NHL Hockey: Salary Cap Could Rise to $80 million in next four years

After reading this, here, here, and here, I must wonder, what the hell did we have a lockout for? We lost 34 games last season to hear that eventually that the cap will be right back up to 80 million dollars. I don’t think that anyone doubt the source either, Elliotte Freidman is dialed in.

TheScore.com—The NHL's salary cap could go up to $80 million within the next four years, according to Elliotte Friedman of CBC Sports.

Speaking on Sportsnet 590 The Fan's "Prime Time Sports", Friedman said some within the sport expect the cap to rise to that level prior to the 2017-18 NHL season.

The salary cap currently sits at $64.3 million heading into the 2013-14 season, a factor that has caused the NHL free agent market to slow down since the initial rush back in July.

Does this make anyone else upset? I am not real happy after reading this, the beginning of last winter was miserable without the NHL. If the salary cap rises to 80 million over the next four years it will also allow teams to balloon their payrolls again. This basically means that the NHL is going to be right back where they were before the Lockout.

Wild to buyout Tom Gilbert

English: Tom Gilbert in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to Michael Russo, the Minnesota Wild might have found their first candidate for one of the two compliance buyouts. I think it would be a great move. Gilbert was absolutely brutal last season on the blue line for the Minnesota Wild.

Michael Russo, Russo's Rants -- The Wild plans to place Tom Gilbert on unconditional waivers, sources say. That is the first necessary step to buy out the remaining one year of the veteran defenseman’s contract.

When Gilbert clears, the Wild plans to use one of its two allowable compliance buyouts on the 30-year-old native of Bloomington.

What's unclear, and we'll know soon, is whether Gilbert will go on unconditional waivers today or tomorrow. A correction to yesterday's blog: Teams have until tomorrow to put somebody on unconditional waivers for the purpose of using a compliance buyout by tomorrow's 4 p.m. CT deadline.

Gilbert will receive $1 million in each of the next two seasons (two-thirds of his $3 million salary), but it will free up an additional $4 million of salary cap space this summer for the Wild.

The move is designed to give Minnesota more flexibility this offseason. One can assume the Wild will need to add a defenseman or two this offseason. Gilbert would be free to sign with any team once free agency opens at 11 a.m. CT Friday.

Here was my grade season ending grade for Tom Gilbert that I submitted for the Hockey Wilderness. Incidentally, I look like I will be getting my wish as Justin Falk was traded this week to the New York Rangers.

Tom Gilbert: D

The former Wisconsin Badger Tom Gilbert is an utter disappointment in my opinion, that Wild are being cheated, he’s not worth the money he’s being paid. Gilbert is being paid a hefty four million a year to be a turnover factory and an unimpressive top-six defenseman. If I was a general manager for a day, he would be the first Wild player out of Minnesota; Justin Falk would be number two. The Wild should consider his four million dollar contract for an Amnesty buyout this summer as well. If they Wild could trade him for a bag of wood hockey sticks I would urge them to consider the deal. One positive is that he can’t play any worse than he did this season. Nowhere to go but up for Gilbert, I don’t think he can play any worse. Looking at the stats, in the plus/minus department, -11 is brutal.

Related articles

• Tom Gilbert: Wild Trade Bait? (hockeywilderness.com)
• Minnesota Wild Final Season Grades: Right D (Staff Writers Grades) (hockeywilderness.com)

NHL proposal to save 82-game season

Original NHL logo, used until 2005. A version of the logo features it in the shape of a hockey puck. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NHL PROPOSAL TO SAVE 82-GAME SEASON

1. Term:

• Six-year Agreement with mutual option for a seventh year.

2. HRR Accounting:

• Current HRR Accounting subject to mutual clarification of existing interpretations and settlements.

3. Applicable Players' Share:

• For each of the six (6) years of the CBA (and any additional one-year option) the Players' Share shall be Fifty (50) percent of Actual HRR.

4. Payroll Range:

• Payroll Range will be computed using existing methodology. For the 2012/13 season, the Payroll Range will be computed assuming HRR will remain flat year-over-year (2011/12 to 2012/13) at $3.303 Billion (assuming Preliminary Benefits of $95 Million).

• 2012/13 Payroll Range
Lower Limit = $43.9 Million
Midpoint = $51.9 Million
Upper Limit = $59.9 Million

• Appropriate "Transition Rules" to allow Clubs to exceed Upper Limit for the 2012/13 season only (but in no event will Club's Averaged Club Salary be permitted to exceed the pre-CBA Upper Limit of $70.2 Million).

5. Cap Accounting:

• Payroll Lower Limit must be satisfied without performance bonuses.

• All years of existing SPCs with terms in excess of five (5) years will be accounted for and charged against a team's Cap (at full AAV) regardless of whether or where the Player is playing. In the event any such contract is traded during its term, the related Cap charge will travel with the Player, but only for the year(s) in which the Player remains active and is being paid under his NHL SPC. If, at some subsequent point in time the Player retires or ceases to play and/or receive pay under his NHL SPC, the Cap charge will automatically revert (at full AAV) to the Club that initially entered into the contract for the balance of its term.

• Money paid to Players on NHL SPCs (one-ways and two-ways) in another professional league will not be counted against the Players' Share, but all dollars paid in excess of $105,000 will be counted against the NHL Club's Averaged Club Salary for the period during which such Player is being paid under his SPC while playing in another professional league.

• In the context of Player Trades, participating Clubs will be permitted to allocate Cap charges and related salary payment obligations between them, subject to specified parameters. Specifically, Clubs may agree to retain, for each of the remaining years of the Player's SPC, no more than the lesser of: (i) $3 million of a particular SPC's Cap charge or (ii) 50 percent of the SPC's AAV ("Retained Salary Transaction"). In any Retained Salary Transaction, salary obligations as between Clubs would be allocated on the same percentage basis as Cap charges are being allocated. So, for instance, if an assigning Club agrees to retain 30% of an SPC's Cap charge over the balance of its term, it will also retain an obligation to reimburse the acquiring Club 30% of the Player's contractual compensation in each of the remaining years of the contract. A Club may not have more than two (2) contracts as to which Cap charges have been allocated between Clubs in a Player Trade, and no more than $5 million in allocated Cap charges in the aggregate in any one season.

6. System Changes:

• Entry Level System commitment will be limited to two (2) years (covering two full seasons) for all Players who sign their first SPC between the ages of 18 and 24 (i.e., where the first year of the SPC only covers a partial season, SPC must be for three (3) years).

• Maintenance of existing Salary Arbitration System subject to: (i) total mutuality of rights with regard to election as between Player and Club, and (ii) eligibility for election moved to five years of professional experience (from the current four years).

• Group 3 UFA eligibility for Players who are 28 or who have eight (8) Accrued Seasons (continues to allow for early UFA eligibility -- age 26).

• Maximum contract length of five (5) years.

• Limit on year-to-year salary variability on multi-year SPCs -- i.e., maximum increase or decrease in total compensation (salary and bonuses) year-over-year limited to 5% of the value of the first year of the contract. (For example, if a Player earns $10 million in total compensation in Year 1 of his SPC, his compensation (salary and bonuses) cannot increase or decrease by more than $500,000 in any subsequent year of his SPC.)

• Re-Entry waivers will be eliminated, consistent with the Cap Accounting proposal relating to the treatment of Players on NHL SPCs playing in another professional league.

• NHL Clubs who draft European Players obtain four (4) years of exclusive negotiating rights following selection in the Draft. If the four-year period expires, Player will be eligible to enter the League as a Free Agent and will not be subject to re-entering the Draft.

7. Revenue Sharing:

• NHL commits to Revenue Sharing Pool of $200 million for 2012/13 season (based on assumption of $3.303 Billion in actual HRR). Amount will be adjusted upward or downward in proportion to Actual HRR results for 2012/13. Revenue Sharing Pools in future years will be calculated proportionately.

• At least one-half of the total Revenue Sharing Pool (50%) will be raised from the Top 10 Revenue Grossing Clubs in a manner to be determined by the NHL.

• The distribution of the Revenue Sharing Pool will be determined on an annual basis by a Revenue Sharing Committee on which the NHLPA will have representation and input.

• For each of the first two years of the CBA, no Club will receive less in total Revenue Sharing than it received in 2011/12.

• Current "Disqualification" criteria in CBA (for Clubs in Top Half of League revenues and Clubs in large media markets) will be removed.

• Existing performance and "reduction" standards and provisions relating to "non-performers" (i.e., CBA 49.3(d)(i) and 49.3(d)(ii)) will be eliminated and will be adjusted as per the NHL's 7/31 Proposal.

8. Supplemental and Commissioner Discipline:

• Introduction of additional procedural safeguards, including ultimate appeal right to a "neutral" third-party arbitrator with a "clearly erroneous" standard of review.

9. No "Rollback":

• The NHL is not proposing that current SPCs be reduced, re-written or rolled back. Instead, the NHL's proposal retains all current Players' SPCs at their current face value for the duration of their terms, subject to the operation of the escrow mechanism in the same manner as it worked under the expired CBA.

10. Players' Share "Make Whole" Provision:

• The League proposes to make Players "whole" for the absolute reduction in Players' Share dollars (when compared to 2011/12) that is attributable to the economic terms of the new CBA (the "Share Reduction"). Using an assumed year-over-year growth rate of 5% for League-wide revenues, the new CBA could result in shortfalls from the current level of Players' Share dollars ($1.883 Billion in 2011/12) of up to $149 million in Year 1 and up to $62 million in Year 2, for which Players will be "made whole." (By Year 3 of the new CBA, Players' Share dollars should exceed the current level ($1.883 Billion for 2011/12) and no "make whole" will be required.) Any such "shortfalls" in Years 1 and 2 of the new CBA will be computed as a percentage reduction off of the Player's stated contractual compensation, and will be repaid to the Player as a Deferred Compensation benefit spread over the remaining future years of the Player's SPC (or if he has no remaining years, in the year following the expiration of his SPC). Player reimbursement for the Share Reduction will be accrued and paid for by the League, and will be chargeable against Players' Share amounts in future years as Preliminary Benefits. The objective would be to honor all existing SPCs by restoring their "value" on the basis of the now existing level of Players' Share dollars.

No NHL Hockey this season?

Could the NHL once again stand for the No Hockey League? It appears that that might be the case.

Apparently, Joe Yerdon of Pro Hockey Talk is saying that a source close to the situation, said that a lost season could very well be a possibility.

That is definitely a dooms day scenario - me personally - I am going to remain hopeful, because it's very early in the negotiation process and the CBA doesn't even expire until the 15th of September.

Like Redwing77 said, it's early in the negotiations and no need to panic just yet. Hopefully this is just someone throwing this out there with the hopes that something sticks.

In fact, one source with knowledge of the players’ side of the negotiation is predicting not just a work stoppage, but an entire lost season.

“Last time around, the NHL made its salary cap proposal and barely moved off it,” the source, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told PHT. “This is not an initial proposal. The league is shutting down and it’s ‘come back when you’re ready to accept.’

“This is exactly what happened last time. You heard it here first, we will not play next year.”

After reading this post - I remain skeptical because I have yet to see anyone else pick up on this story, yet. Don't get me wrong, while I think it's very possible that there could be a season long work stoppage - I also can't believe that someone would utter this so early in the game - again Donald Fehr is yet to make a counter proposal. Let's see where the players what the players come up with.

Also, a labor stoppage for a whole season would be devastating to the NHL.

I watch Hockey 24/7 and I can’t fathom another work stoppage in the NHL that would take out the whole season. The 2004-05 season was a miserable time in my life and the lockout left a hole in many NHL fans hearts.

If the owners killed a whole season - it will be because of their own greed. Sure some teams might not come back after the work stoppage. But after a season where they made a record 3.3 billion dollars I have a hard time feeling sorry for them, especially after the latest free agent signing.