2013 NHL-NHLPA CBA

LadyStanley

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Sep 22, 2004
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31 Thoughts: Is Vegas thinking about re-visiting Erik Karlsson deal? - Sportsnet.ca

2018-19 RFA compensatory picks for offer sheets
Offer Sheet (AAV) Compensation
$1,339,575 or below None
Over $1,339,575 to $2,029,59 3rd
Over $2,029,59 to $4,059,322 2nd
Over $4,059,322 to $6,088,980 1st, 3rd
Over $6,088,980 to $8,118,641 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Over $8,118,641 to $10,148,302 (2) 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Over $10,148,302 (4) 1st

And on average salary, and walk away $$:
The league average salary for 2017-18 was $3,115,115 — up 3.4 per cent from last season. And, NHL teams have the option to walk away from a salary arbitration award at $4,222,941 or more.
 
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justafan22

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Jun 22, 2014
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I've read 2 conflicting sources on this issue. The opt out date for the NHL I've read is sept 1 2019. sept 15 2019 for the NHLPA.

If the NHL opts out on the first date, does it mean the 2019-20 season goes as planned and then 2020 is when negotiations begin, or is it immediately for the 2019-20 season that the lockout happens?
 

mouser

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I've read 2 conflicting sources on this issue. The opt out date for the NHL I've read is sept 1 2019. sept 15 2019 for the NHLPA.

If the NHL opts out on the first date, does it mean the 2019-20 season goes as planned and then 2020 is when negotiations begin, or is it immediately for the 2019-20 season that the lockout happens?

Yes, it would take effect in 2020. Think of it as having to give a one year advance notice.
 

justafan22

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Jun 22, 2014
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Yes, it would take effect in 2020. Think of it as having to give a one year advance notice.

Thanks. So while that's likely to happen, could they use the opt out and then settle before september 2020? Due to the possible world cup in 2020 I wonder if they start that tourney in late august to fit it in before the date.
 

mouser

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Thanks. So while that's likely to happen, could they use the opt out and then settle before september 2020? Due to the possible world cup in 2020 I wonder if they start that tourney in late august to fit it in before the date.

They could settle before then. I wouldn't be overly optimistic about that happening though. Fehr prefers to wait until the 11th hour before getting into real negotiations.
 

LadyStanley

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31 Thoughts: Examining Erik Karlsson trade fallout - Sportsnet.ca

Looks like that might be changed in future CBA discussions
You’ll remember that Washington traded defenceman Brooks Orpik to Colorado at the draft. The Avalanche bought out Orpik from the one season remaining on his contract, and he went back to the Capitals one month later. Savings for Washington: $4 million in cap space. A couple of weeks ago, the league notified the individual clubs that it reviewed the situation, and explained its concerns. Teams viewed the memo as a warning, that if the NHL could make an example of someone, it would.
 

mouser

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Is there a maximum number of buyouts allowed by a team?

No. They just need to be able to field a compliant roster.

There are limits on non-ordinary buyouts:
- Compliance buyouts were available for a limited time and no more then 2 per team.
- Ordinary course buyouts outside the regular period (i.e. ones exercised in mid to late July following arbitration cases) are limited to a total of 3 per team over the lifetime of the current CBA.
 
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Puckhead44

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May 16, 2018
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If a RFA is offer-sheet by another team does he have to sign it? Can he decline the offer-sheet and resign with current team at a lower number then the off-sheet was.
 

mouser

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If a RFA is offer-sheet by another team does he have to sign it? Can he decline the offer-sheet and resign with current team at a lower number then the off-sheet was.

An Offer Sheet only exists if the player signs it. The way the media and us posters throw the term Offer Sheet around can actually be a bit misleading.

RFA's are free to negotiate SPC's (Standard Player Contract) with other Clubs. Both the player and any other Club can initiate discussions. If the Player and Club agree on a SPC then they are required to provide the player's original Club with an Offer Sheet signed by both the Player and other Club. That Offer Sheet contains some (but not necessarily all) of the details in the SPC:

1. Term of SPC
2. Signing, Reporting, or Roster Bonuses
3. Paragraph 1 NHL Salary for each year of SPC
4. Paragraph 1 Minor League Salary, if any, for each year of SPC

The player's original team then has the option of signing the player to a contract matching those details, or accept draft picks in compensation. Notably absent from those details is NMC/NTC--the player and new club can negotiate those in the SPC they agreed to, but the original club does not need to match that.
 

uncleben

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So I read through all of Paragraph 13 of the SPC, 50.9 of the CBA and looked at Exhibit 20, all about buyout terminations. I tried searching for other termination clauses, but couldn't find anything immediately.

Does anyone know if there are specific CBA passages on termination (for breach of contract) and/or more importantly, mutual terminations?
 

mouser

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That's been the standard for a while. Fines of more then $5,000 require a hearing. The maximum allowed fine in a hearing is:

$10,000 if the player hasn't been fined in the prior 12 months
$15,000 if the player has been fined in the prior 12 months

Note: all fines are limited to a maximum of 50% of a player's average daily pay (includes Salary & Signing bonuses). So say a player on an ELC with a salary/bonus of $925k could have a maximum fine of $2,486.
 

Ted Hoffman

The other Rick Zombo
Dec 15, 2002
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Does the team really gain a cap benefit in a buyout by giving a player huge signing bonuses? I ran a couple examples on this. Short answer: no. Even for a contract like Matthews that's just about all signing bonus, there's no cap savings in a buyout. Even if all of that signing bonus is paid at full value.

The cap hit on a buyout becomes massive [for Matthews, buying him out after the 2nd year puts up cap hits of just over $11 million for 3 years followed by "only" $125K for the next 3] but the total amount of money he receives still equals the number of dollars incurred by the team. That's what the buyout formula is designed to ensure. [Ignoring assignments to the minors where guys may or may not count at all, but that's a totally different topic.] The more signing bonus assigned, the more prohibitive a buyout gets for the years where there's still signing bonus to pay out, but there's no "circumvention of the cap" going on and there's no "loophole" being exploited.

However, I have full faith in the hockey media to leap to unfounded conclusions and moan and whine about it anyway and call for action. And, I have full faith in the NHL to create an(other) asinine fix to a non-problem and probably create more issues as a result.
 
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mouser

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I don't think the signing bonuses and buyouts are a big deal.

I do however think there's merit to the argument that the intersection of signing bonuses, trades and salary paid vs. cap hit should be addressed in some way.

Illustration: Team A has a player with 1 year remaining and $5M AAV, composed of $3M signing bonus and $2M salary. The signing bonus is paid on July 1st then the player is traded on July 2nd to Team B. The numbers work out to

Team A: $3M compensation to the player, $0 cap hit.
Team B: $2M compensation to the player, $5M cap hit.

It opens up manipulations that I don't think are in the spirit of the cap system. Unfortunately simply changing it so Team A takes a $3M cap hit and Team B gets a $2M cap hit opens up a different avenue of potential abuse.

The best "solution" I've come up with so far is changing the system so Team B has to pay Team A a pro-rated portion of the signing bonus based on how far into the regular season the league is when the trade occurs. e.g. Trade the player before the regular season starts and Team B has to repay Team A 100% of the signing bonus. Make the trade halfway through the regular season and Team B has to repay Team A 50% of the signing bonus. That seems like an equitable way to remove the incentive to structure signing bonuses for trading purposes by aligning the compensation and cap hit in the season a trade happens.
 
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