FanHouse NHLPA

Last night between games on HNIC, NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly was interviewed by Ron MacLean (link to HD video of the entire interview). The first thing they discussed was the rumor that escrow payments made by the players would be rising from 13% of their pay to 17-20%. Kelly wouldn't say exactly how much the payment would rise, but he did answer in the affirmative that the 17-20% range was accurate.

It is the escrow system that allows for the NHL to have both guaranteed contracts and a Salary Cap tied to a percentage of revenues. What this rise in escrow means is that the players contracts in total will likely be much more than the 56.5% of league revenues for the year. It was already pretty much taken for granted from the beginning of the season that the 13% that was being taken out of their checks and held in escrow would be returned to the owners at year's end.

For those who follow the goings on in the financial markets closely, the recent rally in the US Dollar in terms of the trade-weighted index was quite an event, considering the extreme weakness of world's reserve currency over the past 7 years. The blast upwards to 76 on the index has some people proclaiming (and I'm not one of them, mind you) that the Bear Market in the dollar is over:

"This is the watershed week for the US dollar," said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. "The magnitude of the dollar's moves and the breaking of key technical levels suggest that a major shift in the outlook towards the dollar is occurring as massive positions are adjusted." Other analysts described the widespread buying of dollars as "capitulation"

One might be wondering what this has to do with the NHL, and, as the title of this post suggests, the salary cap? Allow me to build my case slowly if you would. Considering that according to this article in the Toronto Star I found at this post by my old blogging buddy the EclectEcon over at the Sportseconomist.com, the driving force behind the >10% rise in the salary cap for each of the past two seasons was the strengthening Canadian Dollar:

The increase in the value of the Canadian dollar may be responsible for as much as half of the league's revenue gains since the NHL went through the lockout of 2004-05, say several sources familiar with NHL finances.

"If you take out the Canadian teams, which have done so well since the lockout largely because of the Canadian dollar, the league's revenues are actually only growing at a 2 per cent clip per year," says an executive with a U.S.-based NHL team, who requested anonymity.

With the Loonie averaging near parity with the $USD over the past year and having broken down out of the box formation that held it in check between $1.02 and $0.97US for the past 9 months to its closing price as of this writing to $0.938, there is a real possibility of a contraction in league revenues due to this breakdown of the exchange rate.

Few ever associate Canadian cities and low class "projects" in the same breath, but Canada, like any other country, has its share of communities where people barely scrape by on welfare and minimum wage jobs.

Regent Park, an area of Toronto, is the picture of a typical "American" inner city: Drug dealers, prostitutes, public housing, and rampant crime. Not the type of place you expect NHL players, who generally come from Middle Class background, to have grown up in.

Glen Metropolit was one such person, having endured a rough childhood as an oft moved around foster child.

Knowing what a challenge living in such conditions can be, Metropolit, together with the NHLPA, decided to bring some sunshine to the lives of the kids in Regent Park with a large donation of $45,000 worth of hockey equipment.

"It's rewarding to help children in my home town participate in the sport of hockey," said newly signed Philadelphia Flyers' centre Glen Metropolit, who attended the event this morning on behalf of NHLPA Goals & Dreams. "Players are proud of their Goals & Dreams fund and pleased to be making a difference in the lives of young children here in Toronto and around the world."

I know the story is a bit sappy, but I live to post about stuff like this. All too often, us hockey fans vilify the NHLPA and its members for being greedy shills. This story isn't unique by any means, but it's the type of thing that gets very little press compared to some player's contract holdout.

It's been in the works for a while now, but yesterday the parties made it official by agreeing to a one-year $1.1 million contract to bring more-than-veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen back to the Blue and Gold for 2008-09. It seems the stumbling block was the outstanding grievance that Numminen filed with the NHLPA over his suspended salary from the time he began practicing with the team in November of last year:

As part of the deal, the Sabres reached an undisclosed monetary settlement with Numminen to resolve a grievance the player filed against the team in November. The grievance was over the Sabres suspending him without pay in September after doctors ruled he required surgery following a routine checkup at the Cleveland Clinic.

Numminen claimed the Sabres owed him a portion of his $2.6 million salary once he was allowed to practice with the team on a non-contact basis in November. The Sabres didn't activate Numminen until the final week of the season, and he played 16 minutes in Buffalo's regular-season finale against the Boston Bruins.

The grievance didn't deter Numminen from expressing hope that he would return to Buffalo for a fourth season, something he told management in April.

I'm glad that things have worked been worked out like adults in the end, as I suspected all along they would be. The 'cheap' and 'amateurish' Sabres could have taken the grievance all the way to arbitration in order to prove a point or further do Bettman's dirty work in undermining the relevance of the NHLPA, but instead they must have felt that Teppo's presence in the locker room was worth working out a deal now so that he could get properly prepared for training camp, which is just a few weeks away.

The Sabres now have 7 defensemen on the roster and only Andrej Sekera is capable of being sent down without clearing waivers. 8 if one includes Mike Weber. Sekera's the odds-on favorite to make the team out of camp, but with Teppo on board I expect a fierce battle for that spot. It's not in anybodies interest to keep both Weber and Sekera with Paetsch and Numminen on board. The kids need minutes on the ice to learn and they'll get a ton in Portland as the #1/#2 guy, as opposed to the #8 guy in Buffalo.

Ta,

Despite the league's so-called clampdown on the size of goaltending equipment, NHL goalies continue to grow at a size that makes Kirstie Alley look as svelte as Jessica Alba.

Oh, but now the GM's are serious about this growing problem. Brrrr, I'm sure Martin Brodeur is SO scared!

Marc Spector of The National Post reports on how The Powers That Be are talking big about making goalies smaller.

We are serious," Holland said. "If we can't get this right, then we have to sit down and look at the alternatives. And obviously bigger nets is one of the alternatives. That's something I don't really think anybody wants to do. Our hope is to get the goalie equipment right."

The league has put Kay Whitmore in charge of regulating goalie equipment. Thus far, his impact in the NHL office has been as insignificant as was his career as an NHL goalie. So now the league will bypass Whitmore in hopes of engaging the union - in particular, all NHL forwards and defenceman - in the fight.

Bigger nets? Ugh ... that seems to be the worst solution possible. Still, it might be the only thing to do if goaltender equipment continues to grow in size.

One thing is for sure: It's high time for the union to stop crying about 'protection' when they have no real case for it.

Sorry, No Photos

Does anyone feel that the NHL season is too short? Do you not get enough hockey after 82 regular season games and four rounds of playoffs to satiate your addiction?

The answer is YES, if you are NHLPA head honcho Paul Kelly. In his mind, it's really quite simple: one more home game per team equals more revenue which equals more money for his players.

The Board of Governors is rumored to be heavily leaning towards adopting this measure, since it would also mean more money for the owners to pocket. Lovely.

Kelly initiated the 84-game talk for a variety of reasons. One extra home game per team - which is the net result of going to 84 games -- would obviously positively impact Hockey Related Revenue and since the players share in that, the NHLPA is all in favor of increased revenue. Who isn't?

But Kelly's desire for two extra regular season games would come at the expense of two to four pre-season games and that, really, is the key.

Now, I, along with many others, would have no problem with reducing the exhibition schedule. All too often, exhibition games involve prospects who have no real shot at the NHL this season, or any other season. Exhibition games don't mean much, and aren't providing us a lot of entertainment. You'd figure players already train so well in the off-season that many exhibition games aren't needed to them to get into game shape.

Unfortunately, The Powers That Be don't seem to realize that the fans get 'hockey fatigue' far too often, as the playoffs end later and later each season. Unless your team is involved in those late playoff rounds, or you are a serious hockey fan, it is very hard to maintain interest in hockey games that are played in June. Hell, I'm a die-hard hockey fan, and my mind begins to wander and my interest begins to wane after the second round is completed.

If the NHLPA and NHL were smart, they'd reduce the exhibition schedule by two games, and then keep the 82-game schedule as it is. One home game per year is not going to provide a monster boost to salaries, and will hinder the opportunity to shorten the season to a more reasonable level.

I was never all that enamored with previous NHL bosses Bob Goodenow and Ted Saskin. Oh, Goodenow was exceptional about making his players rich, and Saskin did help end the lockout, but these men did little to help grow the game. Goodenow was purely obsession with how much coin his charges made, and Saskin was, as we know, hella corrupt and prone to forgetting who his bosses were (the players)

So, the more I read and see of new NHLPA boss Paul Kelly, the more impressed I am that he seems to 'get' the fact that there are many other issues to be dealt with other than how much the players make.

In a two-part interview with The Hockey News, Kelly spills the beans on a variety of topics, including the subject of mandatory visors.

That's a big issue we talk about all the time. I tell the players that, when it comes to visors, there are basically three ways to go: you can make them mandatory, starting tomorrow; you can grandfather them in, so that everyone new to the league has to start wearing them; or you can go with players' choice.

Right after I tell them what the obvious options are, I tell them, 'Look guys, a single eye injury can cost you your career. It is really essential to protect your eyes, and on behalf of the players' association, I strongly recommend guys put visors on.'

One major bone of contention I had with previous NHLPA leadership was how little they cared about player safety. Goodenow didn't seem to care about seamless glass or no-touch icing or visors as health issues that needed to be dealt with. At least Kelly realizes that a safe player is one that will likely have a longer and more prosperous career. Can you think of any non-sports union that cares little about the safety of its members? I sure can't.

Going forward, I have hope that the new NHLPA leadership will continue to address many other topics, such as marketing, that previous NHLPA leadership didn't seem to care about. If the NHLPA takes a more active role in promoting the game, one would have to figure that would mean more revenues, higher salaries, and happier players.

The NHL's current Collective Bargaining Agreement created incentive for U.S. college players drafted by professional franchises to join their development systems as soon as possible. The general salary cap immediately emphasized younger and cheaper over old and bloated, causing affiliates in minor leagues like the AHL to reach out to a slew of prospects whose roster spots may have previously gone to journeymen. As College Hockey News pointed out, a reduced rookie salary maximum actually encouraged teams to aggressively court college players without as much financial risk as in the past.

For college players, that financial incentive has caused waves of prospects to leave school early; as a result, some of the most storied programs in collegiate hockey have taken a hit as star underclassmen bolt for the minor leagues. It's all part of a time-honored hockey life-cycle: "The NHL robs from the college and the college robs from the juniors and the juniors robs from the high school," Minnesota coach Don Lucia told the Wisconsin State Journal.

It's one thing to say that the NHL has made it sexier for blue-chip draftees to bolt college for the tough road from bush league hockey to the big show. It's another to say that the CBA actually "discourages graduation," which is what South Bend Tribune writer Steve Wozniak spells out in an article this week about University of Notre Dame ice hockey:

Let's face it, ESPN has a near-monopoly on the American sports-watching public. While Fox Sports Net and other channels do a good job on a regional level, the kind of national, mainstream exposure that ESPN generates just can't be matched by any other party.

Small wonder, then, that new NHLPA boss Paul Kelly wants the league to do everything in its power, including begging, pleading, and butt-kissing, to get the NHL back on ESPN. (Reg. required)

We need something in addition to Versus. They do an excellent job of the telecasts that they produce, but, and I hear the numbers that they're now available in 73 million homes, the reality is most people -- the casual sports fan -- don't know they exist, can't find it on the dial. They don't promote, they don't advertise, they don't bring to the table what an ESPN or a Fox Sports on a national level could bring."

Kelly is right about Versus in that they give the NHL exceptional coverage and attention, but just don't draw enough eyeballs or have enough viewership to saturate the market.

While we know that ESPN treats hockey like a leper, especially in the post-lockout years, we must realize that the NHL needs ESPN if it is ever going to generate a greater number of casual viewers. Even if ESPN's slant on hockey is the usual 'entertainment-first' dreck we've come to expect from "The Worldwide Leader", it's still better than not being noticed at all.

Here's hoping Kelly can work together with Bettman and the league to bring NHL hockey broadcasts back to ESPN. Even if both men disagree on many things, they can both agree that hockey on ESPN = more money, which is exactly what both men want, above all else.

Corporations and other interests groups going 'Green' is the big trend these days after Al Gore's movie opened up many eyes to what's going on in the world. Of course, most 'greenwashing' is simply marketing hype designed to fool consumers into believing they are being helpful to the environment when they are purchasing their processed cheese that's wrapped in six layers of plastic.

The latest group to jump on the GREEN bandwagon is the NHL Players Association, who have teamed up with world-renowned environmentalist David Suzuki to go 'Carbon Neutral'.

"The ability to partner with the legendary scientist and environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki, who happens to be from the beautiful city of Vancouver, is a great honour," said Canucks' captain and 2003 Lester B. Pearson Award winner Markus Naslund. "I'm proud to be part of the NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge and I'm encouraged by the number of players that are involved."

Now, carbon credits have always seemed like a bit of a scam to me. Basically, you are paying for the right to pollute the environment while relieving yourself of the guilt for doing so. This won't stop the teams from flying everywhere in gas-guzzling jets, will it?

On the other hand, let's be positive about this. It's great to see the NHLPA acknowledge their carbon footprint, and it's a great first step in trying to do a bit of something for the environment. We know the NHLPA and the NHL won't stop booking planes to transport the players, but at least the parties are willing to help invest in a supposed brighter future.