| Well,
after taking a month off of writing anything related to sports,
Cheap Seats returns! And I wonder what the topic of conversation
will be this month? I just don’t know what to write
about... Oh yeah, wait--did the NHL just figure out their
Collective Bargaining Agreement issues?
Well, hot damn! Welcome back, life! Last week the NHL and
NHLPA agreed to a new CBA, which means that come October,
my life goes back to normal and I return to the ice that I
once was married on.
So what happened? Well, the owners sort of won, I guess. Why?
There will be a salary cap instituted based off on revenues
(no more than 54%). The upper limit for the upcoming season
will be $39 million and the basement sees $21.5 million. Now,
that doesn’t mean that all teams will jump up in salaries,
but it doesn’t mean that teams like Detroit, Toronto,
and Dallas will need to get rid of a lot of players, those
who are making way too much money for the new NHL. This will
even be after all players take a 24% rollback on their current
salary. Ouch! If a team hits the $39 million cap, the most
they can offer one player is 20%, or $7.8million at the moment.
Assuming that the league kicks it into gear and revues climb,
the caps will fluctuate with it. But a post-lockout fallout
will drop the cap numbers much lower. Interesting times ahead.
More money issues include free agency age limits dropping,
revenue sharing where the bottom 15 teams get monies from
the top 10, and an entry-level limit of $850,000 a year. So
Sidney Crosby, there is your salary for now. Finally, the
league’s minimum salary will be upped to $450,000.
A fun time for the league should begin around August 1st,
when free agency begins. Teams will be allowed to buy players
out of their current contract at 2/3 the price. This will
get teams below the cap number as well as chances to get rid
of bad contracts. Players will not be allowed to re-sign with
a team that bought them out, and GMs will not be able re-structure
existing contracts.
Schedule wise, teams will play un-balanced, meaning that they
will play teams in a specific division in the opposite conference
twice. This is supposed to generate rivalries, although I
think it is idiotic. Why shouldn’t all teams play all
teams? They always have--it’s not like baseball where
they trashed tradition with interleague play. So this means
that the Blue Jackets will host the likes of Boston, Toronto,
Ottawa, Montreal and Buffalo. They will travel to play Washington,
Florida, Carolina, Atlanta, and the defending champs Tampa
Bay.
Would you rather watch the All-Star game or the Olympics?
Well the NHL thinks that the Olympics are more important,
canceling the 2006 and 2010 All-Star games so that NHL players
can participate in the Olympics. Blah I say--I love watching
All-Star games, especially hockey. I’m not saying that
I won’t watch the Olympics, I will root USA-USA, but
the Olympics shouldn’t be for professional athletes--that’s
another story for another column.. I’m just glad Columbus
hadn’t officially been given an All-Star weekend yet.
Also, some big rule changes will happen that are supposed
to speed up the game and add more scoring. We’ll see,
but I like where it is headed. The big change is that there
are no more ties. If a game ends tied after overtime, the
teams skate to a shootout until someone wins. Now that will
be fun! Goalies will have to slim down the size of their equipment
and be restricted to a trapezoid area around the goal, limiting
the goalies from leaving their area and playing the puck.
This is a great change.
Finally, the biggest thing--the biggest draft lottery in recent
history. The winner gets Sidney Crosby, a prized prospect
who is projected to be as great as The Great One, Wayne Gretzky.
Well, hopefully he won’t, since he is going to Pittsburgh
and not the beloved Blue Jackets. The weighted draft lottery
came down to Anaheim and Pittsburgh, and the cash-strapped
Pens won it. Now, how long will Sid stay? I have the
feeling he will bolt out of Pittsburgh after his seven-year
term and hit the free agent market running. Toronto, Montreal
and the Rangers should start reworking their projected budgets
now!
Welcome back NHL. I dig the new logo. I like most of the rule
changes. I am eagerly anticipating October 5th when the season
opens. Sure I was pissed off for the last 300-plus days, but
now that things are resolved, I am ready to bounce right back
into the fray. God love hockey. |
