According to the PHPA tweet, their complaint is about COVID-19 issues. It is devoid of financial ruin.
Here's an excerpt of a Q&A:
SJHN: So workers compensation is tied into the amount of regular season games they’ve played this year. And unlike past years, there are no playoff bonuses in the AHL this season. So these playoff games are just additional risk that only the Pacific Division players are being forced to incur — and with no financial reward.
Landon: Yeah, the players are taking the risks. The agents know that, the players know that. And the clubs, unfortunately, they bury their heads. The players voted 133 to eight not to play and [the clubs] chose to play and disregard the players.
Did Landon purposely skirt around the finances in this question?
Ahhh... So I did some digging and found this
article covering the new changes to the AHL CBA for 2020/21 season. Here are two nuggets pertaining to the playoffs:
Playoffs for the 2020-21 season will be at the sole discretion of the AHL. No additional compensation will be paid to players for any playoff games.
AHL teams shall make reasonable efforts to assist the players in finding affordable housing.
Why is this important? Here's the answer within that same article:
A source with direct knowledge of these changes provided InsideAHLHockey.com with plenty of insight on what was reportedly a three-page document sent from AHL President/CEO Scott Howson to PHPA Executive Director Larry Landon last Saturday with terms of a decision requested by Thursday at 11 a.m.
This document stated that, if accepted, it would supersede and replace the agreement made between the PHPA and AHL on June 2nd, which InsideAHLHockey first reported on earlier this week.
The document from Howson to Landon also said that in the event the proposal wasn't approved that the AHL would operate under the terms of the June 2nd legally enforceable agremeent or not operate during the 2020-21 season as well as reseving all other rights available at law.
Huh. Landon
agreed to that CBA change.
I do get what Landon was doing with his tweet and polling of players. He was trying to coerce the AHL from playing any playoff games because he cannot legally tell all of the AHL players to opt out of the playoffs when they opted in for the regular season. Landon cites why he couldn't do it in the CBA article link, he'd be sued.
For all of the AHL Pacific division players, it suck that they aren't getting extra compensations for the playoffs (but does that mean no pay for games played or no bonus pay on top of being paid for playing in the playoffs?). Yet, their PHPA Landon agreed to this.
I couldn't find the actual AHL CBA 2020-21 agreement online. Yet, Landon didn't have to accept the agreement. Now, he's trying to make the AHL look bad when Landon was complicit with this situation. It's kinda shady of Landon to do this, but I do admire his fight for his players... despite it being his mistake for accepting the terms.
As a Duck fan, I think our org treats our players a bit better because that's what we've become accustomed with the Samueli's. It's the other organizations I don't know about in the Pacific. The oddest part about this is I would have thunk the Pacific division would the be first to opt out due to COVID concerns since most teams are in California.
