[Sylvanfan]

At the end of the day players still get 50% of the HRR, and that's probably the only thing the owners really care about. They'll let the PA fight an internal battle where the rank and file go after the star players who are now taking up more of the pie, or really the mid tier guy who's going to see his value reduced. At this point Fehr's only play is to try and get the players share up, and the owners certainly won't blink on that. They'll sewer another season if they have to.

I remember in the 04 lockout where I read an article stating that the Derek Morris' of the world would ultimately loose out in a cap environment with linkage. Players who were getting 3.5 million a year to be above average. They were comfortable, and stood to make a nice sum for quite some time so long as they were above average.

Today it's trending so that the players who draw in the fans and who are the top guys starting to ask for a bigger share of the pie. The result...the Dennis Widemans of the world shouldn't be getting no 5 million dollar a year deals.

Even recently we would see a lot of top guys getting 8 million AAV with more term, but mid level guys still getting 5 over 5. In a market of supply and demand there really was no way the 5 million dollar guy was worth that salary...from a pure replacement perspective that guy was maybe worth 3, whereas those top level guys are worth that premium.

The purpose of a cap is that teams who have a Crosby should have to pay him top dollar and try to build around him. The teams that don't should get the chance to put out a top 6 forward group of 5 million dollar guys to counter the 20 million dollar star duo, and see who wins. The beauty of a team game.