TSN.ca Staff with CP, Globe and Mail files

6/8/2005 2:06:13 PM

The Globe and Mail reports that the NHL and NHL Players' Association have agreed on a formula for a salary-cap system based on team-by-team revenue.

The salary-cap issue was seen as the biggest hurdle in talks for a new collective bargaining agreement.

According to the Globe's league and player sources, a salary floor and cap will based on a percentage of each NHL team's revenue. The paper adds that in the first year - based on revenue projections by both sides - the salary cap will range from $34 million to $36 million US, with the floor from $22 million to $24 million US.

The Globe also reports that the formula calls for a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax to kick in at the halfway mark between the floor and the cap. If the floor of the lowest team is $22 million US and the cap on the highest team is $36 million US, then the 'tax level' will be $29 million US.

The formula would allow wealthier teams to spend a bit more money, but would also bridge the large gaps in spending between higher payroll teams and lower payroll teams.


Small group labour talks between both sides ended late Tuesday night and resume today in New York with a larger group meeting.

Both sides have carried over the momentum from last week when 34 hours of talks were described as 'progressive' from both sides.

There are several issues to iron out, but sources in both camps believe there's a chance a deal could be done before July. Still, both sides also concede there are potential pitfalls that could prevent an agreement from being reached.

Today's session is the 21st meeting between the two sides since the season was cancelled Feb. 16.

NHL vice-president and chief legal officer Bill Daly and NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin declined to confirm or deny anything to The Globe and Mail.

Today's session is the 21st meeting between the two sides since the season was cancelled Feb. 16.

PRESTO, Pa. - Pittsburgh Penguins owner-player Mario Lemieux said NHL players are all but certain to get a much worse deal in the soon-to-be-approved labor agreement than they would have gotten by accepting the owners' offer in February.

"Back in February, the cap was at $42.5 million, that was the offer from the owners, now it looks like it's going to be a lot less than that," Lemieux said Thursday at his charity golf tournament.

Lemieux said he was contacted Wednesday by Wayne Gretzky about attending a Team Canada camp in August — a sign that an Olympics break in February will be included in the new NHL labor agreement.

"I think they're getting very, very close, and it's going to be a deal that allows all the markets to be successful, allow the owners to have a fair chance to make money," Lemieux said Thursday.

Previously, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suggested a labor deal was needed months ago for the league to shut down again for the Olympics, as it did in 1998 and 2002. But, despite being the first major American pro sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute, the NHL apparently believes another Olympics tournament is needed to help revive interest in the sport.

Hockey's TV ratings during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics were its highest in the United States since the 1980 U.S. Olympic "Miracle on Ice" team and were many times greater than Stanley Cup playoff games draw.

"I never thought, in 2002, I would play in this one, but time moved pretty quickly and we're there already," Lemieux said. "It was a great experience to play in the Olympics, a totally different game and a different pace, and I really enjoyed it."

Lemieux, playing despite a serious hip injury that allowed him to play only one more NHL game that season, was the captain of the 2002 Canadian team that beat the United States in the gold medal game. Gretzky served as Canada's executive director, a post he will retain in these Olympics.

"If there is a CBA in the next few weeks, they're trying to get a camp together sometime in August, so he (Gretzky) was just asking me if I would be interested," said Lemieux, who will be 40 in October.

Lemieux, decidedly downbeat at this time a year ago as the NHL lockout neared and the Penguins remained without a new arena deal, was clearly more optimistic about the league's and his team's future Thursday.

Though he is selling the Penguins to William "Boots" Del Biaggio, a San Jose, Calif., businessman, Lemieux will remain as the Penguins' chief executive officer and retain a 5 percent stake in the franchise. He also is optimistic new legislation permitting slot machines in Pennsylvania will generate revenue that can be used for a new Pittsburgh arena.

Lemieux also expects the Penguins, the NHL's worst team during the 2003-04 season, to be markedly improved under the NHL's new economic system. The Penguins are all but certain to have more salary cap room than any other team — they have only about $10 million committed in 2005-06 salaries — and Lemieux expects them to add several upper-tier free agents once the deal is completed.

"With the gap (in NHL payrolls) not being what it was before, we'll have a better chance to compete every year," he said. "With the new owners coming in, spending more money on payroll, and finding the right free agents, I think we're well positioned. ... We're going to change the face of this team."

Shortly after noon, the office phone rang.

"This is Sean Avery," said the voice.

Sean Avery?

"Of the Los Angeles Kings," said the voice.

The Los Angeles Kings?

"We were brainwashed," he said. "And we're sorry."

And so a forgotten face tapped at a shuttered window Tuesday, the Kings' tough guy calling to do something tough guys never do.

Admit defeat and ask forgiveness.

An NHL labor agreement ending a yearlong lockout will be announced soon — "a done deal," Avery said — and the center wanted to send a most unusual message to hockey's few remaining fans.

The players were wrong.

The players were whipped.

Blindly following labor leadership, the players were fools.

A year ago, their mantra was "union."

They return crying "uncle."

"We burned a year for nothing," Avery said. "We didn't win anything. We didn't prove anything. We didn't get anything. We wasted an entire season."

The salary cap that the players claimed they would never accept?

The proposed money ceiling that the players sacrificed a season trying to knock down?

It's here. And it's low. Tautly, tauntingly low.

It will be $38 million, roughly half of some teams' most recent payrolls.

It's about $8 million less than the Kings' most recent payroll.

It's about $14 million less than the Ducks' most recent payroll.

It will include the 24% salary rollback that the players offered last winter.

So, hmm, let's see.... Cut your salary in half, take out another quarter, then subtract a year of lost wages that will decrease further because of lost television revenue.

Sounds like longshoremen going on strike for better raincoats, and returning to work in plastic bags.

Sean Avery thinks, he sacrificed his $700,000 salary for this?

"We lost a whole season for nothing," he said. "Absolutely nothing."

The cap could have been as high as $42 million, and the season could have been played, but union leader Bob Goodenow persuaded the players to stand firm

"I am furious at Bob," Avery said.

Heck, if they had listened to Avery, the cap could have been $50 million, an idea he publicly proposed at a meeting two years ago.

An idea that was summarily shot down.

"Bob thought he was bigger than he was," Avery said. "Bob brainwashed players like me."

Where was all this anger last winter, when players possibly could have drowned out Goodenow and saved the season?

"To be honest with you, most of us didn't know what was going on," Avery said. "Guys had no control over the situation. Guys were out there giving interviews and we didn't know the real story. Bob embarrassed a lot of guys."

Hockey players love fighting bigger fellas, but Avery said even they didn't understand the size of their opponent.

"We underestimated how rich the owners were," he said. "Nobody thought they would be willing to burn a season."

He sighed. "They won. They beat us."

Players also discounted the sensibilities of the fans.

"The fans get taken for granted, but, to them, a million dollars is a million dollars," he said. "And we're going to come out looking like crybabies and whiners."

Indeed they did, a perception that Avery said he wants to change.

"The saddest thing that happened to me during the lockout was the two or three times that fans asked me what was going on," he said. "I wished I could have apologized to them then. I apologize to them now."

He hopes they will see the apology in the elimination of the red line for the purpose of a two-line pass.

"We're going to relaunch the new NHL, a new game," Avery said. "We're going to turn it into a bit of a show."

He also hopes they will hear the apology in the form of a new aggressiveness in hitting and marketing.

"We need to be the No. 1 show in town," he said. "We need to be the hardest-working, baddest group of guys around."

And their hands need to be flexible.

"We owe the fans everything, we need to get them back, we need to cross our fingers that they will come back," he said.

Avery was so frustrated during the lockout, he skated in two places he never imagined.

For the Motor City Mechanics in a low-level United Hockey League.

And with 10-year-olds at a youth hockey practice.

"I'm skating around with these kids and thinking, I should be at Staples Center and they should be watching me," said Avery, the tough guy humbled, his peers humiliated, their sport saved.

"Can you please tell all the fans that we're sorry?" he said. "We're really, really sorry."

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

Crosby's Motive
Let's think about this for a second.

Why Is Crosby negotiating with a Swiss Team right now?

Q: Is it because he longs to see the bear pits of Bern?
A: Probably not, although I recommend that city having seen a game there when Reijo Ruotsalainen (sorry i couldn't spell it in the 80's) was finishing off his career.

Q: Is it because he want to play in Switzerland for more money than 850,000?
A: No.. His Sponsors want nothing to do with that one..although remember this for foreshadowing...

Q: Does he think this will pressure the NHL to change the rookie number or get some sort of exemption?
A: Absolutely not. In fact if that happens I know about 100 players that would kill someone for letting that happen after what has transpired in the last ten months.

Q: So why then?

I think there is only one answer. With the upcoming lottery Crosby wants to name his team. "It is no secret in this industry that sponsorships are generally level based depending on where you play, " An agent said, "There are Tier 1 cities: NY and LA, Tier 2 Cities: Chicago, Toronto, Philly, Detroit, Columbus, Montreal, Colorado, etc, and Tier 3 cities, the real small markets... sponsorships dollars are usually linked to what tier you are in."

What cities will be on Crosby's list could be interesting. It is widely known his favorite team is Montreal and he has joked that playing for the Leafs would be hard to swallow...all just in good humor, adding he wouldn't mind playing there at all...

So who has the most talent and depth to deal from and is a tier 1 or tier 2 team out there? That will be the question...Would the Flyers move Carter + for Crosby?

Now does this mean that a team wouldn't draft Crosby? Of course not, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if he asks to be moved or threatens to go to Switzerland. And whatever team drafts him can potentially gain great amounts...The Nordiques got Forsberg, a bunch of players and a Stanley Cup (in Colorado) remember for Eric Lindros.

This will be fun to follow in the next month...keep it here!

Associated Press

7/9/2005 10:59:43 PM

DETROIT (AP) - Red Wings goaltender Manny Legace ripped the executive director of the player's association Saturday and bemoaned the loss of the NHL's 2004-05 season and his former coach.

''We lost a season for no reason,'' Legace told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview. ''We should've crumbled last September when the owners wanted a salary cap.''

Despite at least one report indicating the league's labour situation is essentially resolved, the NHL and the players' association deny that is true.

The Los Angeles Times, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations, said Thursday the agreement would feature a hard salary cap linked to 54 percent of league revenue, a 24 per cent rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers.

The salary cap would be $37 million US and wouldn't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments, the newspaper reported.

''They're not going to announce anything until it's 100-per cent finished and I'm sure they're not going to do it before the all-star game,'' said Legace, referring to baseball's midsummer classic Tuesday night in Detroit. ''I'm hearing it's all but done and the lawyers have been looking over it, and that it could take 14 to 20 days.''

Legace said NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow did a great job negotiating for the players in 1994, but failed them during the current negotiations.

''It makes no sense what we ended up doing,'' Legace said. ''For years, Bob was telling us, `No cap. Owners aren't telling us the truth about their books.' Then out of nowhere, he gives the owners a 24-per cent rollback and it looked like we were panicking.

''Then after saying we wouldn't even consider a salary cap, he backed down on that at the last minute just before the lockout. It was too late, and now we're taking a worse deal.''

Legace said when he was a players' representative for the Red Wings during the 2003-04 season, he publicly said the union should accept a salary cap.

''Bob came to one of our games and screamed at me in our dressing room after I said that,'' Legace said. ''He freaked out on me. He thought I was showing a sign of weakness.''

NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said the union declined to respond to Legace's comments.

Commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled the season Feb. 16 because of the lockout, which started Sept. 16. The NHL became the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labour dispute.

The Red Wings announced on Friday that Dave Lewis would not return as coach, paving the way for former Anaheim coach Mike Babcock to come to Detroit.

''Lewie was everybody's good friend,'' Legace said. ''It was hard for him to lay down the law and maybe guys got too comfortable.''

Legace said Lewis couldn't have been more different from Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who retired after leading Detroit to the 2002 Stanley Cup.

''Scotty hated the world and treated everybody the same, from me to Steve Yzerman,'' Legace said. ''Scotty would rip anybody, and had the personality of an ant.

''Dave was a great guy and we respected him, but we didn't fear him like we did Scotty. If you could've put a little of Scotty's demeanour into Dave, you'd have the absolute perfect coach.''

The Red Wings are expected to hire Babcock, though an announcement won't come until after the all-star game.

''I don't know Babcock from a hole in the ground, other than the phenomenal job he did against us in the playoffs,'' Legace said. ''Guys that played for him say he's a tough coach. Maybe that's what we need.''

With the players already conceding a 24 per cent rollback, Legace said NHL teams should cut ticket prices by the same percentage.

''It would be a great boost for public relations,'' he said. ''Teams like the Red Wings will be spending about $40 million on payroll instead of $75, so they should give some of that money back to the fans.''

Red Wings spokesman John Hahn said each team sets its own ticket prices.

''We can't make any decisions until we see the new deal,'' Hahn said.

After a year without NHL hockey, Legace said the fans have been the big losers.

''I would just like to apologize to them because this didn't have to happen,'' he said.

Canadian Press

7/10/2005 9:44:54 PM

NEW YORK (CP) - The NHL and NHL Players' Association were still meeting Sunday night as they attempted to close out a tentative deal.

A source close to the talks said the NHL's executive committee would meet Monday regardless of whether a deal was done or not, commissioner Gary Bettman slated to update the group on where things stood.

Sunday was the seventh consecutive day union and league officials met as they continued to draft the agreement and iron other issues. They've held 80 negotiating sessions since Bettman cancelled the season Feb. 16.