Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
There's a clause to opt out, although I'm not sure what the period of time is to exercise it. I'm pretty sure the players will almost certainly do so in order to leverage the owners, especially if the clause allows them to do so at any point during the season or just before the season starts.
Donald Fehr orchestrated the MLB strike a while back so he's not apposed to doing it.
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As noted, the union has just over a two week period before the 2019-2020 season to opt out of the CBA. And if Fehr opts them out on September 19, you can be 100% guaranteed the NHL will lock them out. There is no chance whatsoever that the NHL ever allows a season to start without a CBA.
Especially against a union led by the likes of Don Fehr.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
The escalator allows for hypothetical jobs for Union members. I agree they shouldn't be using it and all the cap strapped teams would have been in a bad spot for a long time, but it does give guys like Grossman jobs when there's a touch more cap space. Escrow primarily hurts the star players, whom get withheld the largest amount of their paycheques
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There are only 23 NHL jobs per team, and that is fixed. The escalator is intended to allow for the league and union to account for an expected rise in HRR for the current season that the forumulas don't anticipate.
What the escalator is actually used for is larger AAVs on those contracts. The union uses it to ensure the likes of Gaudreau and Tarasenko can sign bigger deals because of the extra space. It is, of course, frequently self-defeating as every player loses when revenues don't rise to match.