Rookie salaries headed for a dive
Jul 16, 2005 3:40:36 GMT -5
Post by M. Beaux-Eaux on Jul 16, 2005 3:40:36 GMT -5
Rookie salaries headed for a dive
By DAVID NAYLOR
Thursday, July 14, 2005 Updated at 1:11 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update
Players entering the National Hockey League as teenagers may not get rich as quickly as they once did, but they will able to chose where they ply their trade a lot sooner than their predecessors.
The new tentative collective agreement between the NHL and its players includes a much more restrictive set of guidelines for entry-level contracts and their bonus structures. But a player such as Sidney Crosby, who is expected to play in the NHL this season after being taken first overall in the upcoming entry draft, will have options by his mid-20s that past players never enjoyed.
The agreement allows new players who have entered the league since the 2001-02 season to become unrestricted free agents after seven seasons, meaning Crosby could be able to pick his team after the 2011-12 season.
"Assuming he performs the way he's capable of performing, he could be free at 25," said Pat Brisson, Crosby's agent. "That's unheard of since the prime for a hockey player is age 25 to 29.
"He'll enter his prime and be able to decide where he wants to play. By then, revenue may be up and the [salary] cap may be $50- or $55-million [all figures U.S.] and a player like him could make $10- or $11-million. That's a nice concession from the league."
Not every player will achieve free agency by 25. With NHL teams owning rights to a player for just seven years, many will hesitate to promote 18-year-olds out of junior hockey unless they can significantly contribute at the NHL level.
Under the previous agreement, players achieved restricted free agency at the end of their first NHL contract. However, due to a severely punitive system of free-agent compensation, virtually no teams attempted to sign players from other clubs. As a result, the vast majority of players did not achieve true free agency until 31, when most are on the downside of their careers.
The league was willing to give that system up in order to clamp down on an entry-level structure full of holes. Though owners thought they had reigned in rookie salaries as part of the last agreement in 1995, a loose structure of easily attainable bonuses meant many players often cashed in by achieving minimal success.
Sources say players will now be under an $850,000 per season cap (down from $1.295-million at the end of the last deal) with reasonable performance bonuses that could double salaries to $1.7-million.
Exceptional league-wide performance bonuses would allow them to earn more. But the days of achieving rookie bonuses for merely surviving in the NHL are over.
Other details of the entry-level system will see contracts extended from three to four years with a maximum signing bonus of 10 per cent per year.
Crosby has dismissed any notion he might defer his NHL career in an attempt to earn more money in Europe. However, the lower range of rookie salaries would certainly open the door for another league to step up and entice one of the league's top prospects.
"Potentially," player agent Todd Diamond said. "To each his own but the potential is there because the money, specifically in Russia [where players earn between $200,000 and $2-million a year], is a lot better than it used to be."
Among those players most anxious about the new entry-level system are those who were drafted in June of 2003, and would have become free agents if still unsigned on July 1, 2005, under the old deal.
Curran said he believes the new agreement will provide some incentive for players to reach agreements with the teams that originally drafted them, rather than re-entering this year's draft. A source said those players will have roughly a week before the July 30 draft to sign.
- tinyurl.com/dlgtd
By DAVID NAYLOR
Thursday, July 14, 2005 Updated at 1:11 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update
Players entering the National Hockey League as teenagers may not get rich as quickly as they once did, but they will able to chose where they ply their trade a lot sooner than their predecessors.
The new tentative collective agreement between the NHL and its players includes a much more restrictive set of guidelines for entry-level contracts and their bonus structures. But a player such as Sidney Crosby, who is expected to play in the NHL this season after being taken first overall in the upcoming entry draft, will have options by his mid-20s that past players never enjoyed.
The agreement allows new players who have entered the league since the 2001-02 season to become unrestricted free agents after seven seasons, meaning Crosby could be able to pick his team after the 2011-12 season.
"Assuming he performs the way he's capable of performing, he could be free at 25," said Pat Brisson, Crosby's agent. "That's unheard of since the prime for a hockey player is age 25 to 29.
"He'll enter his prime and be able to decide where he wants to play. By then, revenue may be up and the [salary] cap may be $50- or $55-million [all figures U.S.] and a player like him could make $10- or $11-million. That's a nice concession from the league."
Not every player will achieve free agency by 25. With NHL teams owning rights to a player for just seven years, many will hesitate to promote 18-year-olds out of junior hockey unless they can significantly contribute at the NHL level.
Under the previous agreement, players achieved restricted free agency at the end of their first NHL contract. However, due to a severely punitive system of free-agent compensation, virtually no teams attempted to sign players from other clubs. As a result, the vast majority of players did not achieve true free agency until 31, when most are on the downside of their careers.
The league was willing to give that system up in order to clamp down on an entry-level structure full of holes. Though owners thought they had reigned in rookie salaries as part of the last agreement in 1995, a loose structure of easily attainable bonuses meant many players often cashed in by achieving minimal success.
Sources say players will now be under an $850,000 per season cap (down from $1.295-million at the end of the last deal) with reasonable performance bonuses that could double salaries to $1.7-million.
Exceptional league-wide performance bonuses would allow them to earn more. But the days of achieving rookie bonuses for merely surviving in the NHL are over.
Other details of the entry-level system will see contracts extended from three to four years with a maximum signing bonus of 10 per cent per year.
Crosby has dismissed any notion he might defer his NHL career in an attempt to earn more money in Europe. However, the lower range of rookie salaries would certainly open the door for another league to step up and entice one of the league's top prospects.
"Potentially," player agent Todd Diamond said. "To each his own but the potential is there because the money, specifically in Russia [where players earn between $200,000 and $2-million a year], is a lot better than it used to be."
Among those players most anxious about the new entry-level system are those who were drafted in June of 2003, and would have become free agents if still unsigned on July 1, 2005, under the old deal.
Curran said he believes the new agreement will provide some incentive for players to reach agreements with the teams that originally drafted them, rather than re-entering this year's draft. A source said those players will have roughly a week before the July 30 draft to sign.
- tinyurl.com/dlgtd