For me (and almost every breathing Canadian and a select number of Americans), hockey is a religion. It is something to be practiced and worshipped on a daily basis. And when a religion decides to stop everything for about a year, I get mad. However, the only sport that some can consider a religion is back, after the NHL players union had about 90% approve the new collective bargaining agreement, likely ending the 300-plus day lockout that started last September. Now the real fun begins…
To fill in all the non-hockey readers, the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a set of policies (such as salaries and how revenue is distributed) that all sports have. The NHL CBA expired last July, and since the two sides (the players union and the team owners) were very opposed on several key issues, most notably salary cap (how much payroll a team can have for players), the players wouldn’t play, and the owners didn’t care enough to breakdown. Since the league has been in debt for the last ten or more years, the owners didn’t mind actually not losing money for a year, and the players were too stupid to give in four months when they would have agreed to a better proposed deal than they have agreed to now.
With all that said, Hockey is back! As I said before, the real fun begins now. With a brand new salary cap, most teams who used to bring in enough money to pay all their players must get rid of some of them in order to have enough players to fit below the cap. For example, the Detroit Red Wings have been one of the most profitable teams over the last ten years, and therefore used to have the most money to designate to there players. Now, though, the profit doesn’t matter, because a number is set ($39 million) by the league and each team’s payroll must be at or below this amount, no exceptions. So, the Red Wings must forfeit a number of these overpriced salaries to have enough money to allow enough players on their team with the $39 million maximum. Hope your still with me! Anyways, what this means is a number of teams will be getting rid of players, and players will have to join new teams, and the playing field is more equal than it has EVER been (this is true for the first time in the league’s 100+ year existence). If you have never been a fan, never wanted to understand, or never could follow the game of hockey, THIS IS THE TIME TO START.
There does lay one very interesting factor not yet understood: Sidney Crosby, a man, not even as old as me, who has already been compared to as the next Wayne Gretzky (best player in hockey ever). Come tomorrow when the owners ratify the new CBA, which is all but done, there will be a lottery to see which team wins the first pick in the NHL entry draft which is held around the end of the month. It is already known that the team who is given the first selection will select
All I am happy about is that the world of Hockey is alive again, and we will once again see the puck drop.
- posted by Andy
