close

NHLPA ratifies labor agreement

2 min read

TORONTO (AP) – NHL players overwhelmingly approved a labor deal with the league Thursday, virtually ending the lockout that canceled last season. The league’s board of governors will hold a ratification vote today during a meeting in New York, but that ballot is really just a formality. After that, the NHL will be back in business.

Many players are unhappy that a full season was lost and the union ended up accepting a salary cap anyway. They came to Toronto to find out why, and look forward.

“It’s not the deal we once had when we were collecting 75 percent of revenues nor is it the deal we set out to have, but I think it’s going to work,” New Jersey’s John Madden said before the vote. “I think our game will grow.”

Bettman was sent out by the owners to get “cost certainty” – a hard salary cap tied to league revenues – and he has it.

Under the new deal, players are guaranteed to receive 54 percent of league-wide revenues. A portion of every player’s salary will be held in escrow until the end of the season when the new cap number is calculated.

All players that had existing contracts after last season, will have those deals cut by 24 percent.

A six-day window will begin Saturday, allowing teams to buy out signed players and not have those dollars count against their cap for next season.

Once the deal passes, there will be no remaining obstacles in this labor disagreement. The lockout will end soon after, and hockey talk will go back to which team is best instead of who came out ahead at the negotiating table.

With salaries and revenues directly linked, players and owners will need to be partners now more than ever to grow the game.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today