This is what I was getting at. The make whole will help the players recoup some money lost, but would the results of going to the 50/50 split help reduce the players salary against the cap? That is where I get confused.
Hope this is comprehensible:
Essentially, there's no immediate impact on the players salary against the cap. This year, they have both agreed it will remain what it was slated to be - 70 M.
Next year's 2013-14 cap number is a huge point of contention right now. The NHL has proposed 60 M. The players want 65 M. The reason why it's a point of contention is that
the salary cap is always calculated based on the revenues of the previous season...but since 2012-13 will have diminished revenues due to so many games being cancelled, they can't use the normal formula. So they are going to go with a ''random'' number basically.
Come 2014-15, the ''normal formula'' will be used again. That formula was this under the last agreement: Players share of HRR (57%) * revenue (3.3 B in 2011-12) / 30 (because there are 30 teams)...that would give a total that represented the ''midpoint''. Add 8 M for salary cap. Substract 8 M for the salary floor. It should be a similar formula in the new agreement.
The cap is not really impacted by the 50/50 share that is coming.
The way the NHL proceeds with the calculation of that 50/50 share is this:
They count HRR for the completed season. Every teams revenues, the leagues revenues, etc. It all goes into 1 pot.
They count players salaries for that season for the whole 700 + players.
The salaries of those 700+ players will have to represent 50% of HRR from the 30 teams+global league revenues.
If it's more than 50%, then the players make up the difference to get to 50% via their escrow payments to the league. Usually at the start of each season, players are forced to put a certain % of their salary in escrow.
If it's less than 50%, then the owners ''pay'' the players money so it's a true 50/50 split.