It's just frustrating that the already tarnished Stanley Cup could feature another "SEASON NOT PLAYED". It's disgraceful. It's embarrassing. It's a blemish on the world's most beautiful trophy.

It's so (frank)ing frustrating.
- Domthebomb90

(frank)ing a Right brother! I took the "season not played" on the cup in 2005 as a crisis year. A "we fixed this so we never have to fix this again" type of thing. How can we keep having blanks on the Stanley Cup? It is so wrong.

No doubt that it can lead to more parity around the League. And the richer teams might lose some of that advantage.
- MJL

Which would mean teams would have to have more homegrown talent and less building through free agency. Not a bad thing

(frank)ing a Right brother! I took the "season not played" on the cup in 2005 as a crisis year. A "we fixed this so we never have to fix this again" type of thing. How can we keep having blanks on the Stanley Cup? It is so wrong.
- Buffalo--Sabres

I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame a few years ago during a trip in Canada and the trophy room was such a cool place to be in. Running my fingers through all the names on the cup was an awesome feeling. When I got to '04-'05 the smile disappeared instantly. I would have rather they just not included the year at all. Just skip forward from '03-'04 with '05-'06 right next to it.

I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame a few years ago during a trip in Canada and the trophy room was such a cool place to be in. Running my fingers through all the names on the cup was an awesome feeling. When I got to '04-'05 the smile disappeared instantly. I would have rather they just not included the year at all. Just skip forward from '03-'04 with '05-'06 right next to it.
- Domthebomb90

With practice they will get much better at dealing with these soon to be regular lockouts.

No matter who blinks on the last few %, we will be back over and over until they fix the salary floor.

we will be back over and over until they fix the salary floor.
- Canada Cup

Glad SOMEBODY gets it

The cap floor what is hurting teams. being forced to spend 50million regardless of the names on the backs of the jerseys

The cap needs to be delinked from revenues. take the 2010-11 numbers, and set those as the limits for the next 5 years. regardless of revenues.

having the players salaries linked to ever-increasing revenues is killing more teams than it is helping

Id love to know how "winter classic cancelled" equals "progress"

With practice they will get much better at dealing with these soon to be regular lockouts.

No matter who blinks on the last few %, we will be back over and over until they fix the salary floor.
- Canada Cup

The league would love to lower the cap floor. Ask Don Fehr what he would think about it.

Getting that floor down is what this is all about.unfortunately to do that they would need to either decrease players %, or lower the HRR.

Considering option 2 is a non starter, that is why they have dug in thier heels at option 1.

Glad SOMEBODY gets it

The cap floor what is hurting teams. being forced to spend 50million regardless of the names on the backs of the jerseys

The cap needs to be delinked from revenues. take the 2010-11 numbers, and set those as the limits for the next 5 years. regardless of revenues.

having the players salaries linked to ever-increasing revenues is killing more teams than it is helping
- conor_smythe

Again this is correct. Try to get the PA to agree to it though.

Again this is correct. Try to get the PA to agree to it though.
- steveb12344

Actually, the NHLPA was willing to hard a hard cap not linked to revenues in the previous CBA, but the NHL insisted it be linked to revenues.

That being said, I don't see the NHLPA wanting to have a de-linked cap at this point, not in their interest.

Again this is correct. Try to get the PA to agree to it though.
- steveb12344

The PA's initial proposal wasn't linked to revenues, it was hard numbers, with the final season being linked at 57%. the problem the league had was the hard numbers were still rising.


to be honest, the PA's proposals have been the only ones that actually take into consideration the long term health of the game. Unfortunately, they dont take into account the IMMEDIATE health of the game. Something that needs to be considered by them, unless they just dont believe teams are losing money

Glad SOMEBODY gets it

The cap floor what is hurting teams. being forced to spend 50million regardless of the names on the backs of the jerseys

The cap needs to be delinked from revenues. take the 2010-11 numbers, and set those as the limits for the next 5 years. regardless of revenues.

having the players salaries linked to ever-increasing revenues is killing more teams than it is helping
- conor_smythe

the players are about as likely to agree to that as they are to play for breath mints.... if you want to fix the problem move Phoenix to Quebec , move Columbus to Seattle, move Florida to Hamilton, the islanders might do alright in their new home, if not the NHL could even consider contraction of 2 teams. that gets rid of the black hole teams, and revenue sharing plus the lower cap should be enough to save the fringe teams like Carolina, Nashville, Dallas.

Hockey at its finest is still the NHL and always will be, saying otherwise is just stupidity.

You are all in here whining about the lockout because you want to see hockey at its finest...which is no question the NHL.

He was quoting Ek saying the "finest", not the "purest"...so his lame comparison to his son makes zero sense. The purest form of baseball is watching it down in the Dominican, but that doesnt make it the finest form of baseball.
- C.J

your points might be valid, but you're a wiener for the way you present them. lighten up.

The league would love to lower the cap floor. Ask Don Fehr what he would think about it.

Getting that floor down is what this is all about.unfortunately to do that they would need to either decrease players %, or lower the HRR.

Considering option 2 is a non starter, that is why they have dug in thier heels at option 1.
- steveb12344

you assume the NHL wants a lower floor. Remember a big reason this entire cap exists is so all teams have to spend close to the same amount so there is no lowering the floor without lowering the ceiling. maybe they can set player revenues to 45% but allow each team to count one player completely outside of the cap.

your points are valid, and you're awesome for the way you present them..
- DoubleDown

Fixed...and thanks DoubleClown

the players are about as likely to agree to that as they are to play for breath mints.... if you want to fix the problem move Phoenix to Quebec , move Columbus to Seattle, move Florida to Hamilton, the islanders might do alright in their new home, if not the NHL could even consider contraction of 2 teams. that gets rid of the black hole teams, and revenue sharing plus the lower cap should be enough to save the fringe teams like Carolina, Nashville, Dallas.
- ky678468

yes, that is a much simpler solution, why didnt anybody think of that

maybe they could move the leafs to phoenix afterwards and watch revenues plummet, since nobody in their right mind would pay to see such a terrible product

that would drop the cap significantly

Id love to know how "winter classic cancelled" equals "progress"
- TrueBlue9182

In fact I am wondring the ame thing. Looks really silly, doesn't it?

yes, that is a much simpler solution, why didnt anybody think of that

maybe they could move the leafs to phoenix afterwards and watch revenues plummet, since nobody in their right mind would pay to see such a terrible product

that would drop the cap significantly
- conor_smythe

well that would lower the cap at least, and moving numbers around to make it look like you're league isn't losing money is short sighted. it's economics if you can't make money move outa town. the leafs are probably the biggest reason these teams even exist.

I don't think Bettman wants to or should make a deal. He needs to break this union once and for and all. If it takes 2 seasons, they have my support.

If they don't want to play under the NHL system, the players should go elsewhere and stay there.

Honestly, except the top 100 or so players in the league, the rest are interchangeable parts with plenty of inventory.

Go Gary!!!
- scoot174

You're dreaming if you think this is about breaking the union! First of all that will NEVER happen. The owners know this, Bettman knows this, the players know this. Secondly, the big name players would never allow it to happen (even if that were Bettmans main objective)and lastly, a non-NHLPA NHL would literally ruin the game as we know it, Bettman also knows this...

winter classic has been canceled...so much for that
- NYI78

If the Classic does indeed get canceled, you can pretty much kiss the rest of the season goodbye. Incentive to hammer out a deal from the NHL's standpoint gets a whole lot less without their biggest money maker of the season... JMO

Fixed...and thanks DoubleClown

- C.J

Wouldn't the purest form of baseball be watching the ancestors of the people who invented the game, play it for fun?

Pretty sure the dominicans are playing the game in the hopes of one day becoming millionaries in the majors.
far from being pure.

If the Classic does indeed get canceled, you can pretty much kiss the rest of the season goodbye. Incentive to hammer out a deal from the NHL's standpoint gets a whole lot less without their biggest money maker of the season... JMO
- MnGump

It was already official earlier today.

Gents you can only share what you made in profit, otherwise your business loses money. League wide combined profits added up to 260mil. Revenue sharing could not exceed this.

Last year the players pocketed 1.3 billion while the owners pocketed 260mil. That’s what this is all about. Player solution is for owners to spread around thier 260mil so that more of it ends up in player pockets.

This is why there will be no season. Current system is stupid
- Oilerman

At least someone in here gets it...

No matter who blinks on the last few %, we will be back over and over until they fix the salary floor.
- Canada Cup

Absolutely correct - but then the question is "how do you fix it?"

1. Eliminate it completely - probably not something the NHLPA will accept, especially since it sets up the likelihood that with a cap in place, the players get underpaid relative to what they should get until escrow evens things out 3-4 months after the fact.

2. Open the spread between the cap and the floor - works as a short-term solution (and may not be a terrible idea anyway) but is not a complete fix since inevitably revenue growth will drive the floor up ... and since high-revenue teams are responsible for more of the revenue growth, they will (again) inevitably push the floor higher than low-revenue teams can keep up with.

3. Cap revenues from the top-10- teams in the calculation of the cap. This is my suggested solution, and has been for months now. This puts more weight on revenue growth from the rest of the league, but recognizes part of the revenue growth from those top teams, while capping it at a percentage (102.5% to 105%) of the revenues of the #11 team.

I'm sure there's other ways to do it, but those are probably the 3 most likely scenarios.

As expected...no big shock here.

I just don't understand all the fans that are dumping on the league....Isn't it the owners that own the risk here. shouldn't they have the right to want the bigger piece of the pie? Of course they are all making a fortune. If I was an owner I would want to make a huge profit too. these players kill me wanting even a piece of the hockey related revenue. their job is to play hockey....play goal, score goals, pound the opponent, defend the net etc etc.....they are paid a salary for doing that. if the salary is not enough then go work for the city, or be a cop or nurse or accountant.

My boss owns a business. I work for him. he pays me to do the work i do. thats it. if he profits year to year related to my work or my co-workers work then good for him, thats why he hired us all. If I knock on his door tomorrow and say listen you did good last year, I want more money..he would say go play in the NHL, thats the only business you can do that kind of crap!!!! Players make me sick!!! P

the players are about as likely to agree to that as they are to play for breath mints.... if you want to fix the problem move Phoenix to Quebec , move Columbus to Seattle, move Florida to Hamilton, the islanders might do alright in their new home, if not the NHL could even consider contraction of 2 teams. that gets rid of the black hole teams, and revenue sharing plus the lower cap should be enough to save the fringe teams like Carolina, Nashville, Dallas.
- ky678468

Maybe you do those things.

What you also do is reduce the fcuking ridiculous share of money the players get.