thinkwild said:
What is the conspiracy you expect to uncover? What is it you could hear. It is an interesting article though. I think we all knew they had salary management software and the union was working in its best interests to use the system to their advantage. I dont see the surprise there. But you can see the typical spin, do you notice it?
The system sounds good, an excellent service being provided by the NHLPA. But all they are doing is saving the agent time. Arbitration briefs and negotiating strategies can be developed pretty easily without access to the system. I've done it.
It isn't hard to find comparables. There are dozens of them for most players because most players, relatively speaking, aren't very good. Not very good players don't have any leverage. It is really hard to find a good comparable for Nick Schultz because very few defensemen finish their three year entry level contract at age 21. The vast majority of players basically take what is offered. Only the best players in any age category have any leverage, and by definition there are only a few players who are the best.
A more important point is that Nick Schultz does not have arbitration rights. Brian Burke - who did conduct seminars for NHL teams on using the the CBA he negotiated - would say "Comparables to Schultz? They are irrelevant because Schultz does not have arbitration rights."
The Wild had all the leverage in this negotiation. They could have forced Schultz to take about half the money for the first two years of his deal. If they had, Schultz would get arbitration rights in the third year. He would have got about the same money in total over the three years. By paying him more early in the contract, the third year salary is minimised. This impacts the qualifying offer required in the seventh year.
Plus, Schultz is happy because he gets the whopping raise he deserved. His first contract reflected his draft position, which was clearly a mistake. His second contract puts him in line with the top draft picks of his age group. All it cost him was a year of arbitration rights.
Three other points:
1) Schultz is likely to be underpaid in the third year of his deal. This is good for all NHL teams because the contract can be used in arbitration.
2) How stupid is this agent? Anonymous? The NHLPA will surely find it easy to sort out the agent. Not that it matters, I suppose, but if they want to deny him access they could. They probably don't care.
3) Every time Daly opens his mouth he makes the NHL look stupid. Of course they have a similar system, one that is every bit as good.
Based on Griffith's legal explanation, the NHL probably could do more technologically to advise teams. But the NHL is a bit skittish. The union filed a grievance -- Daly said it was about six years ago -- contending that the league could not share data and offers.
"We had one hearing before an arbitrator," Daly said. "They couldn't articulate how it violated the CBA [collective bargaining agreement]. They essentially withdrew the grievance. It went away."
Even though that issue faded, Daly said, "there's been a sensitivity on our side toward coordinating negotiations because there may be certain obligations under the CBA that may be violated."
This is a joke. The NHL is sensitive. Ha-ha. The NHLPA almost certainly filed the grievance to get a look at the NHL system. They were designing their own system and they used the grievance process to get inside the NHL system. (I actually applied for the job of designing their website but what they were looking for went way beyond my expertise.)
If the arbitration process is unfair, fine, lets say it, define the problem, and fix it. THe players are willing to make concessions in arbitration if it is leading to a problem. There is surely myriad remedies available other than a simpleton cap.
I think the most important point in the entire article is another dog that failed to bark story. If the arbitration process is unfair, the NHL could use their system to demonstrate it is unfair. Easy. Why don't they? Why isn't the dog barking?
Tom