Key Points in NHL Proposal

Thu Feb 3, 3:30 AM ET


By The Associated Press

A look at key points in the NHL's proposal Wednesday to the NHL Players' Association:



AGREEMENT LENGTH:@ The deal would cover the 2004-05 season and the following six seasons through 2010-11. The players' association would have the sole right to reopen the agreement after four years.

SALARY CAP:@ The new system would ensure that total league-wide player compensation in any year will not be under 53 percent of the league's revenues or exceed 55 percent. If teams spend less than 53 percent of the NHL's revenues, they will be required to contribute additional dollars to a pool to be distributed to the players.

FLOATING TEAM PAYROLL:@ The new range was established by averaging total team payrolls, reflecting the NHL's acceptance of the players' association offer to roll back all existing contracts by 24 percent. Each team would be required to spend at least $29.8 million in player salaries ($32 million including benefits) and no more than $40 million in salaries ($42.2 million including benefits)

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY:@ Age for Group 3 free agency reduced to age 30 beginning with the 2006-07 season.

ENTRY LEVEL SYSTEM:@ Four-year, two-way rookie contracts that would cap salaries at $850,000 per year — including signing and performance bonuses. The signing bonus maximum in each year would be $100,000 for draft picks 1-5; $75,000 for picks 6-15; $50,000 for picks 16-30; and $40,000 for picks 31 and up. The league also proposed giving its own entry-level bonuses, awarding $500,000 to entry-level players who win the Hart, Norris, Vezina and Selke trophies; $400,000 to second-place finishers; $300,000 for a third-place finish; $200,000 for fourth; and $100,000 for fifth place.

RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY:@ Qualifying offers from teams would have to be 100 percent of the previous year's salary to players earning less than $800,000; and 75 percent or $800,000, whichever is greater, to players who earned $800,000 or more the previous season. The right-to-match and draft choice compensation remain the same from the previous agreement.

SALARY ARBITRATION:@ Mutual process in which players and clubs have same rights to request arbitration. In old system, only players could request arbitration. Arbitration was eliminated in NHL's Dec. 14 offer. The NHL would reserve the right to eliminate arbitration at any time by, giving players unrestricted free agency at 28 in return.

PLAYER CONTRACTS:@ Minimum salary increased 62 percent to $300,000 per year. Guaranteed contracts would remain in existence but the maximum length would be three years. Current contracts would be grandfathered.

PROFIT SHARING:@ The NHL would share profits equally with the players' association once a negotiated threshold is exceeded.

JOINT AUDIT:@ Each year's accounting will be performed by an independent firm. There would be a mandatory $2 million fine and loss of a first-round draft pick for clubs that fail to disclose required financial information. A repeat offense would bring a $5 million fine and loss of three first-round draft picks.

2004-05 SEASON:@ To compensate players for a shortened 2004-05 regular season with a full playoffs, the NHLPA would share money generated from the 2005 postseason to ensure they receive 53 percent of league revenues for the season.

JOINT OWNER-PLAYER COUNCIL:@ Establishment of a council to meet on a regular basis to discuss issues of mutual interest relating both to business and game-related matters

IF the package threat of impasse, implementation and presentation of a scab 2005-06 NHL season remains the foundation of the league's refusal to negotiate anything other than a hard cap with the union — and it is — then no two individuals are at greater risk than Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. Because if the league goes forward with its plan to break the union by opening training camps under a unilaterally-implemented cap system, it is certainly going to expect No. 66 to be on the ice with his replacement Penguins, and it is certainly going to expect No. 99 to be behind the bench of his replacement Coyotes, now that Gretzky has publicly admitted to having credible interest in coaching.

Lemieux and Gretzky had best understand that the league would have no qualms about demanding that the two greatest hockey icons of the era place their reputations on the line to prop up a replacement league. For how could Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors run such an endeavor if Lemieux refused to play in it; how could they succeed in attempting to coerce players to join the union-busting if the only owner/player in the league refused to endorse the effort by becoming a member of it? How could they even attempt to sell tickets if unable to convince part-owner Gretzky to coach in the replacement league?

The participations of Lemieux and Gretzky in such a sham would blacken their reputations for all eternity. Their days as shining representatives of Team Canada would immediately come to an end. Few elite Canadian players — if any — would accept an invitation to play for their country if it were to mean dressing beside union-buster Lemieux. Few elite Canadian players — if any — would accept an invitation to play for their country if the team were to be run by a union-busting Gretzky.

Fact is, if Lemieux and Gretzky were to lend their names and faces to the league's marketing effort to sell scab hockey, they'd immediately be excommunicated by the players. Forget the goals, the assists, the Stanley Cups, the Olympics, the Canada Cups, the World Cups, the records and the smiles they've generated. All that will recede into the background, the way Pete Rose's 4,256 hits have become nothing more than an interesting footnote to his biography. Instead, Lemieux and Gretzky will become known forever as union-busters, as mere pawns utilized by the commissioner and the Board to win a power struggle against the players.