Brooks - Lockout To End by June!

[PDO]

http://www.nypost.com/sports/24571.htm

Gotta love it.

We could've had hockey with a deal that was worse for the Owners in January.. smart move by Bob. How he didn't get fired, I'll never know.

I know it's Larry Brooks, but considering how horribly PA orientated he is and taht this deal suits the Owners, things are looking up..

[Max Power]

Can you post the article PDO so I don't need to create an account?
Thanks
Weird thing is that it worked the first time but now it won?t

[Amoroq]

Key Points


initial upper limit of between $36-38M, with a floor of approximately $24-28M per team
CBA will in fact include the 24 percent salary rollback first offered by the union on Dec. 9
The rollback will apply to the 288 contracts currently in force as well as to the 259 contracts due qualifying offers this summer.
100 percent for players earning over $1M, and either 105 percent of 110 precent for those below that standard, as opposed to league offers that had featured qualifiers at either 75 percent or 85 percent for those earning more than $1M.

With unrestricted free agency to be established at 30 for at least this year ? and expected to be lowered over the term of the agreement to 29 or 28 ? the class available this summer will feature:

Goaltenders: Nikolai Khabibulin, Chris Osgood, Sean Burke, Mike Dunham.

Defensemen: Niedermayer, Stevens, Brian Leetch, Sergei Zubov, Rafalski, Aucoin, Matt Schneider, Alexei Zhitnik, Dan McGillis, Chris Chelios, Mike Rathje, Sandis Ozolinsh.

Centers: Peter Forsberg, Mike Modano, Eric Lindros, Pavol Demitra, Alexei Zhamnov, Jason Allison.

Wingers: Martin St. Louis, Markus Naslund, Zigmund Palffy, Alex Kovalev, Glen Murray, Paul Kariya, Gary Roberts.

In addition, cap considerations make it likely that a number of intriguing players ?including Saku Koivu, Derek Morris, Brendan Morrison, Jeff O'Neill, Jason Arnott, Mark Parrish, Tom Poti, Jeff Friesen and Kenny Jonsson ? will not be qualified and thus will be on the market.

Meanwhile, there's talk that with an agreement in place, the NHL will hold its Sidney Crosby Coming Out Party (a.k.a. the 2005 Entry Draft) in New York on June 26.

[Max Power]

With unrestricted free agency to be established at 30 for at least this year ? and expected to be lowered over the term of the agreement to 29 or 28 ? the class available this summer will feature:

Goaltenders: Nikolai Khabibulin, Chris Osgood, Sean Burke, Mike Dunham.

Defensemen: Niedermayer, Stevens, Brian Leetch, Sergei Zubov, Rafalski, Aucoin, Matt Schneider, Alexei Zhitnik, Dan McGillis, Chris Chelios, Mike Rathje, Sandis Ozolinsh.

Centers: Peter Forsberg, Mike Modano, Eric Lindros, Pavol Demitra, Alexei Zhamnov, Jason Allison.

Wingers: Martin St. Louis, Markus Naslund, Zigmund Palffy, Alex Kovalev, Glen Murray, Paul Kariya, Gary Roberts.

In addition, cap considerations make it likely that a number of intriguing players ?including Saku Koivu, Derek Morris, Brendan Morrison, Jeff O'Neill, Jason Arnott, Mark Parrish, Tom Poti, Jeff Friesen and Kenny Jonsson ? will not be qualified and thus will be on the market.


With the new cap structure in it will be interesting to see how the bidding goes for many of these high profile players if this is true. Some of the richer teams who already have a salary overhead might have problems bidding on these players leaving them open for smaller market teams

I'm sure that free agent list is making all you TO fans drool

[Amoroq]

There are only 3 players on that list that I'd push an old lady under a subway for. ;)

Khabibulin
Nasland
Niedermayer

[Max Power]

I don't know... Palffy, St Louis, Allison and Forsberg are all very attractive names. Also Poti, O'Neill and Steves would be a great addition to any team.

[grim]

Why should I believe this guy? There is no mention of this "it's a done deal" optomism on the news wires.



http://www.nypost.com/img/cols/lbrooks.jpg


May 29, 2005 -- OUR long national nightmare appears to be ending. Yes, it's true: the TV reality show, "The Contender" will no longer be on the air. And in other news, the NHL lockout is drawing to a conclusion.

According to reliable sources on both sides of the table, only an unforeseen intervention by extremist elements of either party can now prevent an agreement between the league and the PA by the end of June. Slap Shots has learned full-scale negotiating will resume Thursday following a small-group financial review on Wednesday.

It is as yet undetermined whether an agreement will be based on the league-preferred flat percentage-of-the-gross or on the floating-cap-range structure proposed by the union on April 4, nor on how great a gap will be permitted in payrolls between the highest- and lowest-spending clubs. It appears as though that the PA will attempt to calculate which system is likely to include the most upside, once the parties reach an agreement on a uniform definition and reporting of league revenues, and then negotiate on that basis.

In either case, it is extremely unlikely that the upper limit will be as high as the strings-attached $42.5M offered by the league just prior to cancellation of 2004-05, though that offer neither allowed for annual hikes based on revenue increases nor mandated a club payroll floor. Expect an initial upper limit of between $36-38M, with a floor of approximately $24-28M per team under either scenario.

There has, as yet, been no accord on definition of revenues, specifically on the critical and ambiguous definition of suite and concessions revenue, but progress toward reaching a common standard has been made over the last two weeks of small-group sessions.

Slap Shots has been told that the new CBA will in fact include the 24 percent salary rollback first offered by the union on Dec. 9. According to a source on one side of the table, agreement on the issue is both "expressed and implied." A source on the other side confirmed the assertion. The rollback will apply to the 288 contracts currently in force as well as to the 259 contracts due qualifying offers this summer.

Both sides have confirmed that qualifying offers and salary arbitration will be based on the union's Dec. 9 proposal rather than on any of the subsequent more restrictive league offers. QO's therefore will be 100 percent for players earning over $1M, and either 105 percent of 110 precent for those below that standard, as opposed to league offers that had featured qualifiers at either 75 percent or 85 percent for those earning more than $1M.

Though we're told there may be "tweaking" necessary to "harmonize" arbitration with a hard-cap system, salary arb will be based on the more the complex and player-protective union proposal than on subsequent league offers that would have permitted clubs to unilaterally defer arbitration or given teams the ability to take players to arbitration on an annual basis.

There has not yet been an agreement on which player costs will be included within the cap. Nor has there been agreement on a revenue-sharing formula or the disposition of 2004-05 contracts.

Factoring in the rollback, the Rangers have six players under contract for $21.7M, with the quartet of Jaromir Jagr, Bobby Holik, Darius Kasparaitis and Michael Nylander accounting for a $20.8M commitment.

The Islanders have only four players under contract, owing $15.6M to Alexei Yashin, Michael Peca, Janne Niinimaa and Jason Blake, with Rick DiPietro owed a qualifier and both Adrian Aucoin and Roman Hamrlik unrestricted free agents.

The Devils have 10 players under contract for $15.4M ? six core players including Martin Brodeur, John Madden, Sergei Brylin and Richard Matvichuk accounting for $13M ? but owe $6.3M in qualifiers to Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez, and with Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski as unrestricted free agents.

With unrestricted free agency to be established at 30 for at least this year ? and expected to be lowered over the term of the agreement to 29 or 28 ? the class available this summer will feature:

Goaltenders: Nikolai Khabibulin, Chris Osgood, Sean Burke, Mike Dunham.

Defensemen: Niedermayer, Stevens, Brian Leetch, Sergei Zubov, Rafalski, Aucoin, Matt Schneider, Alexei Zhitnik, Dan McGillis, Chris Chelios, Mike Rathje, Sandis Ozolinsh.

Centers: Peter Forsberg, Mike Modano, Eric Lindros, Pavol Demitra, Alexei Zhamnov, Jason Allison.

Wingers: Martin St. Louis, Markus Naslund, Zigmund Palffy, Alex Kovalev, Glen Murray, Paul Kariya, Gary Roberts.

In addition, cap considerations make it likely that a number of intriguing players ?including Saku Koivu, Derek Morris, Brendan Morrison, Jeff O'Neill, Jason Arnott, Mark Parrish, Tom Poti, Jeff Friesen and Kenny Jonsson ? will not be qualified and thus will be on the market.

Meanwhile, there's talk that with an agreement in place, the NHL will hold its Sidney Crosby Coming Out Party (a.k.a. the 2005 Entry Draft) in New York on June 26.

Uh, fellas, bad idea: that's the weekend of the second Subway Series.

[Max Power]

You just believe what you read on the internet and stop questioning things!

[KB in Kelowna]

Larry Brooks the Manhattan Al Strachan

[grim]

Larry Brooks the Manhattan Al Strachan

Yeah... then here's another... Mike Ulmer who? How many half truths does it take to make a truth. Two? :]


http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamNew02Images/m_ulmer166.gif

Lockout will end soon
Then so long Bettman, Goodenow!

There will be NHL hockey in the fall. The end game has in fact started between the NHL and the players' association.

When league vice-president Bill Daly told reporters he saw a negotiated settlement coming soon, he started the countdown to a deal that should be wrapped up in the next month.

There is, in fact, little left for the players but to try to save face.

Adamant since the beginning that ownership was cooking the books, the PA and the league have been working on a joint review. It's the kind of rudimentary work that should have been done a year ago and it will reveal what every party but the NHLPA has long accepted -- that a few wealthy clubs, including the Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers -- make good money. Another handful come close.

Two-thirds of the league, meanwhile, is in the red.

The union, having been denied $1 billion US in salaries, is badly fractured. A splinter group that includes Chris Pronger, Jeremy Roenick and others nearly swung an end-run around PA head Bob Goodenow before the season was cancelled.

Throughout the process, players, hundreds of them, have been in contact with the league and with their individual teams. The message flowing from north to south: "Enough already, make a deal!"

Ownership hasn't broken the players' union. For one thing, hockey players are too honourable to sell each other out. For another, the laws of the land, specifically those regarding the use of replacement workers, make destroying a union problematic.

EXHAUSTED

But the players are exhausted and no further ahead than when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired in September.

The concept of an all-or-nothing opposition to the salary cap was a suicidal notion but it was definitive enough. When the players' association conceded the necessity of a cap just before the talks collapsed, the players were left without a platform to contest.

A new, far more moneyed ownership group -- Tom Golisano in Buffalo and Eugene Melnyk in Ottawa come to mind -- were able to outwait the players. The lockout was planned, budgeted for and ruthlessly executed. Except for rumblings from Leafs governor Larry Tanenbaum over the league's inability to make a deal, ownership has maintained a steadfast public face.

Some good will come from all of this.

The players will have succeeded in nudging the league toward more revenue sharing, which, in a league peopled with six Canadian teams and a bunch in the hockey hinterland, is an absolute necessity.

In the end, NHL players will be able to make a superb living with a hand in increased revenues should the game manage to reinvent itself.

Deep dissatisfaction among the paying public about not just the cancellation, but also the quality of the game, has humbled both sides. There will be more impetus to reshape the game, to free up the play and, in the wake of the Todd Bertuzzi attack, to police the game's vigilante culture.

The most noticeable change in the game should include who runs it.

The game will need to move on and jettison both Goodenow and Bettman, the two architects of the labour apocalypse.

Already, there is talk of Goodenow's imminent departure. Good form will prevent him from leaving before a new deal is signed, but the schism inside the union between Goodenow and its rank-and-file millionaires only can result in Goodenow being gone within the year.

Bizarrely, Goodenow will be most responsible for keeping Bettman in office. Ownership won't cashier Bettman until Goodenow is gone, but once he is, they too will reach for a new face. Bettman won't be renewed, not because of this CBA, but because of the past one, and the amount of earth that had to be scorched to fix it.

And so the authors of the disaster will be gone, each having fulfilled their destiny.

For Gary Bettman, that mission was the savage repudiation of a players' union that had convinced itself it was the game. For Bob Goodenow, it was to blindly lead his union into the slaughter.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Ulmer/2005/05/31/1064646.html

[Newfie John]

There goes all optimism for me that a deal will be done by june.

[leaferfan87]

It's good to know that Bettman and Goodenow would most likely be gone if a deal were reached by the end of June. In my opinion the hatred that these two have for each other is so awesome that it would make any future relationships between the NHL and the NHLPA with them in charge very shaky at best. I think it is definitely best to get some new faces in there who can work together and also work towards finding ways to make the game work in the United States and increase its entertainment value.

[Max Power]

More news on this... Either there is some truth to it or the rumors have simply spread to the TO media

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/hearsay.jsp

[grim]

So no matter how much I try to ignore this stuff.... I'm reading in the news that Friday's NHL/NHLPA meetings were productive... and therefore they have scheduled more meetings for Tuesday afternoon. In my business, if a Friday meeting was productive, then the reconvene time would be Monday at 8 a.m., not Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Whaddya say Bob... another 3 1/2 day weekend?
What else Gary?
Ha ha ha ha ha.

[Mel]

So no matter how much I try to ignore this stuff.... I'm reading in the news that Friday's NHL/NHLPA meetings were productive... and therefore they have scheduled more meetings for Tuesday afternoon. In my business, if a Friday meeting was productive, then the reconvene time would be Monday at 8 a.m., not Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Whaddya say Bob... another 3 1/2 day weekend?
What else Gary?
Ha ha ha ha ha.


You know I think the same thing a lot... but never really thought much of it till you just mentioned it. What happened to 40 hour weeks? What happened to working overtime to get a job done?

How about no golfing allowed until a deal is signed?

And lastly, how about PICK ONE CITY and have ALL the meetings there. What's with leap frogging from city to city each week to continue talking?

[Max Power]

You know I think the same thing a lot... but never really thought much of it till you just mentioned it. What happened to 40 hour weeks? What happened to working overtime to get a job done?

How about no golfing allowed until a deal is signed?

And lastly, how about PICK ONE CITY and have ALL the meetings there. What's with leap frogging from city to city each week to continue talking?

IMO I think it's the traveling. They go home each weekend and reconvene at a different location for 3 or 4 10-hour sessions. Hey, I?d rather work 4 day weeks if it was possible and since this will obviously take some time and much traveling then I think this type of schedule makes more sense. I don?t think it?s uncommon for this type of litigation