Happy NHL! (The War is Over…)
Hurray for the NHL! It only took over 3 months and 500+ cancelled games but the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) have been agreed by the NHL and Players Association.
A shortened 48 game season now looks set to begin on the 19th after teams have conducted week-long training camps to get their rosters back up to speed.
Details of the new CBA have begun to emerge and some could have interesting ramifications in terms of team planning for future seasons. Issues such as pensions and revenue sharing were finally resolved with both sides finally being happy to soften their demands.
The owners seem to have got their wishes in terms of the deal extending for 10 years (with an opt out after 8) to ensure a period of extended peace, player contract lengths has been limited to 7 years for free agents and 8 years for re-signings. Front loading of contracts to exploit the cap will also be prevented by a 35% variance limit in yearly pay.
For this season the salary cap has been set at $60.2m (with some flexibility allowed) upping to $64.3m for 2013-14, slightly less than some teams had perhaps been planning for pre-lockout.
Movement in terms of trades is expected as the bigger spending teams look to free up some room ahead of time, the trade deadline looks like it will be set at April 4th. They have also been afforded the luxury of being able to buyout the contracts of two players in the coming offseason should they need to, Scott Gomez’s burdening of Montreal springs to mind there.
It’ll be interesting to see attendance numbers in the first few weeks, different fan boycotts have received varied amounts of support but all seemed to condone staying away from arenas to display fan anger. Hardcore fans from the big market teams won’t be able to stay away, franchises such as Phoenix and Columbus need to sell seats too though.
This side of the Atlantic our ability to show displeasure is limited, if you use NHL Gamecenter there aren’t any alternatives to giving it up if you want high quality streaming, perhaps we should just hold off on that merch order for now.
On to the more interesting subject, the hockey. A perk of the short season could be its unpredictability, considering the lack of preparation and absence of warm up games to build team cohesion. Many players haven’t had any competitive games during the lockout, it could take them a while to get back up to speed.
As much as the lockout sapped my own faith, I’m shamefully delighted about the puck dropping once again. Every roster will fancy their chances of making the post season and we get to see the big moves such as Nash to the Rangers, Parise/Suter at the Wild and Jordan Staal alongside his brother Eric with Carolina in actuality.
