Trettioåtta

So are there rules for LTIR, or can Pronger just stay on that for the next 3 years and retire when his cap hit is off the books?

The league coming off their demand for a $60 million cap in Year 2, meeting the NHLPA's request to have it at $64.3 million - which was the upper limit from last year's cap. The salary floor in Year 2 will be $44 million. - The upper limit on the salary cap in the first year is $60 million, but teams can spend up to $70.2 million. The cap floor will be $44 million. - The 10-year deal also has an opt-out clause that kicks in after eight years. - The salary variance on contracts from year to year cannot vary more than 35 per cent and the final year cannot vary more than 50 per cent of the highest year. - A player contract term limit for free agents will be seven years and eight years for a team signing its own player. - The draft lottery selection process will change with all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick. The weighting system for each team may remain, but four-spot move restriction will be eliminated. - Supplemental discipline for players in on-ice incidents will go through NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan first, followed by an appeal process that would go through Bettman. For suspensions of six or more games, a neutral third party will decide if necessary. - Revenue sharing among teams will spread to $200 million. Additionally, an NHLPA-initiated growth fund of $60 million is included. - The NHL had hoped to change opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it remains July 1 in the new agreement. But with a later ending to the season, free agency for this summer will start at a later date. Also, a decision on NHL participation at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be made outside of the new CBA. While it is likely that the league will participate, the IIHF and IOC will have discussions with the NHL and Players' Association.

I agree with the whole Russian thing. I don't see any reason you can't have many on a team, it all depends on the person - for example, you can't get more into the 'American' life than Ovi did, i respected him for how well he threw himself into a foreign country, but he now wants to play in the KHL. Compare that to Datsyuk, who still struggles to speak English, but has been the clutch heart of the Red Wings for an age. I think that if a player has chemistry with Grigs then we should try and get him - Kucherov is a good pick not because he is Russian, but because he has played with him at both a National and club level and has scored lots of points with him. I think the Russian factor only matters because it has given them more time to play together, not because they have a secret understanding of each others play that comes from being Russian Also, never heard that song before, but my 16 year old sister had...

I hope that they keep the 10% year to year thing in, otherwise this has basically been for nothing and the league won't have changed at all

That would be a good gesture, very useful for poor students like me :)

TSN, loads of up to date news and articles explaining lockout terms etc.

They have always worked well on the same line (e.g. Hecht-Briere-Pommers)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/then-perreault-said-to-rico-paul-bowman-wieland/1030012564

"Several players have confirmed to TSN that the NHL Players' Association's membership voted 706-22 on Friday to give the union the power to file a disclaimer of interest by Jan. 2."

If a disclaimer is the union walking away from the players, but the union asked the players if they wanted the union to walk away from it, is this not a conflict? Could this not be used as ammo for the bad faith argument?

http://t.co/Uy8i4gdE http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/people-who-think-giving-teachers-guns-would-stop-s So awful. No excuses for it. Laws need to be changed.

If the league keeps operating this way, some teams will not survive - Nashville was bullied into giving Weber $26 million in 366 days by another team, if we have teams which regularly make the playoffs but are still vulnerable to being financially bullied there is a problem. 13-17 teams lost money last year. I understand that they don't have to spend above the cap floor, so are people suggesting that this league would be better if half the teams in this league did not even try and put forward a competitive team? That seems ridiculous, would you pay $100-200 for a ticket to watch your team simply go through the motions and try and get talent in the draft? Chicago was really struggling for fans/income until they sucked enough to get good picks and become competitive, look at the champions since the lockout, i would argue 3/7 teams won by having high draft picks, which they then had to trade. If we expect teams to just spend to the floor and be competitive we need to change the system. If this system continues, teams will fold. An owner won't spend $50 million a year to have a team not competitive for the title, lose money and lose fans. If the players want to keep 800 people in the NHL, as opposed to 600, they need to change the system. It is that simple i think. All unions want to get the most for their players, obviously, but it is better to have nurses earning less money and hospitals able to stay afloat than it is to have nurses earning what they want and the hospital closing down a year later because of it. The league relies on rich people losing millions every year, whilst the talent makes money every year. Both sides are greedy, but i struggle to side with the team that is making money every year and still saying the system is in favour of the team losing money every year. My thoughts anyhow.

And i watch films to watch actors act, doesn't mean i don't know and appreciate that funding and sponsorship is a requirement for this to happen

Disappointing. If the player lose the season, surely they know the owners will just screw them 9 ways from Sunday? Can't the members of the PA demand that they vote on the NHL proposal? I think if talks break down now, that is it for the season - they already said anything more than a 50 game schedule would be complex. So if talks break down, what with time needed to sort logistics out and Xmas, that will mean it is a 41 game (probably) season... I hope/genuinely suspect that the NHL will have taken a huge blow over all this, I think players will return to mostly empty stadiums and the sponsors won't come back that quickly. If I was pouring money into the NHL as a sponsor i would want at least a decade long CBA, if not 15 years, before i even consider investing. In an odd way, i think it would b better for the NHL to cancel the season and restart next October, I think that a combination of a) How pissed and indifferent fans are at the moment and b) The fact most have already found a replacement for hockey and c) Christmas is expensive, will mean that they would fill more seats and repair damage over the long run if they went without this year

That was amazingly helpful - thanks! Once an appeal has been submitted to a circuit, can the other party change the circuit? Like if the NHL preemptively files in the 2nd circuit to say that if the PA decertify then it is a sham move, does the PA have to register to decertify in the 2nd or could it submit its case to 9?

Could someone quickly explain what these circuit things are? I read about the NHL wanting 2 or 8 and the players wanting 9, but what does it mean?

Hard to tell - mediators won't talk to the press/will keep a low profile and they will tell the sides to do the same. Will become quiet for a while porbably

My girlfriend and I started watching it a couple of weeks ago. We are 4 episodes into season 2, so still got a way to go; but we are loving it. Can't believe i only just found it

How does that ###### the owners? Most owners lose money, so the longer the league is out, the more the owners save

This relies on the courts ruling in favour of the players - what happens if the courts rule in favour of the owners? Can the owners basically make a new CBA and tell the players that they can individually agree to it and play or they can F off? If so, this is a risky move. Although if it does take 1-2 years to sort out decertification, then it also means the NHL is very very screwed, and by proxy, the players. EDIT: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/decertification-111104/nba-decertification-threat-strong-message This article nicely explains it all

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=410073#YourCallTop Hopefully this is a snowball starting to roll

I guess how they did it for Sid, with the bottom 5 teams getting 3 balls, then then next 5 getting 2 balls - or whatever the system was. In a way it is fitting that there was a lockout before both "The next ones" (Sid in 05 and Nathan in 13)

Sh!t a player actually publicly turned against Fehr! Maybe this and the news about the players pushing for a new proposal means Fehr is losing his henchmen

This is a big improvement - finally a proper offer. My only issue is that their proposal only offers cap hit penalties for contracts - no limit or stop to back loading. I don't like this as I think that back loaded contracts and long contracts were the only things ruining the game. But I'm not sure how much further they can be pushed. EDIT: I also don't like the length of this CBA, I think for the game's sake it needs to be at least 10 years. 5 years will mean people won't bother coming back to the game as they think there will be another lockout soon. Either way, I think that there will be a serious drop in HRR for the next couple of years

Maybe...although the owners like Bettman, and unlike the players, the owners actually understand business negotiations and so are probably more understanding of the process - not to mention some already think that Bettman has offered too much, so the only reason to get rid of him would be for someone who was more willing to do a deal with Fehr