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Bettman Clarifies NHL Position On Olympics

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to media today following a Board of Governor’s meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. The Commissioner touched on Olympic participation, escrow payments, and the salary cap, but emphasized that no vote on Olympic participation was taken.

Concerning NHL participation at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Bettman stated that the sentiment was increasing negative. Ever the lawyer, Bettman does not indicate whether the increasingly negative feelings towards participating represents a majority of owners, or only a (growing) minority. Olympic participation is a complex issue for NHL owners as they have to weigh increasing exposure to the sport at the expense of potentially losing one of their star players for the year.

Bettman also indicated that it is “ambiguous” whether skipping 2018 forecloses NHL participation in 2022. The 2022 Winter Games are in China, and the NHL would love to gain a foothold in the Chinese sports market. Participation in 2022 may tip the scales and give NHL owners a reason to send players to the 2018 Olympics if owners are sufficiently worried that they would not otherwise be able to do so.

Turning to the CBA and the salary cap, Bettman clarified that the NHL did not offer to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in exchange for the NHLPA to agree to a three-year CBA extension. Rather, CBA extension talk was tethered to a larger conversation about international play and included a potential 2020 World Cup. Bettman did address the NHLPA’s concern over high escrow payments, stating simply that lowering the cap would lower escrow payments. Relatedly, he also announced that while there is no official decision on any salary cap movement, he expects that it may rise by “a couple of million.“

NHLPA Rejects League’s “CBA Extension-For-Olympics” Offer

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As has been widely assumed, the NHL’s offer to the players to allow continued Olympic participation in exchange for an extension on the current collective bargaining agreement has been shut down by the players’ association. The NHLPA officially informed the league today that they are not considering a deal to continue the CBA just because the NHL is holding Olympic participation hostage. While the breakdown of these negotiations does not signal the definite end of the NHL at the Olympics nor an upcoming lockout, it would have been a win-win for hockey fans by eliminating the possibility of either.

The problem with this offer is that the players have issues with the current CBA, namely the uncapped status of escrow costing them money, and also know that they have the free will to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea if they so choose. Superstars like Alexander Ovechkin have said as much, stating that they will play next winter whether the league officially participates or not. Similarly, many, like Brad Marchand, have said that it is their belief that the league has a duty to grow the game of hockey with continued Olympic participation, especially with the next two Games in Asia.

With the players taking a hard stance on playing in the Olympics, the owners felt they could extend a favorable CBA by offering up participation in exchange. It might have worked, but the owners made a mistake: it wasn’t their first demand. The league initially stated that it was concerned about costs, but would approve of the current relationship between the league and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) funded the players’ participation. When IIHF president Rene Fasel said that the Federation would indeed cover costs, that was expected to be the end of the conversation. Instead, the owner kept pushing for more, this time trying to squeeze the players. It didn’t work. The NHLPA saw right through a transparent attempt at coercion.

Don’t fret though hockey fans. The IOC has given the league until January to make a decision on their participation, and with the pressure of high profile players and a failure to gain any more with hostage tactics, the NHL will likely give in and commit to the 2018 Games. With Beijing, China and potentially Calgary or Salt Lake City after that as the two Winter Olympics following Pyeongchang, continued NHL participation seems likely, but skipping South Korea continues to be an option for the NHL. However, if many players plan to go regardless in 2018, the league may as well stay the course as Olympic participants. The other optimistic view of all of this is that, unlike 2004 and 2012, at least one side of the collective bargaining table is content with the current deal. Another lockout seems unlikely, as the owners are happy with the way things are and the players simply want a hard cap on escrow. Finding a balance in revenue distribution is never an easy task, but that is all that’s holding the NHL and NHLPA back from their easiest labor negotiation of the 21st century.

 

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.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Olympics, KHL

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The NHL has named Tuukka Rask, Mark Scheifele, and Pekka Rinne as the three stars of the week.

Rask went 4-0-0 with a 0.970 SV% and a 0.75 GAA. He had two shutouts, and has now won 10 of his first 11 games, making him the second Bruins goalie in their 92-year history to do so. Bruins legend Gerry Cheevers is the only other Bruins goalie to do so. Boston is proving to be rather dependent on Rask; they’re 0-5 without him and 10-1 with him.

Scheifele scored 3 goals and 6 points in 4 games, pushing him into a first place tie for the NHL scoring lead. The Jets earned 7 out of a possible 8 points during the week, bumping them to second in the Central Division.

Rinne went 3-0-0 during the week, with a sparkling 0.976 SV% and a 0.67 GAA to go alongside one shutout. Rinne has five wins so far this season, as Nashville makes their way back into playoff contention after a tough start.

  • It’s not looking great for NHL fans hoping to see their favorite players in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Commissioner Gary Bettman has admitted that he has explored the idea of the NHL skipping 2018 in Pyeongchang but returning in 2022 in Beijing. The NHL has participated in every Winter Olympics since Nagano 1998. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly noted the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to pay the NHL for what they have in the past has not changed. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston points out that the NHL and NHLPA have “stated unequivocally that they’re unwilling to start paying the estimated $10-million while also interrupting the season.” That money is for player travel and insurance.
  • Meanwhile, the KHL is considering trimming the number of franchises in their league. League president Dmitry Chernyshenko told R-Sport that they’re planning to talk about “an optimization of the number of clubs taking part.” Chernyshenko suggesting it’s possible that “the league could contract.” The KHL just expanded to China for this season, but Kunlun Red Star has struggled to attract fans. As well, the floundering price of oil has hurt the league’s funding in Russia.

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