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Snapshots: Olympics, Vanek, Kane

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The NHL is using the Olympic dream to play hardball with the Players Association, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

As we’ve previously reported, the NHL is offering Olympic participation in exchange for a three-year extension of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA). But the NHLPA isn’t likely to accept that proposal due to their unhappiness with the escrow agreement.

Brooks compared the escrow situation to a classic Seinfeld quote, “the players are angry, my friends, like old men trying to send back soup in a deli.”

The players are not happy with losing 15% of their yearly salary. And they’re furious, according to Brooks, that the NHL is holding the Olympics over their head to increase the CBA’s length. Originally, the NHL said they needed the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to cover player costs, which President René Fasel ultimately agreed to. But then NHL decided it needed more from the players in order to go to the Olympics. As Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist put it, “it sounds like they’re pretty happy at the league with what they have, doesn’t it?”

Brooks writes that this could be the issue that finally unites the Players Association for the first time since they fractured during the 2004-05 lockout as different parts fought for and against the implementation of a hard salary cap. They could fight for a hard cap on escrow, like the NBA has.

With the NHL publicly open to extending the current CBA, it would be “an Olympian task” for them to lock out the players for a fourth time under Gary Bettman.

 

  • The Detroit Red Wings will have some scoring help when they face the Calgary Flames on Sunday as Thomas Vanek is set to return to the lineup. Vanek has missed 11 games, in which the Red Wings had a paltry record of 3-7-1. They’ve had trouble scoring just 18 goals in those 11 games. Vanek has four goals and eight points in seven games played, and should boost the Red Wings. He’ll play on the top line with Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin against the Flames, according to George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press.
  • On Friday, we reported that the Vancouver Canucks were no longer interested in pursuing hometown boy Evander Kane. On Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Sabres’ asking price was too high for the Canucks, and that’s what lead to the breakdown of talks. Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshnyski wrote that the two would have been a poor fit, as the Canucks are rebuilding and Kane averages “a police investigation per season and can’t stay healthy.” Wyshnyski said he doubts Kane would be able to stay on his “best behaviour during a prolonged rebuild,” and concluded “thank God for high asking prices.”

McKenzie’s Latest: Olympics, Escrow, And Star Treatment

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In a pair of radio appearances in Montreal and Edmonton on Friday morning, TSN Insider Bob McKenzie spoke about two big issues in the NHL.

McKenzie spoke in Montreal about the brewing fight between the NHL and NHLPA over Olympic participation and CBA (transcribed by Chris Nichols from FanRag). The current perception is that the owners don’t want to go to the Olympics and are “holding the players hostage” over the issue. The owners are offering Olympic participation at the price of extending the CBA.

The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta reports that it doesn’t seem likely that the NHLPA will accept the offer.

This is because the players’ biggest problem is with escrow. As Nichols puts it, “there may not be a more mind-numbingly awful subject to discuss for hockey fans than escrow.”

McKenzie says he empathizes with the players, because no one would want to lose an additional 15 percent off the top of their take-home salary. The players using the five percent salary cap escalator each season helps raise the salaries of free agents, but ends up hurting players by increasing escrow. While the players say they want a cap on escrow, the issue, according to McKenzie is that “you can’t put a cap on escrow in a hard cap system. I think some players – I’m not saying all players – some players don’t understand escrow.”

This is where McKenzie says the negotiations could get ugly now and when the CBA expires: “if the players actually think that the NHL is going to negotiate a cap on escrow, which would mean that the owners are getting less than 50 percent of the revenue – that’s going to be a motherhood issue on both sides of the fence.”

How will they come to an agreement? “Outside of shutting down the league and going back and fighting the battle over the salary cap and the share, I don’t know how you solve that… There’ll be blood on the tracks for escrow to come down in any meaningful way, other than by not putting the inflator in or the Canadian dollar getting stronger.”

Hopefully for hockey fans, the two sides can figure it out without costing fans the chance to see NHLers at the Olympics in 2018 and beyond, and avoid another season-long lockout.

Another hot button issue in the hockey world is the treatment of superstars. The Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau will miss six weeks with a broken finger after being slashed 21 times by the Minnesota Wild. Flames coach Glen Gulutzan spoke to the referees about Gaudreau’s treatment earlier in the game, but there was no change in the standard of calls. GM Brad Treliving said “it wasn’t a unicorn” that broke Gaudreau’s finger. Meanwhile, the Flames rivals in Edmonton also have an issue with the officiating: the Oilers super sophomore Connor McDavid has also been hooked and held with few or no calls.

Neither McDavid nor coach Todd McLellan have been vocal about McDavid’s treatment. McKenzie believes that is the right choice, telling TSN 1260’s morning show that complaining to the media won’t lead to the results they want. The TSN Insider suggested the Oilers organization will gather video of the missed calls and “lobby behind the scenes and if [Stephen Walkom’s office] thinks you have a valid point then they’ll send out a memo.”

McKenzie said, “one of the things I used to love about the NHL was it was really hard on the star players” but when that happened, “mayhem was going to follow” and that “often leads to serious injuries or criminal behaviour.”

With most enforcers out of the league, NHL teams don’t have the means they used to police the game themselves. If anyone got in Wayne Gretzky’s face, they could count on a visit from Oilers tough guy Dave Semenko. But now, McKenzie says “it’s up to the referees to make sure that Brandon Dubinsky doesn’t get away with murder on Sidney Crosby.”

Even if there are changes implemented, McKenzie wisely points out that “at the end of the day it’s officiating and no one is ever going to be happy about it.”

NHL, NHLPA Discussing Possible CBA Extension In Exchange For Olympic Participation

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After a group met today to discuss options regarding NHL player participation in the next Olympic games, the league put forward an offer that would see the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) extended in exchange for their blessing. Elliotte Friedman was first to report on the offer, with Chris Johnston offering up confirmation from Donald Fehr (head of the NHLPA).

Just yesterday, IIHF president Rene Fasel had promised that the Olympic organization would cover the costs of players attending the games, something that had been the biggest sticking point thus far. While this came as a sign of hope in the last few moments of negotiations, Fasel now left the meetings feeling less than optomistic.

The offer, as Friedman hears, would be to extend the current agreement by three years, which may just represent the full term of the deal as originally written. The deal runs until 2022, though each side currently has an opt-out date in September of 2019.

By all accounts, this seems like a hard stance by the NHL to lock in the high escrow period they’re currently in. In putting an option of agreeing to an extension or sacrificing playing for your country, it’s backed the NHLPA into a media and fan frenzied corner that it’ll be hard to walk out of. If they turn down the offer, and try to work out another way to head to the 2018 Olympics (one which seems unlikely at this point), they’d be seen as money-hungry and non-patriotic, something they’ve worked extremely hard to prevent over the past decade.

For fans, it would be a perfect scenario. The league ensures that there isn’t a lockout or work stoppage for another three seasons, while getting to watch the best players in the world compete on the grandest of stages. In practice, it’s not that simple for the NHLPA or the IIHF, and more work will need to be done over the coming days and weeks.

NHL, Stakeholders Discuss Possible Change To Draft Age

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Could the NHL change the draft age from 18 to 19?

TSN’s Bob McKenzie spoke about the possibility on Tuesday night’s edition of Insider Trading. Former third-overall-pick Pat LaFontaine is leading a group of stakeholders that includes the NHL, NHLPA, CHL, USHL, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, and NCAA to discuss a “whole new development model.”

According to McKenzie, the model would go from age five to age 20, and would include changing the NHL Draft-eligible age to 19, with “some obvious exceptions for exceptional players.”

The system would likely feature an expanded version of the CHL’s Exceptional Player Status. Normally, players aren’t eligible to play in the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL (the CHL’s three leagues) until they’re 16. However, there is a process (outlined extensively by McKenzie here) where players deemed exceptional can begin to play Major Junior at age 15. Players and their families apply to the CHL and Hockey Canada, and the player is examined on and off the ice to determine if he truly is exceptional. So far, only six players have ever applied, with John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day, and 2018-eligible Joseph Veleno being successful candidates. The first thee on that list went first overall in their OHL and NHL draft years, while Day went fourth in the OHL draft was a third-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2016. While it’s still early in his career, McKenzie noted that “some were questioning whether he was as blatantly exceptional as Tavares, Ekblad or McDavid.”

Changing the NHL Draft age would drastically change the way the draft is conducted. Looking back over the past two drafts, top selections like McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Patrik Laine would likely have been able to still be drafted at age 18. All four of them have been successful in their rookie seasons, and were clearly NHL-ready at age 18/19. While McDavid was a CHL exceptional-status player, the other three played NCAA, Swiss National League, and Liiga in their draft years. The NHL and other stakeholders would need to find a way to coordinate with all leagues to determine which players are truly exceptional and deserve to be drafted at age 18.

While the above mentioned players would still have been drafted at 18, elite prospects like Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Noah Hanifin, Jesse Puljujärvi, and Pierre-Luc Dubois may have been forced to wait an extra year, depending on the rules set out. As it stands now, several teams have issues with how the NHL-CHL agreement is laid out, as it forces 19-year-old draft+1 players to either play in the NHL or CHL when the AHL may be the best for their development. Strome is a current example: he’s posted 129 and 111 points in his last two years in the OHL and has nothing to gain from returning to junior, where he will dominate and potentially learn bad habits because of how dominant he is at that level. Strome has just one assist in six NHL games this year, and would be well-served by 40 games in the AHL to learn the pro game. That’s currently prevented by the NHL-CHL agreement. On one hand, it’s easy to see that CHL teams don’t want to lose their brightest stars before they absolutely have to, but at the same time it may not be in the player’s best interests to go back to junior. Changing the draft age to 19 could alleviate this issue, with drafted players only playing one more year of junior, at most, before turning pro.

LaFontaine and the stakeholders will meet again on Wednesday. On Insider Trading, McKenzie said they’ll “need to get some traction soon if it’s going to happen.”

The NHLPA would also need to agree to the change in collective bargaining when the current CBA expires in 2022 (both sides can opt out two years early). Convincing the Players Association that players will have to wait an extra year before making an NHL salary could be a tough argument, but it will be interesting to see how the discussion goes over the next little while.

Connor McDavid’s Next Contract

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He may be eight months away from being able to sign it, and 20 months before it takes effect, but Connor McDavid’s second contract is already a topic of conversation in the hockey world.

Despite being only 19-years-old and 55 games into his NHL career, McDavid is already a top-five player in the NHL. Of course, he’s scored 60 points in those 55 games, and is currently sitting tied for second in NHL scoring. He’s also the youngest captain in NHL history and the unquestioned face of the Oilers franchise.

McDavid is currently in the second year of his three-year entry-level contract. Including bonuses, McDavid can make $3.775MM per season. He’s eligible to negotiate and sign a contract extension on July 1, 2017. The longest term possible is eight years, something that’s a given for the Oilers but perhaps a point of worry for the McDavid camp. On Tuesday night’s Insider Trading, TSN and ESPN insider Pierre Lebrun floated the idea that the potential lockout in 2020 or 2022 could affect the player agent’s willingness to sign through that. He followed that up on Wednesday morning on TSN radio in Vancouver, pointing to the past CBA’s effects on player contracts. In 2005, there was a 24% salary rollback to all players; in 2013 they added cap recapture penalties to so-called “cheat deals” like Shea Weber’s. While Lebrun isn’t saying McDavid doesn’t want to sign an eight-year extension in Edmonton, he does point out the possibility of a four-year deal because “there’s some concern that when the CBA ends, maybe they need to protect themselves because the rules may change on existing contracts.”

Numbers-wise, McDavid is a very likely candidate to become the highest-paid player in the NHL. Chris Johnston discussed McDavid on Tuesday night’s Sportsnet Hockey Central, opining that he “doesn’t see any” situation where McDavid doesn’t become the highest-paid player in the NHL. Currently, Blackhawks forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane’s $10.5MM cap hits are the highest in the NHL. Kings captain Anze Kopitar is the only other player making $10MM or more.

Of course, the Oilers could luck out if McDavid is as superstitious as the previous “next one” Sidney Crosby. Following his standard entry-level contract, Crosby has signed two separate contracts with an AAV of $8.7MM, which of course is the same as his number. Getting McDavid signed at under $10MM per season would be a major win for the Oilers and allow them to build a stronger team around him. Both sides can look no further than the Blackhawks struggles to keep their team together with Toews and Kane accounting for a combined $21MM against the cap.

Including LTIR-relief from former captain Andrew Ference (career-ending hip surgery), the Oilers are around $5MM below the cap. Things will change in the summer, when Leon Draisaitl is an RFA. Look for depth defenseman Mark Fayne to bought out or traded with salary retained to clear most of his $3.625MM cap hit, and perhaps a trade involving a bigger salaried player. McDavid and Darnell Nurse finish their entry-level contracts in 2018, and then Jesse Puljujärvi in 2019 (presuming he stays in the NHL this year and doesn’t slide.

While negotiations cannot begin until July, Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli and his management team are already having internal discussions about the contract, and so are McDavid’s agents, Jeff Jackson and Bobby Orr. Expect a similar timeline to fellow exceptional status recipient and first-overall pick Aaron Ekblad signing his extension with Florida; the two sides agreed in principle to a new deal early in the morning of July 1st.

Johnston was dead-on when he called extending McDavid the “biggest decision the Oilers are going to have for the next decade.”

Changes To Waiver Priority

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While the turning of the calendar to November marks the first full month of the NHL season, it also represents the first day that the waiver priority order changes.

During the offseason and through the month of October, claiming priority was based on the reversed regular season standings of the previous year.  As a result, teams like Montreal and Edmonton, who have been among the league leaders in the standings so far this year, have had top ten priority for players that were waived during training camp and the first few weeks of the season based on their low finish in 2015-16.

Now the claiming order is based off of the current standings and will change daily from now until the end of the season.  That means that Arizona and Nashville are the top two teams in the priority list today.  It’s also worth noting that a team claiming a player does not make them move to the back of the priority list.

We’re reaching the time of the year where some of the players claimed via the waiver wire back in the preseason will once again be on waivers after failing to make an impression on their new squad or the return of another player from injury has forced them off the roster.  The team that originally lost the player does not automatically have top priority in reclaiming him.  However, if the original team places a claim and no one else does, the original team would be permitted to send the player to the minor leagues.  We saw this happen today with Martin Frk and Detroit.

Depending on who hits the wire in the days and weeks ahead, that should be something to watch for.  In the meantime, some different teams will have the top chances to add anyone that is waived moving forward.

Slide-Rule: Who’s Staying In The NHL?

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As the NHL season approaches the nine-game mark, teams will need to make decisions about whether or not to keep their rookies on their roster.

Should a rookie play more than nine regular season or playoff games in one NHL season, then their entry-level contract will begin. If the player plays nine or less NHL games before being sent back to their junior or their European clubs, then their entry-level contract slides to the next season and no longer counts towards the 50-contract limit. There is also an exception whereby rookies without a major junior affiliation can play a full season in the AHL without burning a year of their entry-level contract. This is why Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen still has a three years left on his entry-level, despite playing nine NHL games and 52 AHL games. Anaheim defenseman Jacob Larsson and Buffalo winger Alexander Nylander are able to slide, should they remain in the AHL for the remainder of the year.

There are 21 players still in the NHL who can slide to next year. Here’s a list, with games played (GP) and where they can be sent (information via Cap Friendly):

Arizona:
D Jakob Chychrun (6 GP, Sarnia Sting, OHL)
LW Lawson Crouse (5 GP, Kingston Frontenacs, OHL)
C Dylan Strome (3 GP, Eerie Otters, OHL)

Boston:
D Brandon Carlo (7 GP, Tri-City Americans, WHL)

Calgary:
LW Matthew Tkachuk (7 GP, London Knights, OHL)

Carolina:
LW Sebastian Aho (7 GP, Charlotte Checkers, AHL or Kärpät, Liiga)

Colorado:
LW Mikko Rantanen (1 GP, San Antonio Rampage, AHL)

Columbus:
D Zach Werenski (7 GP, Cleveland Monsters, AHL)

Edmonton:
RW Jesse Puljujärvi (6 GP, Bakersfield Condors, AHL or Kärpät, Liiga)

Florida:
C Denis Malgin (7 GP, Springfield Thunderbirds, AHL or ZSC Lions, NLA)

Minnesota:
C Joel Eriksson Ek (4 GP, Iowa Wild, AHL or Färjestad, SHL)

Montreal:
D Mikhail Sergachev (3 GP, Windsor Spitfires, OHL) (Assigned to junior Oct. 31)

New Jersey:
C Pavel Zacha (7 GP, Sarnia Sting, OHL)

New York Islanders:
C Mathew Barzal (2 GP, Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL)
C Anthony Beauvillier (7 GP, Shawinigan Cataractes, QMJHL)

Ottawa:
D Thomas Chabot (1 GP, Saint John Sea Dogs, QMJHL) (Assigned to junior Nov. 2)

Philadelphia:
F Travis Konecny (8 GP, Sarnia Sting, OHL)
D Ivan Provorov (8 GP, Brandon Wheat Kings, WHL)

Toronto:
RW Mitch Marner (7 GP, London Knights, OHL)
C Auston Matthews (7 GP, Toronto Marlies, AHL, or Zurich, NLA)

Winnipeg:
LW Patrik Laine (8 GP, Manitoba Moose, AHL or Tappara, Liiga)

Matthews, Marner, Aho, Konecny, and Laine appear to be locks to remain in the NHL for good, while Werenski, Puljujärvi, and Provorov are more likely than not to stay in the NHL. The remainder of the list could go either way.

Should a player stick beyond nine games, there is another key deadline to be aware of: 40 games. Should a player play 40 games, then that season counts towards unrestricted free agency. A player must play seven seasons in order to qualify. This has happened twice in recent memory: Daniel Sprong played 18 games with the Penguins last season, starting the clock on his entry-level contract, but not burning a year towards UFA; the Oilers kept Leon Draisaitl in the NHL for 37 games in 2014-15.

Seattle Arena Deal Clears Important Hurdle

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The NHL has long been interested in the city of Seattle, either as home to a new expansion team or as a possible landing spot for a relocated franchise. However a group looking to build an arena in Seattle couldn’t agree with the city on a financing plan. The municipality was unwilling to use public funds, as previously proposed, and the project appeared dead until today.

Chris Hansen, who fronts the group of investors looking to build the arena, has revealed a new proposal that offers to forgo public funding in order to obtain approval to begin construction on a new venue in the city’s SoDo neighborhood, according to a report from King 5 News in Seattle. This development would seem to pave the way for eventual placement of an NHL franchise in the city but there’s at least one hurdle remaining.

The group’s primary objective is the acquisition of an NBA team and during the NHL’s recent expansion process, no one representing Seattle submitted an application to the league in pursuit of a franchise.

Below is an excerpt from the letter outlining the Hansen group’s new proposal to the mayor of Seattle, the King County Executive and Seattle City Councilmembers, which spells out their interest in the NBA:

Our goal has always been to return the NBA to Seattle and to build a new arena to make that possible.  Our partnership with the City and County started five years ago was based on a recognition that private financing of a new arena in the prevailing economic conditions was not economically feasible.  The goal of this partnership was to build the arena and bring an NBA team to Seattle.  Public financing was simply a mechanism that made that possible at the time.

Now it’s possible, if not even likely, that once an NBA team is placed in the city an NHL franchise will soon follow. According to the article the NBA may begin to focus on expansion once the league and the player’s union agree to a new CBA.

The NHL currently has 31 members, creating unbalanced conferences and scheduling difficulties. Adding a 32nd franchise would solve those issues. Quebec is of course another possible candidate but would seem to be a better fit in the Eastern Conference an therefore might be best suited as a fallback in case the league needs to relocate a team in the East. With the Seattle arena project appearing to be back on track, the Pacific Northwest is again an appealing expansion option for the NHL.

Snapshots: Flyers, Escrow, Murray, Despres

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While the Flyers are receiving some good news on the injury front, it will be a while before they can actually benefit from it, writes Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post.  Center Scott Laughton has been skating since Friday and is hoping to be ready in the next seven to ten days to return to the lineup from a knee injury.  As for Michael Del Zotto, he skated for the first time on Sunday after suffering a knee injury of his own.

On the surface, that might sound promising that both are nearing returns to the lineup but there is one hiccup they have to deal with.  At the start of the season, the Flyers placed both players on long-term injury reserve (LTIR), allowing them to have replacement players while remaining cap compliant.  As a result, both players must miss at least 10 games and 24 days of action.  Even though both players may be ready to go before the 24 days are up, neither will be able to return to playing until their November 5th game against Montreal.

Other news from around the league:

  • The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to set the first quarter escrow rate on pay at 15.5%, notes TSN’s Frank Seravalli. Teams withhold the escrow amounts in order to maintain an equal 50/50 split of revenues as listed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  While the 15.5% represents a reduction compared to last year (17%), it’s still unlikely that the players will receive a lot of that money back.  In 2014-15 – the last season where total revenues have been finalized – the players had 15% withheld as escrow and only received 2.05% of it back.  The large gap will likely continue to be a problem as league revenues begin to flat line with the NHLPA exercising at least some part of their cap escalator each offseason.
  • Columbus defenseman Ryan Murray is not currently with the team on their road trip but could join them at some point this week, reports Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. Murray missed Saturday’s game in Dallas with a head injury after a collision with Chicago’s Brent Seabrook on Friday night.
  • The Ducks have placed blueliner Simon Despres on LTIR, TSN’s Bob McKenzie notes (Twitter link). The move gives Anaheim some more financial flexibility in the short-term as they look to re-sign RFA defenseman Hampus Lindholm.  Despres is currently out with an upper body injury that is believed to be concussion-like symptoms.

Latest On Vladimir Sobotka

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Vladimir Sobotka is continuing to try to get out of his KHL contract in the hopes of rejoining St. Louis at some point this season, reports Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  However, a major hurdle to clear at this time appears to be the disappearance of the out clause from his KHL deal.

GM Doug Armstrong noted that Sobotka signed a renegotiated contract at the time of the collapse of the Russian ruble to guarantee him more money.  The new deal did not contain an NHL out clause, something that may not have been communicated to him when he signed it.

For the time being, Sobotka has reported to Avangard Omsk after representing the Czech Republic at the World Cup of Hockey and is skating with the team although he has yet to suit up in a game.

The potential still exists for the 29 year old center to buy his way out of the final year of his contract but doing so would basically mean that he would be playing for free this season.  Sobotka is earning $4MM with Omsk but the team is requesting a two-thirds buyout, meaning that he would have to pay them $2.68MM to get out of the deal.  His NHL salary with the Blues would be $2.725MM (based on an arbitration award from 2014), meaning that he’d effectively be playing for a salary of $45K if he were to return to St. Louis this year.  To put that in perspective, the NHL minimum salary this season is $575K; the AHL minimum is also $45K.

The NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement does not permit the Blues to pay any portion of the buyout while they are also not allowed to renegotiate his current contract to pay him a higher salary to offset the buyout either.  One option that could exist in a few months would be a contract extension as an enticement to leave Omsk midseason.  However, as Sobotka is on a one year deal, the CBA blocks teams and players from signing extensions until January 1st.

In the meantime, the Blues are left with a hole to fill in their roster as they had kept a spot open for Sobotka, who had 33 points in just 61 games in his last NHL season.  They have just shy of $4MM in cap space to work with according to Cap Friendly which gives them some wiggle room although they will need to conserve some of that if they do manage to bring him back later on in the year.

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