Speculation: 2020-21 Season Rumors and Facts Thread

[Snipes45]

Oh man, I CANNOT STAND Allan Walsh lol

 

[Soundwave]

The Olympics are gonna happen in the summer, but what I think could help the NHL out a lot is if the Olympics were delayed from July 23 start date to say a August 6th or August 13th start.

End of the first week of August is a fairly common start time for summer games anyway, the 2016 (Brazil), 2008 (China), 2004 (Greece) summer games all started in August, not July.

2000 Olympics in Sydney Australia had an even later start -- September 15th, 2000.

Being able to play straight to the end of July would probably help the NHL out a lot since it doesn't look like they can get their act together right now and have a season start any time soon.

 

[bellagiobob]

Translation: We would be starting Jan 1 if the players agreed to our proposed pay cuts.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Here is the entire interview for anyone that cant get enough doublespeak coming from the Covid House.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

 

[Little Fury]

They should just eliminate the salary cap for one season, just let everyone go HAM.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

They should just eliminate the salary cap for one season, just let everyone go HAM.

Many owners have no money to go BEANS never mind HAM.

 

[samiam]

So I read this as Bettman simply saying to the PA...... "look, you owe us XX million...... what mechanism do you suggest using to pay this back while maintaining a 50/50 split overall. It seems the current system (with a annually decreasing escrow) is not sustainable to achieve this objective. What mechanism do you suggest we use for this re-payment??..... I'm all ears"

Would this be accurate??

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

So I read this as Bettman simply saying to the PA...... "look, you owe us XX million...... what mechanism do you suggest using to pay this back while maintaining a 50/50 split overall. It seems the current system (with a annually decreasing escrow) is not sustainable to achieve this objective. What mechanism do you suggest we use for this re-payment??..... I'm all ears"

Would this be accurate??

Unless the owners are using this as a play to use Force Majeure and close down the season, yea.

The players are saying they have a deal in place however. And for once I sort of agree with them. Nothing that is happening is unexpected so why did the NHL not calculate the impact earlier?

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

 

[CupofOil]

I just heard that they suspended the QMJHL for a month. I think the NHL is monitoring these shutdowns and perhaps is thinking that it might be prudent to wait until February or so to start up. I know that there's a financial issue to work out but COVID will largely dictate when/if they start and it seems to be "The Elephant in the Room" when discussing potential start dates with the gulf between the owners and players getting the headlines.

The U.S. is pretty lenient for the most part but it seems like a lot of Canada is going into shutdown mode so I don't think the NHL wants to risk the Canadian Division getting shut down and throwing the whole season out of whack because COVID is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. I'm concerned about the WJC getting started too for this reason.
Tough decisions ahead for sure.

 

[Yukon Joe]

So I read this as Bettman simply saying to the PA...... "look, you owe us XX million...... what mechanism do you suggest using to pay this back while maintaining a 50/50 split overall. It seems the current system (with a annually decreasing escrow) is not sustainable to achieve this objective. What mechanism do you suggest we use for this re-payment??..... I'm all ears"

Would this be accurate??

Kind of. There's a discrepancy in the MOU in that it 'guarantees' a 50/50 split in HRR, but the mechanisms put in place to ensure a 50/50 split don't appear to work, and thus it appears that by the expiry of the MOU the players will have received in excess of 50% of HRR.

Owners of course point to the 50/50 guarantee the players agreed to.

Players point to the escrow mechanisms the owners agreed to.

This is a very large game of chicken going on. Since there's a MOU agreed to, the only leverage the owners have is shutting down the entire season (ironically merely delaying the season works to the players benefit, as they get a guaranteed salary no matter how many games they play).

 

[samiam]

Unless the owners are using this as a play to use Force Majeure and close down the season, yea.

The players are saying they have a deal in place however. And for once I sort of agree with them. Nothing that is happening is unexpected so why did the NHL not calculate the impact earlier?

Yes, I agree the NHL mis-calculated, and I also agree that yes there is a deal in place. But I also look at it as, if the NHL were to honour the existing deal, then by what method will the players be using to pay back the shortfall to honour the 50/50 split.

With a decreasing escrow this will be extremely difficult.
It would be akin to you or I wanting to pay our mortgage off faster, while at the same time wanting smaller monthly payments.

I think the NHL/owners just want to hear what ideas the players suggest, that will make things work.

 

[bellagiobob]

Unless the owners are using this as a play to use Force Majeure and close down the season, yea.

The players are saying they have a deal in place however. And for once I sort of agree with them. Nothing that is happening is unexpected so why did the NHL not calculate the impact earlier?

Going on the assumption that the league isn't stupid (open for debate ), guessing hat the league milked the PA in the latest CBA for all they could, and got the max out of the players that they could get at the time. Likely knew the decreasing escrow %'s were unreasonable, and their plan all along was to get the CBA done, and then when the shit hit the fan, force the players to choose between not playing at all or agree to a more reasonable repayment system.

 

[bellagiobob]

Kind of. There's a discrepancy in the MOU in that it 'guarantees' a 50/50 split in HRR, but the mechanisms put in place to ensure a 50/50 split don't appear to work, and thus it appears that by the expiry of the MOU the players will have received in excess of 50% of HRR.

Owners of course point to the 50/50 guarantee the players agreed to.

Players point to the escrow mechanisms the owners agreed to.

This is a very large game of chicken going on. Since there's a MOU agreed to, the only leverage the owners have is shutting down the entire season (ironically merely delaying the season works to the players benefit, as they get a guaranteed salary no matter how many games they play).

How does that work say for a player who is on the last year of his contract, and doesn't play again after this year. If after they do the HRR calculations, and determine that the current escrow amount wasn't sufficient, would this player personally have to repay a portion of his salary back to the league at some point, or is it just kicked down the road for a future year player to have to 'pay it back' with a higher escrow % in later years?

 

[Yukon Joe]

Yes, I agree the NHL mis-calculated, and I also agree that yes there is a deal in place. But I also look at it as, if the NHL were to honour the existing deal, then by what method will the players be using to pay back the shortfall to honour the 50/50 split.

They won't.

By the time the MOU expires they're counting on the NHL not wanting to go to war about over-payments that happened years in the past and not to try and collect it from a group of players that is substantially different than the ones that received the benefit of the over-payment.

 

[samiam]

How does that work say for a player who is on the last year of his contract, and doesn't play again after this year. If after they do the HRR calculations, and determine that the current escrow amount wasn't sufficient, would this player personally have to repay a portion of his salary back to the league at some point, or is it just kicked down the road for a future year player to have to 'pay it back' with a higher escrow % in later years?

LOL! If I'm players X that this applies to, then I'm locking/changing my bank account as soon as I get my last paycheck!

 

[Yukon Joe]

How does that work say for a player who is on the last year of his contract, and doesn't play again after this year. If after they do the HRR calculations, and determine that the current escrow amount wasn't sufficient, would this player personally have to repay a portion of his salary back to the league at some point, or is it just kicked down the road for a future year player to have to 'pay it back' with a higher escrow % in later years?

My understanding is that escrow is calculated year-by-year. So if there's an overpayment in one year then it's supposed to be made up by the next year's salaries. Player who retires after 20-21 (if it happens) will get his final check and then doesn't have to worry about it.

 

[Snipes45]

I truly believe a lot of players have absolutely no idea about what is exactly going on and why it can be bad yeas down the road.

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

Given that every other major NA sports league is moving ahead with playing the 2020-21 season it would be terrible for the NHL to cancel the season especially when their TV deal with NBC runs out in the summer of 2021. Not exactly a good idea marketing wise to not be playing prior to trying to attract a new TV rights holder. "So you're not playing, you're not relevant currently, and you want us to pay how much for TV rights? How about we'll pay you a quarter of that, broadcast less games, and then we have more money to throw at the NBA and MLS instead because those two sports are really capturing peoples' attention and generating advertising revenue."

 

[Soundwave]

Every other league has their shit together and even the Olympics are going full steam ahead.

Of course hockey fans are the ones who have no idea when is the next time they'll actually be able to watch NHL hockey.

Classic NHL. Always content to be the dysfunctional family on the block.

Everything is a damn nightmare with this league. They had the dumbest return to play setup of any of the pro sports (lets do elimination rounds after just 1 warm up game after 4 1/2 months off!) and it's December and they still have nothing close to any kind of actual deal in place while telling us they want to start in January.