Bettman cries poor while NHL teams go on spending spree
Over $100-million in contracts doled out Friday
by Chris Stevenson, QMI Agency
NEW YORK - With the clock ticking down toward the start of the lockout Saturday at 11:59 p.m., NHL teams and players were scrambling to cut a deal.
Unfortunately it wasn't for a new CBA, but to register contracts under the terms of the current CBA even as it draws its final breath.
The optics are brutal.
Within 24 hours of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman standing in a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan and talking about how the owners can't stand the current system and need the players to take less money, a handful of his teams went on a $100-million spending spree to lock up players before the deal expires.
To make the whole thing even more bizarre, the NHL-owned Phoenix Coyotes dropped a reported $21 million on a four-year deal for Shane Doan which included a $2-million signing bonus. The Twitter-sphere lit up with the notion the league was giving a player $2 million on the eve of a lockout the league was initiating, making it easier for the player to weather a potential nuclear winter.
But the signing bonus actually was deferred to the end of the deal, $1 million in 2016-17 and $1 million in 2017-18, TSN's Darren Dreger reported.
Five years from now, huh? Just in time for another lockout, maybe.
If the current financials are so awful that Bettman is having the league go dark to get a better deal, why did the Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings drop more than $100 million on six players? QMI Agency figures indicate the day's activity at $104.7 million in commitments. (Not counting the $1.55 million the Nashville Predators are giving fringe forward Gabriel Bourque.)
Obviously the teams were willing to have those players under the current agreement, perhaps hopeful the league would get its wish to have players take a pay cut, but there's also a chance they will have to pay out every buck of the deals.
Yes, all you frustrated fans, you have even more reason to be angry today. If the current deal is so bad from the owners' standpoint, why didn't those teams wait to sign those players under the terms of a new CBA? They are obviously comfortable with having players under the current terms, otherwise why not wait?
It all seems pretty hypocritical, no?
Not that fans needed anything more to get them mad as the clock ticks down to the third lockout during Bettman's reign.
Things were quiet in The Big Apple Friday. As of late afternoon, there was no indication there would be any formal talks to avert the lockout, though there was some communication between the sides during the course of the day.
Meanwhile, another move on the owners' side -- having employees from the Edmonton Oilers collecting practice sweaters from their players -- came off as looking petty.
After two days in New York, about the only thing accomplished was an entrenching of the two sides as we skid toward the third lockout since 1994.
We saw 283 players players lining up behind NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr and talk about solidarity and their willingness to perhaps miss a season to get what they think is a fair deal.
We heard Bettman say he has the unanimous support of the clubs to initiate his lockout.
Now, with the formalities out of the way, we get into waiting mode.
Sadly, it looks like only time will trigger some pressure points that might get some movement from the current positions.
The next one might not be until the players start to miss some paycheques about a month from now.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2012/09/14/20200616.html
Over $100-million in contracts doled out Friday
by Chris Stevenson, QMI Agency
NEW YORK - With the clock ticking down toward the start of the lockout Saturday at 11:59 p.m., NHL teams and players were scrambling to cut a deal.
Unfortunately it wasn't for a new CBA, but to register contracts under the terms of the current CBA even as it draws its final breath.
The optics are brutal.
Within 24 hours of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman standing in a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan and talking about how the owners can't stand the current system and need the players to take less money, a handful of his teams went on a $100-million spending spree to lock up players before the deal expires.
To make the whole thing even more bizarre, the NHL-owned Phoenix Coyotes dropped a reported $21 million on a four-year deal for Shane Doan which included a $2-million signing bonus. The Twitter-sphere lit up with the notion the league was giving a player $2 million on the eve of a lockout the league was initiating, making it easier for the player to weather a potential nuclear winter.
But the signing bonus actually was deferred to the end of the deal, $1 million in 2016-17 and $1 million in 2017-18, TSN's Darren Dreger reported.
Five years from now, huh? Just in time for another lockout, maybe.
If the current financials are so awful that Bettman is having the league go dark to get a better deal, why did the Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings drop more than $100 million on six players? QMI Agency figures indicate the day's activity at $104.7 million in commitments. (Not counting the $1.55 million the Nashville Predators are giving fringe forward Gabriel Bourque.)
Obviously the teams were willing to have those players under the current agreement, perhaps hopeful the league would get its wish to have players take a pay cut, but there's also a chance they will have to pay out every buck of the deals.
Yes, all you frustrated fans, you have even more reason to be angry today. If the current deal is so bad from the owners' standpoint, why didn't those teams wait to sign those players under the terms of a new CBA? They are obviously comfortable with having players under the current terms, otherwise why not wait?
It all seems pretty hypocritical, no?
Not that fans needed anything more to get them mad as the clock ticks down to the third lockout during Bettman's reign.
Things were quiet in The Big Apple Friday. As of late afternoon, there was no indication there would be any formal talks to avert the lockout, though there was some communication between the sides during the course of the day.
Meanwhile, another move on the owners' side -- having employees from the Edmonton Oilers collecting practice sweaters from their players -- came off as looking petty.
After two days in New York, about the only thing accomplished was an entrenching of the two sides as we skid toward the third lockout since 1994.
We saw 283 players players lining up behind NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr and talk about solidarity and their willingness to perhaps miss a season to get what they think is a fair deal.
We heard Bettman say he has the unanimous support of the clubs to initiate his lockout.
Now, with the formalities out of the way, we get into waiting mode.
Sadly, it looks like only time will trigger some pressure points that might get some movement from the current positions.
The next one might not be until the players start to miss some paycheques about a month from now.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2012/09/14/20200616.html
