Bettman's legacy of expansion into non-traditional markets is responsible for the current lock-out. Without the political support of those same franchises -- one of which is owned by the NHL -- we would be watching NHL hockey now.
Shorter me: the Bettman experiment has blown up in his face. And this is what that looks...
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“This is very hard and I feel terrible about it.” — Gary Bettman
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Per Rich Hammond (yesterday), the Kings had yet to decide if they were going to put any of their prospects on waivers in order to assign them to Manchester before the Lock-Out deadline. The NHL and NHLPA had made a special agreement that teams could put players on waivers this week (normally, the waiver...
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Just so we’re clear, I don’t really have any idea whether or not there will be a lock-out, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find a few months, or even a season or two, canceled. If you want to know what I think the reasons for this mess are, I have two answers. It...
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According to infallible Twitter, the Montreal Canadiens have issued (filed? I don’t know what the legal term is) a cease and desist order to prevent the NHL from locking out players. It appears that the NHLPA is not an officially registered union in Quebec, and under Quebec law an employer can’t lock out employees...
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Of course, the owners claim they are losing money. But I think we all know that claim depends on narrowly defining which monies count and which don’t. AEG owns the Kings, the arena they play in, the neighboring real estate, and (I assume) dozens of related business entities in downtown LA. When the Kings...
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Let’s say you make an even $1 million in annual salary. The league wants (may want) you to take a pay cut, down to $750,000. You say no way. As a result, there is no 2012-13 season, so your salary in that year is zero. Eventually, a compromise is reached, where you only have...
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Have the players done their own math? Are they really willing to give up 50% of this year's salary in order to save 7% of that same salary over the next several (7? 8?) years. That's obviously a wash.
I guess I would be optimistic if I thought they had run the numbers and could...
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If it turns out to be true that the real battle in this CBA negotiation is not between the owners and the players, but between the big owners and the small owners, then there's the additional question of who exactly Bettman is representing. The league in its current incarnation, the post-Gretzky expansion into new markets,...
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Note to Elliotte Friedman and other chuckleheads who think Weber’s deal with Preds can’t be modified: It can. Only the “principal terms” (how much and when and for how long) can’t be altered. Why on earth Nashville would give Weber a no-move clause now is another question. Frankly, I would be more inclined to...
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