of $17.37 mil including Brisebois at $3.42 mil ($4.5 - 24%). That leaves 11 players to sign with $19.63 mil to play with.

Even if we sign back all our RFAs for the same deals they just had, minus the 24% rollback we would have a payroll of approx. $33.5 mil leaving $3.5 mil to spare. This does not include UFA Kovalev. Granted some guys are due for a raise, but guys like Theo and Koivu won't get as much as they were making either.

For 06/07 we currently have 6 players under contract for a total of $10.97 mil including Souray, Rivet, Bonk, Zednik, Begin and Kostitsyn.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

habit said:

bostonhabs said:

What's kind of shocking to me is that the NHLPA wasn't even able to negotiate some NBA-style exceptions to the cap. Some of which actually make sense in terms of allowing players to stay with their current teams.

For example, the NBA has the "Larry Bird Exception" which allows teams to exceed the cap to re-sign their own UFAs up to the league maximum salary. And every team has the "Mid-Level Exemption" which allows each team to sign one player to the league average salary, even if they exceed the cap.

But then that is not a Hard Cap. That is a soft cap system. I read somewhere that the NBA's cap system doesn't work. Something like 6 teams are below the "Cap".

What was the payroll for the Lakers: $64M

What is the Cap: $43.87M

Cap... what Cap?

"Salary Cap" or "Salary Crap?" The system has so many clauses and interpretations that many will be unfair. It is unfair to limit rookies to $$$ far below their value to the team. It gives the teams with #1 picks a huge cap advantage when their best players are frozen at low wages.
I don't think Gatorade and Reebok will pay Crosby millions to play in Tanguska.

[Habit]

habsfaninla said:

habit said:

But then that is not a Hard Cap. That is a soft cap system. I read somewhere that the NBA's cap system doesn't work. Something like 6 teams are below the "Cap".

What was the payroll for the Lakers: $64M

What is the Cap: $43.87M

Cap... what Cap?

"Salary Cap" or "Salary Crap?" The system has so many clauses and interpretations that many will be unfair. It is unfair to limit rookies to $$$ far below their value to the team. It gives the teams with #1 picks a huge cap advantage when their best players are frozen at low wages.
I don't think Gatorade and Reebok will pay Crosby millions to play in Tanguska.

I'm confused? Are you ya or nay on the Cap issue?

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

habit said:

habsfaninla said:

"Salary Cap" or "Salary Crap?" The system has so many clauses and interpretations that many will be unfair. It is unfair to limit rookies to $$$ far below their value to the team. It gives the teams with #1 picks a huge cap advantage when their best players are frozen at low wages.
I don't think Gatorade and Reebok will pay Crosby millions to play in Tanguska.

I'm confused? Are you ya or nay on the Cap issue?

I am in favor of a simple system with soft cap and penalties for exceeding the cap.
It's so easy for GM's to funnel monies to players outside the cap that some form of league punishment is needed.

1. A player in NY can be offered a broadcasting job after his career is over. A broadcasting job in New York would pay substantially more than a broadcasting job in Columbus. Defered payments anybody?

2. A perk selling Chevrolets in New York would exceed the perk$ of hawking Chevrolets in Edmonton. The sheer numbers of dealers and cars sold enable the Rangers to funnel more money to the players. The entertainment capitals drink a lot of Gatorade and wear a lot of Reeboks.

3. A job as a scout for a players father would be outside the cap (or yashin's mother).

4. An apartment rented for a player in New York that he can ocupy or lease out.

5. The tax a player pays is much lower in Florida than in Montreal.

There are a lot of built in inequities and the agents will certainly explore them. A simple soft cap is better than what existed before, but look for the league to attempt to enforce fines when teams develop creative remuneration and look for lawyers to challenge those rulings while licking their lips.

[Bob]

habsfaninla said:

habit said:

I'm confused? Are you ya or nay on the Cap issue?

I am in favor of a simple system with soft cap and penalties for exceeding the cap.
It's so easy for GM's to funnel monies to players outside the cap that some form of league punishment is needed.

1. A player in NY can be offered a broadcasting job after his career is over. A broadcasting job in New York would pay substantially more than a broadcasting job in Columbus. Defered payments anybody?

2. A perk selling Chevrolets in New York would exceed the perk$ of hawking Chevrolets in Edmonton. The sheer numbers of dealers and cars sold enable the Rangers to funnel more money to the players. The entertainment capitals drink a lot of Gatorade and wear a lot of Reeboks.

3. A job as a scout for a players father would be outside the cap (or yashin's mother).

4. An apartment rented for a player in New York that he can ocupy or lease out.

5. The tax a player pays is much lower in Florida than in Montreal.

There are a lot of built in inequities and the agents will certainly explore them. A simple soft cap is better than what existed before, but look for the league to attempt to enforce fines when teams develop creative remuneration and look for lawyers to challenge those rulings while licking their lips.

If teams can get around the restrictions of the new agreement why couldn't they get around the soft cap with penalties that you suggest.

In any case, it is a moot point. It looks like the agreement will be in place soon and rehashing old issues is like flogging a dead horse.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

The agreement, which is expected to be announced next week, also includes an NBA-style escrow provision under which 15% of each player's paycheck will go into an escrow account until revenue is calculated after each season. If league-wide spending on salaries exceeds 54% of revenue, the difference between the salaries paid and the negotiated percentage will be paid to teams from the escrow account. If teams spend less than 54%, the escrow money will revert to players.

Based on the above statement I'll calculate the Habs payroll according to this formula: (salary - rollback) - escrow = amount toward cap. This is the formula used by Elliott to arrive at the salary figures for the player samples in her article.

2005-06 season

Huet 0.39M
Brisebois 2.91M
Souray 1.81M
Rivet 1.94M
Hainsey 0.48M
Bonk 2.03M
Higgins 0.73M
Bégin 0.52M
Zednik 1.55M
Sundstrom 0.84M
Perezhogin 0.73M
Ward 0.52M

Total salary presently used toward cap = 14.45M

Lots of wiggle room for Gainey and Uncle George, even taking into account that 2 of our most valuable players (Théodore and Koivu) are without contracts.

[Rimmer]

I may be wrong, but i think escrow money counts towards the cap, too.

R.