Labour uncertainty is the topic of the day for fans of the NHL with the
threat of a lockout hanging over our heads once again. It wasn't so long
ago that we were forced to sit through a winter without hockey and now we're
forced to ask, "for what?"
At the time, I was more or less on board with a lot of what the owners
were saying. Stability for existing franchises and competitive balance
through a salary cap were things that I could get behind.
We've now played 7 seasons of hockey under the current CBA and there are
some things that certainly seem broken to the casual eye. The NHL has
presented its initial offer to the NHLPA and after taking some time for sober
refection, I find myself wondering if the first lockout accomplished anything at all.
As fans, we were consistently subjected to the words "cost certainty"
and "parity" by Gary Bettman as the league sought to implement a
salary cap while the players resisted -- this, we were told, was the reason
there was no hockey.
Ultimately, the owners dug their heels in more deeply than the players
and got more or less what they wanted while the players saw a 24% rollback in
their salaries. The salary cap was initially set at $39M and its
year-over-year growth was tied to league revenues.
Since then, the cap has risen to over $70M with a salary floor over $54M
and we find ourselves more or less at square one.
