Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
I am not sure you can make this argument. When the agreement was signed, it still seemed likely that most governments would take strong corrective action against rising case numbers.
As we have seen, due largely to incompetence and political cowardice, they have not been willing or able to take these strong corrective actions outside of a few notable cases. As such the pandemic has dramatically worsened over the last couple of months. Alberta, for example, has seen over 1/4 of it's total deaths due to the virus in just the last 2 weeks.
So no, I don't think they anticipated THIS level of uncertainty and problems still incumbent in 2021.
|
What level of uncertainty did you think they expected? Serious question. There was no vaccine and everyone was under lockdown or just coming out of it at the time this agreement was signed. I think the league ought to have known that a second or third wave was likely, if they didn’t they likely wouldn’t had made provisions for the next 3 years in this deal.
The flip side of this coin is that we now know a vaccine will likely be available by early next year which will likely make the following seasons much more “normal” yet I’m sure the league is still expecting the players to adhere to the elevated escrow levels and cap freezes they’ve agreed to for those seasons.
Unless I’m wrong and the league has committed to renegotiating those rates if things recover then this just comes off as the league trying to have their cake and eat it too. I understand from the businesses perspective why they’re trying to do it but I think it’s a pretty short sighted move and undoes a lot of the work that has been done to mend fences between the NHL and the NHLPA.