BOSTON — The hidden yet critical benefit to both the NHLPA and the peace process resulting from Friday’s agreement — under which the NHL has agreed to allot an additional $20 million in hockey-related revenue to the players for 2010-11 and an additional designated $20 million for this year following challenges to revenue reported by Phoenix, Nashville and Washington — is that escrow will not stand as a divisive issue within the union as negotiations commence for a new collective bargaining agreement.
With calculations complete after union challenges arising from audits were resolved, NHL players ultimately will receive 97.7 percent of the face value of their 2010-11 contracts, a significant increase over the 90.6 percent the players received the previous season.
Thus, with the prospect of receiving close to 100 percent of the face value of their contracts for this season, players whose primary concern over the CBA had been escrow should be satisfied not to press the issue as the union prepares its platform for the impending negotiations.
This is critical because escrow is the lone issue that could, if not would, pit players under contract — and specifically those operating under long-term contracts — against players whose contracts will expire over the next two summers.
It also is critical to the platform because it proves total payroll — which includes the money going to players on injured reserve — is not outpacing revenue increases, and the 57 percent of the gross the NHL allots to the athletes is a quite supportable league-wide figure.
A united union under the leadership of Donald Fehr and his executive team is essential in terms of presenting a proposal to the league that undoubtedly will outline how fundamental changes in revenue sharing can alleviate the plight of the small market, low-revenue clubs burdened by the cap-floor link to revenue-generating machines in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Vancouver and Philadelphia that served as Gary Bettman’s cost-certainly single-issue campaign the last time around.
Well, not counting the commissioner’s “Read My Lips” pledge that ticket prices would be kept in check with the adoption of the hard cap.
After five years under which the union ceded its rights and willingly acted as a silenced junior partner to the Big Boys on Sixth Avenue, the NHLPA is asserting itself under terms of the CBA.
Rejection of the Board of Governors’ unilaterally adopted realignment plan was not, as widely interpreted, the first shot fired by the union in anticipation of the Sept. 15 expiration of the current labor agreement. If each exercise of rights is considered a salvo (maybe the league shouldn’t exercise its right to claim escrow deductions), the first bullet was fired over the summer when the PA triggered the audit process for the first time.
* The explosion of NHL inside-look shows produced by the league and its television partners is welcomed by the Players’ Association, but at the same time the union is reminding players of their right to limit intrusions from cameras via a memo sent by Mike Ouellet, the union’s chief of business affairs, to the athletes and their agents that was obtained by Slap Shots.
“While these types of projects can be very positive from a marketing perspective, they can be very disruptive and time consuming and can potentially compromise your rights under the CBA and [standard contract],” Ouellet wrote in the memo dated Jan. 18, regarding ‘‘behind-the-scenes video projects” featuring access on off-days and typically off-limits areas.
“We have been working with the League to establish a protocol that needs to be followed before players can be approached on these types of projects,” he wrote. “Ideally, these types of requests should come from the [NHLPA] offices—not your Club, not the League, and not any third-party production company.”
* So we know now how a team whose best three players are natural left wings can be successful and that’s by one, Patrik Elias, staying at center, and a second, Ilya Kovalchuk, moving to right wing to accommodate the Devils’ needs and allow captain Zach Parise to remain on the left side on the first line without a fuss.
What a selfish prima donna that Kovalchuk turned out to be, switching positions without a peep after an all-star career on the left, huh?
Evgeni Malkin’s dominance absent Sidney Crosby’s presence in Pittsburgh is reminiscent of the way Sergei Fedorov would take command in Detroit whenever Steve Yzerman was sidelined.
Malkin, meanwhile, continues to be the league’s sneakiest dirtiest player, enabled by officials who continue to allow him to go scot-free for plays such as the one midway through the first period of the match at the Garden on Thursday where he low-bridged Brian Boyle to avoid a check and in doing so sent the Ranger up and over.
It was an act distinct from the one that got Brad Marchand suspended for going low on Vancouver’s Sami Salo only by speed, distance and the absence of league discipline.