MONTREAL — If last week’s sorry performance by the members of the NHL Players Association foreshadows the group’s behavior when the current collective bargaining agreement expires, then Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and the Board of Governors can begin their victory lap right here and now.
Attendance at the union meetings in Las Vegas was so limited, it seemed as if one had wandered into a game in Glendale. Fact is, the PA did not have enough player reps at its own meeting to tally the vote on the critical issue of voting on the 5-percent cap escalator clause that eventually was adopted through e-mail tally.
Much worse, and perhaps scandalous, is that a number of players went to Las Vegas on the union’s dime, partied, and never bothered to actually, you know, attend the meetings. Wait until the summer meetings in Rome.
The close vote on the escalator indicates executive director Paul Kelly and director of player affairs Glenn Healy do not have the union’s attention. For both these gentlemen understood the critical importance of not allowing the cap to fall by the $2.64 million it would have if the vote had gone the other way.
Slap Shots has learned that the escrow withholding figure for last season has been calculated at a staggering 15.9 percent. That means, for example, that Alex Ovechkin will wind up losing $1.431M of the $9M he thought he was earning last year for the Caps.
Players who voted against the escalator did so in order to reduce escrow for the coming season. But their votes were short-sighted and selfish, for it always is important to have the cap as high as possible and the most money possible in the system. A higher cap means more available money for free agents — and approximately five-sixths of the players in the NHL will become free agents during the term of the labor agreement.
A higher cap diminishes the prospects of high-priced players being waived through to the minors by clubs up against the cap. A higher cap allows powerful teams to remain intact. A higher cap is good for the players’ business, even if not good for every player’s personal business.
The members of the NHLPA should understand they will be facing a negotiation in which Bettman and the Board will seek significant givebacks in nearly every area. Their performance last week that was marked by apathy, self-interest and greed, does not bode well for their future.
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Among the questions asked here most often this weekend was, “Why did Lou do it?” As in, why did Lou Lamoriello allow Brent Sutter to coach the Flames this season after fleeing New Jersey with one year remaining on his contract?
“That’s really not worth getting into,” the Devils’ Hall of Fame president and GM told Slap Shots yesterday. “I can’t tell our fans what to feel or think about it, but there were extenuating circumstances referring to him wanting to be closer to home and his family, and I fully believe in that.
“I also believe there should be compensation in cases like this, and I have always felt that way, but there isn’t, so I had a decision to make and I did so without looking back. Am I surprised [Brent is coaching this year]? I’m never surprised by anything.”
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NBC continues to wield a curious amount of influence over Bettman and the NHL. For it was the network that doesn’t pay so much as a nickel in rights fees to the league that pressured the commissioner to withdraw the plan to play a second outdoor game in Calgary next season, Slap Shots was told by an informed individual.
Perhaps the NHL will explain why the league changed the rules so dramatically for the Finals, returning to the loose standard of officiating that had been eliminated coming out of the lockout. The referees, obviously under instructions, allowed obstruction and interference all over the ice. It detracted from the product.
Toronto GM Brian Burke, whose mouth wrote pre-draft checks he was unable to cash at the table, will attempt to attempt get J-S Giguere from Anaheim if the Maple Leafs are unsuccessful in their bid to sign 24-year-old Swedish free agent Jonas (The Monster) Gustavsson, we’re told. Giguere, now the backup to Jonas Hiller, has two years at $13M ($6M cap hit per) remaining on his contract.
The Flyers, who have not been able to find a taker for Daniel Briere (six years at $34M remaining on his deal with an annual cap hit of $6.5M), are up against the cap with the addition of Chris Pronger, and are thus unlikely to be able to keep Mike Knuble. The Rangers should pursue this locker room leader, power-play net presence and proven goal-scorer when the market opens on Wednesday.
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Finally, we asked Lamoriello who would be coaching the Devils this season.
“I might have a surprise,” said the man who is never surprised.
Introducing Mike Keenan.