What Happened to the NHL this Week?

The NHL lockout nearly ended this week with a bomb shell offer from the NHL on Tuesday, but less than two days later, all momentum stopped and the negotiations stalled again. How did this happen? The NHL made "their best offer" and it sounded so good to the fans on Tuesday. 50/50 sounds fair, but reading between the lines reveals some details that upset the NHLPA. It was a good start but there is still lots of negotiations left before a deal is made.

To see exactly why everyone was excited but then upset, we need to look at the four offers made this week and why both sides are mad. The week started with a huge announcement from a routine meeting, where NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a ground breaking offer from the NHL's side: a 50/50 split of Hockey Related Revenue (HRR), the main issue in the negotiation so far. 

50/50 is the universal idea of fairness. Neither side has an advantage. As soon as this announcement came out to the media, everyone latched onto it believing the NHLPA had no choice but to accept it. But they didn't. 

That's because the NHL included in the deal a clause that lowers the salary cap to $59.9 million from $70.2 million. This means that the current contracts players have signed won't be paid in full as teams will have to make cuts to their roster to fit under the new rules. This is a sneaky trick from the owners who fought really hard to get the cap put in back in 2004. They are essentially telling the players that the contracts they signed are not valid and that they will not be honoured. This made Donald Fehr and the NHLPA very angry. 

Still, there was some optimism as we waited to see how the union would respond to the offer. It became clear that they wouldn't accept it outright, but would offer a close variation that could get a deal signed in time for the October 25th deadline the NHL included with the deal. The NHLPA offices were crowded with media as the two sides met for just under an hour. But when Bettman came out to talk to them, it was not with good news. 

As both sides came to talk, this is what we learned about their meeting. The NHLPA offered 3 different variations of the NHL offer, two of which involved moving towards a 50/50 HRR split as the league continued to grow. The third, and the best offer, saw them agree to 50/50 right away, in exchange for the players getting every penny they were entitled too. That sounds like the most fair deal imaginable. Both sides signed the contract and should honour them, but yet that concept seems to allude the owners. All three of these offers were rejected in the 1 hour meeting, and both sides took to the media in an angry rage. 

Late last night, one small detail came out about this third offer. In order to honour all the contracts, the revenue will not decrease. HRR will, but the amount of money the NHLPA claims will remain at 57% or slightly less. And so even though it is listed as 50/50, the owners will be handing over extra money to satisfy the contracts. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the NHL feels this is not a very progressive offer. And it definitely does not favour them. 

And so the NHL cancelled more games all the way to November 1st and both sides left Toronto without planning any more meetings. Some of the players in Toronto voiced their thoughts after the meetings and they didn't sound to confident either. Sidney Crosby was one of those players. 

"It doesn't look good right now." Crosby said. When even Sid no longer is confident in a deal, everyone should be worried. This negotiation is far from over. 

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