Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
Alberta_Beef, do you actually believe players like Wideman will need to be protected, or are you just trying to feel smart by playing pretend lawyer?
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The NHL has rarely done things because they are "logical", I don't know which way it will go either, but after looking deeper into things I can't see why the NHL would even ask the NHLPA to have those NMC's exempt because it affects just over 1/3 of the franchises and they would have to concede something somewhere to have it allowed.
At this point there are only 70 players with a NMC in the 2016-17 season (
link) but of those 70 only 14 players are affected (Datsyuk, J. Thornton, Marleau, Vanek, Bishop, Sharp, Wisniewski, Iginla, Wideman, Pronger, Umberger, Vermette, Ference and C. Neil) and when Datsyuk files his retirement papers the cap hit will remain but he won't have a valid SPC so his NMC won't matter. The remaining 13 players are spread among 11 teams.
Maybe I am wrong, but this is a negotiating game between the union and the league and I can't see the league giving up leverage for the sake of "logic" when it affects so few players and teams.