NHL Presents 2nd Offer

 

The CBA negotiating saga is still ongoing and with roughly 19 days left till the September 15th deadline the NHL has finally submitted to the NHLPA their 2nd offer. Only hitch, there really isn't anything new in the offer.

As much as people don't like Gary Bettman you have to give credit where credit is do. He's not stupid, he's a lawyer and he doesn't like to lose. Instead of catering to the NHLPA's demands with his second offer he decided to "re-arrange" the league initial offer. His plan seems to have worked, Donald Fehr head of the NHLPA said on Tuesday he was pleasantly surprised with the leagues second offer.

The only good news about the leagues proposal is the players would make $460 million more than the owners suggested in the original deal, everything else is just "re-worded".

• The NHL has come up with a 6 year deal, 3 of those years will result in a fixed salary cap and the final 3 will return to the cap being based on the league revenue. players would earn 51.6% in 2012-13, 50.5% in 2013-14 and 49.6% in 2014-15. In the final three years, the players and owners would split revenue 50-50.


• This offer does not include rollbacks on current contracts. Meaning players like Sidney Crosby will still get all the money the were promised.


• The league is asking the players to give back 11 percent which would set the salary cap at $58 million, $12 million less than it would have been under the current CBA. Not mention 16 current teams are already over $58 million.


• The players revenue share is 46% up from the original 43%


• The NHL would also like the players salaries to go towards escrow, this point here pretty much rules out any real significant changes between the first deal and the second deal.

The Fehr accompanied by 11 players met with the NHL today to present their alternatives and further debate the second proposal. It appears the players didn't have the same feelings of optimism about the "improved" deal;

"We’re ready to play. We want to play. But Gary'’s pretty adamant about his third lockout of his tenure.” ~ Zach Parise

Very powerful statement by Parise, gives fans a little insight on what the players are thinking about the CBA negotiations. Unfortunately for the players, right now the NHL has the power.

Fehr says the players will work on a second counterproposal which may be ready as early as tomorrow. But he still claims both sides are far apart on revenue sharing. The biggest thing separating to the two sides is the revenue sharing or the "pie" as the two sides refer to it.

"Before you divide up the pie,need to remove some of what is included in the pie" ~ Donald Fehr

The good news for fans, is both sides seem to have found some common ground, pie. Both sides are hung up of the revenue share and how much of the pie their side will get. With the latest deal the NHLPA would get 46% of the pie while the NHL would get 54%. Here's a remarkable idea why not share the pie 50/50?

The players still feel like the league is trying to take "money out of their pockets" and are concerned about a new 6 year deal. But good news for fans is both sides seem to have found some common ground and are starting to focus their negotiations on getting a deal done. While the clock is still ticking both sides still refuse to accept a straight deal without compromise. But as long as they're talking it has to be good news right?

My prediction

• The Players will be the ones to backdown and accept a deal


• We will not see a full season lockout but will see a work stoppage, resulting in a shortened season.