With the NFL and the NBA currently in a lockout mode with no end in sight for either league, this offseason is the perfect time for the NHL and the NHLPA to get together and perhaps begin very preliminary talks to extend or come up with a new CBA for the 2012-13 season. While the different leagues have different reasons for their respective lockouts I'm not sure that the NHL could afford to lose ANOTHER hockey season without taking another fatal hit among the casual sports fan. Could you imagine the sports scene in North America after the World Series ends in late October being dominated by hockey only?
There's been a lot of talks revolving around current contracts specifically in terms of front loaded contracts similar to the one Brad Richards just signed with the Rangers a few days ago. What really started this talk was the proposed 17 year, 102 mil dollar contract the Devils presented to Kovalchuk before last season that really raised eyebrows over the way contracts are currently presented to high priced free agents such as Brad Richards and Ilya Kovalchuk. If you remember Kovy's contract was disapproved by the league for two reasons. First thing was years, his contract had him playing until he was 44 years old. He's not Gordie Howe. It's un-realistic to think he'll be playing until that age. Secondly was how the money was divvied up year to year. Here is the year by year breakdown of Kovalchuk's illegal contract courtesy of deadspin.com:
2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11.5 million
2013-14: $11.5 million
2014-15: $11.5 million
2015-16: $11.5 million
2016-17: $11.5 million
2017-18: $10.5 million
2018-19: $8.5 million
2019-20: $6.5 million
2020-21: $3.5 Million
2021-22: $750,000
2022-23: $550,000
2023-24: $550,000
2024-25: $550,000
2025-26: $550,000
2026-27: $550,000
The NHL had a big problem with the last 6 years of the contract, namely because he was making under a million per. From what I believe (I read the contract portion of the CBA on Monday night, its extremely confusing) it states that a player cannot have his contract deteriorate in base salary by more than 50% from the first or second year (whichever is lower) to the remaining years of the contract. Example: Brad Richards makes 12 million this year with a 10 million dollar signing bonus. Base salary of 2 million dollars. Since in Year 2 of his contract has him making another 12 million with a 8 million dollar signing bonus which equates to 4 million in base salary. With BR making 1 million the final three years of the contract his base salary does not lose more than 50% in value over the life of the contract.
(All figures in above paragraph once again provided by capgeek.com)
All in all the NHL will be put at a crossroads soon. With teams trying to acquire big name free agents with low cap hits, teams will begin to struggle to reach the $48.3 mil cap floor year in and year out, players will begin to receive money that they will never live up to from teams that would never pay them big money but are required to so they can be cap compliant. 16 of 30 teams including the Rangers were below the cap floor at some point. It's only going to be a matter of time before the owners no longer want to pay these contracts and we could be faced with a similar situation that wiped out the 2004-05 season.
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