2013 NHL-NHLPA CBA

[Lunatik]

Yes, however players on Injured Non-Roster are paid their full salaries and count towards the cap. The only benefit gained is they don't count towards the 23-man roster limit.

Injured non-roster is only available for players who are injured while not on the Active Roster, usually meaning they are injured sometime during the offseason and fail their physical upon reporting to training camp.

That makes sense, I think most guys I have seen on it for the Flames in the past were AHL calibre guys that had offseason surgery or something of the sort.

 

[Curufinwe]

Yes, however players on Injured Non-Roster are paid their full salaries and count towards the cap. The only benefit gained is they don't count towards the 23-man roster limit.

Injured non-roster is only available for players who are injured while not on the Active Roster, usually meaning they are injured sometime during the offseason and fail their physical upon reporting to training camp.

That's what happened with Marc-Andre Bourdon a few years ago. Unfortunately, concussion issues forced him to retire.

 

[MikeRahl]

With the Trouba situation, people are speculating that if he were signed to a bridge deal with Winnipeg, and then traded to a team he doesn't want to play with he would simply hold out.

In the CBA, there is a provision where players are fined 1/275th of their salary for each day of training camp missed. Is there a similar provision for missing parts of the regular season (or playoffs?)

 

[mouser]

With the Trouba situation, people are speculating that if he were signed to a bridge deal with Winnipeg, and then traded to a team he doesn't want to play with he would simply hold out.

In the CBA, there is a provision where players are fined 1/275th of their salary for each day of training camp missed. Is there a similar provision for missing parts of the regular season (or playoffs?)

I don't believe there is a regular season fine, the player is already forfeiting their salary for any missed time during the regular season.

The team would also have the option after a player has missed some period of the regular season to suspend that player for the remainder of the season and request that the contract be tolled. How much time would need to be missed is undefined, but it would have to be something reasonably significant, probably at least a half season. The principle behind that being it would be inequitable for a player to intentionally miss a large portion of the season with the intention of getting one year closer to UFA status with minimal actual playing.

 

[MikeRahl]

I don't believe there is a regular season fine, the player is already forfeiting their salary for any missed time during the regular season.

The team would also have the option after a player has missed some period of the regular season to suspend that player for the remainder of the season and request that the contract be tolled. How much time would need to be missed is undefined, but it would have to be something reasonably significant, probably at least a half season. The principle behind that being it would be inequitable for a player to intentionally miss a large portion of the season with the intention of getting one year closer to UFA status with minimal actual playing.

I wonder if there is any way for a team to recover signing bonus on top of tolling the contract. The extreme example of this would be Clarkson who's contract is almost entirely bonus... him not being paid would almost be inconsequential because his yearly salary is peanuts compared with his bonus... unless the bonus is paid out over the year as well?

 

[mouser]

I wonder if there is any way for a team to recover signing bonus on top of tolling the contract. The extreme example of this would be Clarkson who's contract is almost entirely bonus... him not being paid would almost be inconsequential because his yearly salary is peanuts compared with his bonus... unless the bonus is paid out over the year as well?

Signing bonuses are paid out on whatever date the contract stipulates. Reportedly that's July 1st in most cases. IIRC there's a default that if the contract doesn't specify a date for a signing bonus payment then it is due in the first 15 or 30 days of the league year starting July 1st.

There is a precedent in major North American sports for teams to claw back signing bonuses where the player does not fulfill the contract. Not aware of that happening in the NHL though, at least not in the salary cap era.

 

[Curufinwe]

Do cap hits count during suspensions when the players are not being paid?

If they do, the Flyers are going to have some issues with Schenn suspended, Laughton out for 4 weeks, and Manning out week to week.

 

[mouser]

Do cap hits count during suspensions when the players are not being paid?

If they do, the Flyers are going to have some issues with Schenn suspended, Laughton out for 4 weeks, and Manning out week to week.

Yes and No. Players who are not paid during a suspension do not count against the cap. However with Schenn and most other on-ice discipline cases the salary is considered "paid" and forfeited--it goes into the NHL Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. So it does count against the cap.

Note: for any that like to read the CBA, section 18.16 on forfeited salaries can be a bit confusing because it states that forfeited monies are not included in Actual Club Salary. However, a team's cap is not based on the Actual Club Salary, it's based on the Averaged Club Salary. By removing fines/forfeits from Actual but not Averaged that means that forfeited monies don't count against escrow/player share of HRR, but do count again that team's cap.

 

[Curufinwe]

Ok, that makes sense.

 

[Curufinwe]

Another suspension question:

Do suspended players count towards the 23 man roster limit?

 

[LadyStanley]

Yes.

But if there is illness/injury that means team would have less than 18 healthy skaters, then there can be an emergency recall.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2016/10/12/jackets-roster-moves.html

A look at the loophole the Blue Jackets utilized at the start of the season

The league’s collective bargaining agreement is almost as convoluted as the U.S. tax code, but here’s a simplified explanation for the loophole the Blue Jackets are exploiting:
• The Blue Jackets have a big-ticket veteran player, right wing David Clarkson ($5.25 million), whose career might be finished because of a chronic back injury. He is being placed on long-term injured reserve. Per the collective bargaining agreement, clubs get salary-cap relief for the amount of money the injured player’s salary puts them over the $73 million salary cap.
• The Blue Jackets wanted to get as close to the salary cap as possible to maximize the relief brought by Clarkson’s injury. As it stands, they’ll get nearly all of his $5.25 million in cap room.
• Dubois has an NHL salary of $3.425 million ($925,000 base salary, with $2.5 million in potential bonuses), while Wennberg has a $1.4 million hit ($925,000 base, plus $475,000 in potential bonuses).
• By starting the season with Dubois ($3.425 million) on the roster, and swapping him out for Wennberg ($1.4 million) as soon as today, the Blue Jackets are adding the difference between the two — $2.025 million — to their available cap space for performance bonuses.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Not sure if this was ever reported, but it's quite interesting. If a holdout RFA signs after the season begins, the cap hit for year 1 of the deal is increased by about 30,000$ for every day missed.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/insider-trading-lindholm-s-holdout-and-fleury-s-future~976840

 

[mouser]

Not sure if this was ever reported, but it's quite interesting. If a holdout RFA signs after the season begins, the cap hit for year 1 of the deal is increased by about 30,000$ for every day missed.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/insider-trading-lindholm-s-holdout-and-fleury-s-future~976840

The details are in CBA 50.5(e)(iv). The $30k comment by McKenzie is specific to Lindholm, not all players. Warning: the CBA language in there is deep in lawyer crafting.

What the rule boils down to is if a team re-signs their own RFA to a new multi-year contract after the start of the regular season then the year 1 cap hit is not pro-rated based on the % of season missed. The objective of the rule is to take away a potential incentive for teams to delay signing a RFA so they can fit the contract into year 1 cap space they wouldn't have had available at the start of the season.

 

[ADifferentTim]

Is kratom banned under the NHL Substance Policy?

 

[mouser]

Is kratom banned under the NHL Substance Policy?

The NHL does not publish their ban list, though they do look to WADA for guidance. My understanding is that WADA only added that drug to its watch list this year (not even the WADA ban list). If that's correct, then I doubt the NHL bans it right now.

 

[Curufinwe]

If a player is hurt in preseason but is only put on LTIR at the start of the regular season, does the 24 day countdown begin with the first day of the regular season, or can a team have it start from the day of the injury?

(d) Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception to the Upper Limit. In the event that a Player on a Club becomes unfit to play (i.e., is injured, ill or disabled and unable to perform his duties as a hockey Player) such that the Club's physician believes, in his or her opinion, that the Player, owing to either an injury or an illness, will be unfit to play for at least (i) twenty-four (24) calendar days and (ii) ten (10) NHL Regular Season games,

MDZ was hurt on October 6th, CapFriendly shows his LTIR date at 10/7, and the Flyers have already played 10 regular season games. But the Philly media believe he's not eligible to come off LTIR until 24 days after the opening day of the season, which would be Saturday, 11/5.

 

[mouser]

The CBA doesn't clarify whether the 24 day requirement is only regular season days or can include pre-season days. Since the games requirement explicitly states games during the regular season, my expectation would be that the 24 days likely also only applies to the regular season.

Would be curious to find out if it's otherwise.

 

[Fugu]

The CBA doesn't clarify whether the 24 day requirement is only regular season days or can include pre-season days. Since the games requirement explicitly states games during the regular season, my expectation would be that the 24 days likely also only applies to the regular season.

Would be curious to find out if it's otherwise.

I too have always understood it to be 24 days and 10 regular season games. Continuing LTIRs start on the 1st day of the season, iirc.

 

[IME]

Does an NHL SPC have a choice-of-law provision? I don't see one in the SPC included in the CBA's exhibits, but it seems odd that they do not specify which State's (or Country's) law applies.

 

[Fugu]

Does an NHL SPC have a choice-of-law provision? I don't see one in the SPC included in the CBA's exhibits, but it seems odd that they do not specify which State's (or Country's) law applies.

The NHL is a US entity, as far as I know. However teams have to be compliant with both countries' labor and taxation laws, anti-trust, etc. The NHL central office is basically a pass-through entity that divides the money up generated there and passes it on to the teams for taxation. They should only have costs equaling expenses each year.

 

[Fourier]

I am looking for a little clarification on some issues relating to performance bonuses. Any help would be appreciated.

Cap Friendly has a daily tracker which they use to estimate cap room at the deadline, or so it seems. However, there calculations specifically exclude performance bonuses. Today the Oilers roster includes the following performance bonuses:

McDavid $2,850,000
Draisaitl $2,475,000
Slepyshev $600,000
Cagguila $425,000
Nurse $850,000

This is a total of $7.2M. Now the cap cushion is $5.475M. I was under the assumption that the difference between these two would count against the team's hard cap numbers on a daily basis and would negatively impact the amount of payroll room available during the season and at the deadline. But Cap Friendly does not seem to factor this in leading me to believe that I am wrong or the 3753rd time.

Any insight into how things really play out would be most welcome.

 

[mouser]

As far as I'm aware your understanding is correct and CF is inaccurate if they're not accounting for a max of 7.5% in the performance bonus cushion.

 

[Fourier]

As far as I'm aware your understanding is correct and CF is inaccurate if they're not accounting for a max of 7.5% in the performance bonus cushion.

Thank you for the prompt response mouser!

 

[mouser]

One other thing to keep in mind: if any of those bonus clauses become unreachable then they're immediately deducted from the team cap. Though there are probably few if any bonuses those players might have that would become unreachable before the end of the regular season. Most likely among them would be any Games Played bonuses, or if any of the players become unable to reach the minimum threshold of 41 NHL regular season games required for many performance bonus clauses.