TORONTO — NHL general managers are no longer operating under the assumption that the cap is going to increase next season.
The projected decline in the Canadian dollar — up at least temporarily a tick to 88 cents on the U.S. dollar as of Friday — has had an impact on discussions regarding extensions in at least three cases, front office sources have told The Post.
Further anecdotal evidence suggests these are not isolated instances.
Given the fixation of escrow under which the players currently are having 14 percent of their pay withheld, it certainly is a realistic possibility the NHLPA will not exercise a 5-percent escalator for 2015-16.
That might mean a stagnant cap in the $69 million range, which fall some $5 million to $6 million shy of previous optimistic projections.
That would mean that clubs facing a cap crunch now cannot responsibly count on relief for next season. That has put a hold on extension negotiations.
When the union votes on the 5-percent bump is held in late June, players with contracts for next season will be on one side of the aisle while pending free agents will be on the other side. The cap divides and the league conquers.
I have all sorts of sympathy for Ryane Clowe, but is there no one who will advise this young man to stop playing before the multiple concussions he has suffered over the last two years inflict brain damage that is irreversible? Is there no one to whom the 32-year-old Devils’ winger will listen?
Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of players who allege they were intentionally kept ignorant of the ramifications of playing through concussions.
Ignorance would not seem to factor into it for Clowe, unless there is a measure of willful ignorance attached to the winger’s insistence on returning to the ice, time after time after time.
I’ve never even played a doctor on TV — and come to think of it, I’ve never stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, either — but one doesn’t need a medical degree to be afraid for the quality of the rest of Clowe’s life.
So Cory Schneider, who never has started more than 43 games in a season, is going to start them all for the Devils this year? Is that the law in New Jersey: A No. 1 goaltender under the age of 40, has to get 75 starts?
Meanwhile, we’re told by a well-placed source that the Ducks, in the market for a veteran goaltender in light of the groin injury that will sideline John Gibson for an extended stretch are, according to an informed source, “kicking the tires” on 38-year-old Tomas Vokoun, while having no interest in Martin Brodeur.
Odd, isn’t it, the one place Brodeur would have fit — in New Jersey as Schneider’s back-up for 20-25 starts — is the one situation regarding which he made it clear late last season and into the summer that he could not envision himself?
So as Slava Voynov remains in Article 18-A limbo, his agent, Roland Hedges, is talking about attempting to have the defenseman’s suspension with pay lifted via some sort of hearing. “I think his rights are being infringed now, Hedges told the L.A. Times.
But a subsection of Article 18-A of the CBA gives the commissioner the authority to infringe on the rights of every player in the league who falls under criminal investigation.
The union understood exactly to what it had agreed in giving divine powers to Gary Bettman (and whomever might succeed him) during the 2012-13 rounds of collective bargaining.
Indeed, a source familiar with the talks told Slap Shots that the PA accepted Article 18-A in exchange for gaining the right to independent arbitration for on-ice supplementary discipline suspensions of six games or more.
As trades go, it might not exactly be Rick Middleton for Ken Hodge, but it sure would move into that territory the minute the commissioner exercises his right to cancel a player’s contract.
By the way, those make-whole payments due the players to compensate for Owners’ Lockout III? Everyone will be quite thrilled to know that under the formula to distribute the funds decided upon by the NHLPA, the biggest payout goes to Ilya Kovalchuk, owed $2.09 million based on his 2012-13 salary of $11M.
So what happens when Alexander Semin requests permission to “retire” to the KHL? His cap hit of $7M per through 2017-18 disappears, too? Or does it depend on the Hurricanes’ ownership’s relationship with Sixth Avenue?
So Eric Lindros and John LeClair will be inducted together into the Flyers’ Hall of Fame on Nov. 20, the recognition obviously earned, but wouldn’t it have been appropriate for Mikael Renberg, the third member of the Legion of Doom, to be honored as well?
Asked and answered: Has been there ever been a connect-the-dots, three-way deal as ultimately successful for all the participants as the Flyers-Blue Jackets-Kings transactions in which L.A. wound up with Jeff Carter, Columbus got Jack Johnson and Marko Dano while Philadelphia came up with Jakub Voracek and Sean Couturier? No.
Finally, I posted this on Twitter in the aftermath of the officiating fiasco starring Steve Kozari and Tim Peel that marked Rangers-Red Wings at the Garden on Wednesday. It bears repeating:
There hasn’t been a pair so frightful on the Garden ice as Kozari and Peel since Dave Karpa and Igor Ulanov.