NHL Lockout News

Don’t fret hockey fans, there hasn’t been a player lockout yet, but there is still the potential for one. After a lot of talks and negotiating the NHLPA have finally given their counter proposal to the offensive proposal the league owners first gave. An 11% cut to player right off the bat? That’s ridiculous. So it is obvious why the player’s association took so long to make a counter proposal. Which was patronized by commissioner Bettman when he said, “it’s obvious they took longer than one or two hours to think this up.” No wonder fans dislike the commissioner so much.

The counter proposal will have players in big franchises assist the struggling clubs on the verge on bailouts. They also want to change the revenue sharing, meaning that the players will get a smaller percentage of the revenue sharing. In return they want to limit the salary cap by setting a fixed rate and increasing it 2% the first year, 4% the second, 6% the third and then the option to revert back to the current system in the fourth year.

This would be good and bad. Good because hockey players who already don’t make as much money as other professional athletes will not be losing as much as the league wants them too. The bad news is that if the CBA only lasts for 3 or 4 years fans will be sitting through negotiations again and hoping that it doesn’t lead to a cancellation of the season.

The NHLPA still hasn’t even put on the table everything they want to change economically which is why the league hasn’t made a counter proposal to this proposal, but it is obvious that the league does not like this proposal at all. Negotiations still are going on, so cross your fingers hockey fans. As more information is sent out and it gets closer to the September 15th deadline, an agreement will more than likely be meet. At least we all hope so.

I am a recent graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where I hold a BA in English with a minor in creative writing. My career aspirations lie mostly in novel writing, but I also have an interest in sports journalism. I wrote soccer and hockey articles for my University's student newspaper and I currently write for two other sports blogs in addition to Ballhyped. I am the NHL beat writer for Ballhyped, and pretty much live and breathe for the sport of ice hockey.