Larry Brooks Has a Few Questions....

[handtrick]

"Is an agreement imminent or isn't it? Have the cap numbers been agreed to or haven't they? Are the parties now dealing in specifics on the systems issues or are concepts still being debated? Can this possibly still fall through at the last moment?"

"Has the league been furnished fixed deadlines by advertisers and network sponsors? What's the implied pressure to complete the deal in order to begin the complicated relaunch process by the beginning of July so that 2005-06 can open on time? Once an agreement in principle is reached, will that be announced, or will the parties wait until they have a completed document to distribute for ratification, or will they wait for ratification itself?"

"Who in his or her right mind believes that even an accelerated signed agreement produced within the next two weeks would leave enough time for a coherent traditional early-to-mid-October opening? Does the league honestly expect its GMs to understand and adapt to the nuances of a revolutionary redesign within a week or two — if not less time than that? How does the league itself expect to accommodate the expected ballooning of salary arb requests within the framework of the traditional offseason calendar?"

It seems that Larry is unhappy that Gary Bettman won't answer his questions.....

http://www.nypost.com/sports/48205.htm

Click to read more...

 

[Pepper]

Uhhoh, it seems Larry has been dropped off the PA's mailing lists and now he's just a clown in the dark instead of doing his bad Goebbels imitation as a trained monkey publishing PA's propaganda statements.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Uhhoh, it seems Larry has been dropped off the PA's mailing lists and now he's just a clown in the dark instead of doing his bad Goebbels imitation as a trained monkey publishing PA's propaganda statements.

I guess your right and they did drop him since all other sources are leaking out parts of the the deal..oh wait..there not.

 

[Jarqui]

There's no point in Bettman saying much until the deal is done if they really are getting close. It's a silly article. Why should Bettman put another date out there for Goodenow to have another "deadline" ? That would be stupid. The next thing the fans want to hear from Bettman is "the deal is done".

 

[danaluvsthekings]

There's no point in Bettman saying much until the deal is done if they really are getting close. It's a silly article. Why should Bettman put another date out there for Goodenow to have another "deadline" ? That would be stupid. The next thing the fans want to hear from Bettman is "the deal is done".

I agree that it is a silly article. There's no way Bettman can answer those questions Brooks has in his article until the CBA is done. How can he explain the cap, salary arbitration, free agency, the draft lottery, and so on when its highly unlikely any of those things have already been agreed to. Sounds like Larry just wants Bettman to hold a press conference where he will make an ass of himself when nothing he says will happen is the way it actually turns out. Because Bettman would look stupid saying something like "UFA status will be granted at the age 29" and it ends up at 28 etc. Would it be nice to have those questions answered? Sure. But I think most logical people realize there's no way they can be answered at this point.

His idea of starting the season on November 1 to give more time for teams to figure out how to get under the cap, for the crazy free agent period, for the draft to be held doesn't seem like a bad one except its just another month hockey will be out of the eyes of the fans. It wouldn't be too bad if they are going with a 72 game scheudle. I also think it would mean that the NHL wouldn't be shutting down for the Olympics because there would be no way they could squeeze 82 games in if they shut down for two weeks and tried to play the current 82 game scheudle starting a month later than normal.

 

[me2]

It seems that Larry is unhappy that Gary Bettman won't answer his questions.....

http://www.nypost.com/sports/48205.htm

LOL poor Larry, he spends months whining and *****ing at Bettman then gets surprised when Bettman doesn't have him on speed dial.

 

[RangerBoy]

It's now the middle of June and everything in the NHL is still in limbo.The NHL has no draft order.Are they going to make rules changes?How many?Which ones?The way these two sides are going,a deal won't be done until Christmas.It's getting late early.The NHL wants to hold the draft two weeks after a CBA is done.When are they going to determine the draft order?The night before the draft.There is so much work to do to get this league back on track but is there enough time

 

[Tiki]

The NHL wants to hold the draft two weeks after a CBA is done.When are they going to determine the draft order?The night before the draft.There is so much work to do to get this league back on track but is there enough time

Doing the draft order lottery a few days before the draft would help build some excitement around it and, lets face it, the NHL needs all the excitement it can get.

Besides, why hold the lottery with a guarantee of a draft?

 

[LPHabsFan]

It's now the middle of June and everything in the NHL is still in limbo.The NHL has no draft order.Are they going to make rules changes?How many?Which ones?The way these two sides are going,a deal won't be done until Christmas.It's getting late early.The NHL wants to hold the draft two weeks after a CBA is done.When are they going to determine the draft order?The night before the draft.There is so much work to do to get this league back on track but is there enough time

No one can say for sure what is or isn't finished. For all we know, they allready have the draft order and where and how it's going to be held. We do allready know that Central Scouting has their lists prepared for all the teams because they said it in an interview. Same for the rule changes, for all we know, they are allready decided upon.

 

[GSC2k2*]

No one can say for sure what is or isn't finished. For all we know, they allready have the draft order and where and how it's going to be held. We do allready know that Central Scouting has their lists prepared for all the teams because they said it in an interview. Same for the rule changes, for all we know, they are allready decided upon.

Sheesh! Don't you know that if they haven't announced it, they haven't thought about it? Or when they aren't meeting, they are all sitting around with pina coladas not giving a thought to the lockout issues and taking a break?

 

[RangerBoy]

Besides, why hold the lottery with a guarantee of a draft?

What?

 

[Jester]

"Who in his or her right mind believes that even an accelerated signed agreement produced within the next two weeks would leave enough time for a coherent traditional early-to-mid-October opening? Does the league honestly expect its GMs to understand and adapt to the nuances of a revolutionary redesign within a week or two — if not less time than that? How does the league itself expect to accommodate the expected ballooning of salary arb requests within the framework of the traditional offseason calendar?"

who knows... but they have to. i mean, let us be serious, there's no way this isn't going to be an absolute mess whenever we come out of the dark here... however, it is moronic to sit down and rip the league for pushing to start on time when they really have no choice. what are they going to do, get a deal done this week and then say, "hell, it's just too hard to start in october, lets wait until january to get started. i'm sure the fans won't mind."

obviously not.

a) i'm positive the NHL has someone who's sole job throughout this whole thing has been planning how to get the league going as quickly and smoothly as possible whenever a CBA is signed.

this does not mean it will be easily accomplished, but someone has at least been sitting around thinking about this thing. even if the NHL isn't thinking about these things, you know the individual teams, at least the competent ones, have been sitting around figuring out what their strategy will be whenever a deal is in place, if for no other reason, so that they can get as much money off us as possible in that season.

b) the league doesn't care if the GM's can or cannot figure out the new CBA. the job of the NHL is to create an economic system that will keep everything under control -- something they failed to figure out the last time around.

simply put, it's each and every GM's job to figure out the CBA and make his team as good as possible within the framework... hell, most NFL GM's still don't have a full grasp on the CBA they operate under and what it means for the player decisions they have to make... the only teams that appear to have it figure out is New England and Philly.

clearly my Skins don't have the first clue...

if a GM can't figure out the CBA, then he'll get fired. it's really that simple... Bettman's job isn't to save joe schmoe GM's job, it's to save the league.

c) Brooks, are you really serious asking about arbitration? do you really not think that it will be directly dealt with in the CBA negotiations... which means we will find out whenever they have a CBA in writing?

arbitration will be dealt with the same as the multitude of other complicating factors to the new CBA, like existing contracts (a larger problem in my estimation). i mean, assuming they have loosely agreed on the monetary numbers -- which i think they have -- these are the complicated things to deal with. just look around the site... the contractual problems against the cap to be negotiated are immense and something creative is going to have to be done... i imagine it is something they are concerned about as well.

 

[Hoss]

Whatever your opinion of the author, aren't these the questions we all want answered? From reading the posts here, I'd say yes.

 

[Traitor8]

I think GM'S figuring out how the CBA works is the last thing on the NHL'S mind. They want to get the deal done then they would start worrying about the rest.

For all we know, GM's could be asked to go to a "class" where an NHL representative will go over the CBA lol.

You never know! maybe there will be a 24/7 LINE open for questions..

Who cares for now ! Get the deal done and then worry!

 

[on the boards]

Alas, poor Larry Brooks-- Eklund is getting more information than he is

 

[Johnnybegood13]

If i were Brooks i would be worried that his presidents title for the "Professional Hockey writers association" is in jeopardy,he has proven that he's a smuck.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

A few more questions he needs to ask.

"How do I write about hockey"
"Why does nobody take my articles serious"
"Why are my only friends Goodnow and Domi"

 

[Monty]

(1) In regard to the possibility of holding the draft lottery a couple of days before the draft, I think that there needs to be a month or so gap between the lottery and the draft if, as Bettman suggested a month ago, the lottery is going to be used to determine which team picks the first through 30th pick, and then do a reverse order, and so on, for each subsequent round. Sure, the GMs and the scouting staff have worked year-round evaluating the prospects, going to junior/European leagues games, etc., and probably built a library of information on numerous prospects. But because where a team's picks in the first and second round may change so dramatically, I think the league needs to give the GMs a little more time to possibly do some follow-up evaluation and strategies for the draft.

For example, depending on the draft outcome, Team A could have the fifth pick in the draft and then the 55th pick. Or it could have the 25th pick and then the 35th pick. That's quite a difference and there are endless different possibilities. In the first scenario, if a team has the fifth pick - in view of the importance of the pick - the team might want to hurry up and interview for the first time or again a couple of the players projected to go around the fifth pick and do further evaluation. In addition, if the team is picking 25th, the team might want to start strategizing on whether it may want to trade up, or trade the pick for a veteran still under contract with another team, etc. Sure the GMs may have been spending the last couple of months strategizing over the myriad possibilities, but it seems like most would want a little more than a few days or a week to prepare once they really know where they stand in the draft.

(2) In regard to preparing for the new world order of a new, complicated CBA, using the Caps as an example, apparently Ted Leonsis indicated on a radio show that GM George McPhee and his staff had been evaluating a few of the likely CBA solutions - in terms of salary cap levels, changes in the UFA or arbitration rules, etc, and GM GM and Ted are meeting this week to review the Caps's strategy under each of the various possibilities. So probably all teams are being updated by the league on most likely CBA scenarios for the major items and starting to evaluate strategies based on it.

 

[All-Star]

Team A could have the fifth pick in the draft and then the 55th pick. Or it could have the 25th pick and then the 35th pick. That's quite a difference and there are endless different possibilities.

I always assumed teams lined up all available players on a list, ordered by whom they believe is best to worst based on BPA, needs, safety or whatever their drafting scheme is. They then scratch names off the list as players get picked, and when their turn comes, they pick the available player who's highest on their list. In other words: everyone will have Crosby at the top of their list... The drafting order should have absolutely no impact on these lists.

I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of trading up or down for picks, but we may see some trading established talent for picks (salary dumps). Considering the cap values are already more or less known, I'm sure GMs have probably already sent out feelers to find out who may be buyers, and who may be sellers.

A lot of business can be done in very few days.

 

[Tiki]

What?

that should have said. "Besides, why hold the lottery without a guarantee of a draft?"

Untill they have a CBA, they have no rules to draft off of, no way to sign contracts, basicly no draft at all. Why bother with the lottery. It can easily be completed after the CBA is done.

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

Perhaps Larry was busy washing Tie Domi's car or shampooing Mike Modano's fantastic giant farrah fawcett-style poodle Anastasia-Priscilla or braiding Brian McCabe's mohawk to hear the phone ringing when Bettman rang him to give him a heads up???