Tag Archives: cent

NHL makes movement on buyouts, contract length in new proposal to NHLPA

Posted on December 28, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

TORONTO — The NHL is making a serious bid to save the season.

With another year in jeopardy because of a labour dispute, the league softened its demands in key areas of collective bargaining with a new proposal to the NHL Players' Association on Thursday night. The comprehensive offer included compliance buyouts and less restrictive rules on player contracts, according to sources.

The league's proposal calls for a six-year term limit on free-agent deals — up from five previously — and will allow teams to re-sign their own players for up to seven years. It also includes a provision that salary can vary by 10 per cent from year to year during the course of a deal (the NHL's most recent offer proposed a five per cent variance).

A source told The Canadian Press the deal is contingent on the NHLPA signing off by Jan. 11. Training camps would then open the next day and the season would start Jan. 19.

The...

Iain MacIntyre: Edler’s back, but may never be 100 per cent

Posted on December 17, 2012 by admin in Sun Hockey | No comments

There is a difference between feeling 100 per cent and playing 100 per cent. Alex Edler can live with discomfort – and probably will have to – as long as he can play at full throttle in the National Hockey League.

During the lockout, he has pains but no games. But Edler is well enough to be declared fit by the Vancouver Canucks after the defenceman spent three months re-rehabilitating a back injury caused by a bulging disc.

For now, this means two things: Edler no longer gets paid during the owners’ lockout, and he can show solidarity with his union brothers by wearing a NHL Players’ Association practice jersey instead of a Canuck sweater during ice sessions.

“You know what?” Edler said Monday when asked about coming off the dole. “I would much, much rather be healthy and not getting paid. That’s the most important. It’s absolutely terrible to not be able to be out there with the guys because...

Canucks D-man Alex Edler declared fit to play

Posted on December 17, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

With Alex Edler, it's never been so much about what he says. It's how he plays.

The Vancouver Canucks defenceman isn't as comfortable with the media as he is on the ice, but his level of comfort in recovering from a bulging disc is now the prime focus after being medically cleared. It means the towering Swede has traded those cheques while under the care of the NHL team for the checks he hopes to absorb and deliver with that bothersome back, should the season be salvaged.

"I've been skating five times a week for over a month now and nothing I've done has hurt it," Edler said Monday following a UBC session with the Thunderbirds and his locked-out peers. "There haven't been any red lights. I can do everything, but that doesn't mean I'm not feeling it. Sometimes it's sore and stiff, but it was sore and stiff last year and I played 82 games."

Edler underwent a microdisectomy procedure...

Big hurdles still remain on road to NHL deal

Posted on December 11, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

With a degree in finance, Kevin Bieksa can wrap his head around collective bargaining agreement issues as easily as he wraps up opposition forwards.

The Vancouver Canucks defenceman can take the complicated and make the layman feel educated and entertained.

With the NHL and NHL Players’ Association agreeing to renew talks Wednesday at an undisclosed location with federal mediation in an effort to end the lockout, there may be less venom spewed with other voices of reason in the room in a non-binding setting.

More calm should be in order but three high hurdles still need to be cleared.

Aside from agreeing on CBA and player contract lengths, the one that could trip up a deal is the year-to-year variance on contracts. Players want a 25 per cent difference on multi-year deals that are seven years or longer, meaning the lowest point of the salary scale must be a minimum 25 per cent of the highest point.

It would include...

NHL lockout: Malhotra’s done with negotiating

Posted on December 10, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

To an optimist, the cancellation of two more weeks of the NHL schedule Monday means training camps could still commence Boxing Day, with games showcased on New Year’s Eve, if a collective bargaining agreement can be struck in the next seven to 10 days.

To a pessimist, bitterness on both sides after the league rejected the players’ latest proposal Thursday — and owners took their offer off the table amid considerable New York drama — could place the entire season in jeopardy.

Aside from 42.8 per cent of games now lost to the lockout, six of 13 cheques that players without July 1 signing bonuses have forfeited has only added to timeline tension. A 56-game schedule would have to start by Jan. 1 and a minimum 48-game slate by Jan. 15.

“I don’t know what to think at this point,” Vancouver Canucks centre Manny Malhotra said Monday. “I’ll take a quote from Don [Fehr], he’s not in the predictions-and-guessing business and...

NHL lockout: And boom goes the dynamite

Posted on December 6, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

t’s been a week in the NHL that outpaced the 2012 playoffs in emotion, mood swings and even entertainment.

When talks disintegrated late Thursday, it left more people slack-jawed than anything the L.A. Kings did on their run to the Stanley Cup.

Moments after Don Fehr used the words "agreed to" in a New York presser when outlining several issues, suggesting the sides were within days of an agreement, a voice mail he got from Bill Daly self-destructed the whole procedure like a scene out of Mission: Impossible.

Somewhere, Vince McMahon was smiling. But NHL fans sure weren’t.

The ebb and flow of this negotiation, as it inches toward its conclusion, took positive vibes and twisted them into stomach knots with more turns than a Spanish soap opera. It climaxed when Gary Bettman melodramatically proclaimed everything that had been offered this week was off the table.

Suddenly, all those Kumbaya feelings that there could be an agreement this week turned...

Canucks GM Gillis provides update on injured Edler, Garrison; nixes Luongo-Leafs trade rumour

Posted on October 19, 2012 by admin in Sun Hockey | No comments

Canucks general manager Mike Gillis made his weekly appearance Thursday on the club’s flagship radio station TEAM 1040 and said injured defenceman Alex Edler (back) is “doing well” while Jason Garrison (groin) does not have a sports hernia.

Edler and Garrison both became subjects of curiosity last week when fellow Canuck Kevin Bieksa mentioned they were “unhealthy” and wouldn’t be playing in his charity game. Gillis later revealed Edler and Garrison were being treated for issues that arose prior to the month-old work stoppage. That meant the two were not locked out and would be paid and treated by the team until deemed fit to play.

Edler was reassessed this week, according to Gillis.

“It went went,” said the GM. “Alex is doing well. He’s been put through some really hard workouts over this past week and he’s progressed really nicely so we’re hopeful that we won’t have an issue moving forward.

“With Jason, we’ve ruled out the possibility he has a...

Canucks GM Mike Gillis provides update on injured Alex Edler, Jason Garrison

Posted on October 18, 2012 by admin in Sun Hockey | No comments

Edler was reassessed this week, according to Gillis.

“With Jason, we’ve ruled out the possibility he has a...

Bettman blinks first on NHL lockout

Posted on October 16, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

The NHL didn’t need a Frank Luntz line to reshape public opinion. They needed one from Seth Rogen.

When Gary Bettman finally blinked he made what is the owners’ first substantive offer. It’s one which will resonate with both the public and the players and which could — could — provide the blueprint to an actual deal which would save the season. The whole 82-game season.

Whether Bettman was pressured by a group of owners demanding an 82-game schedule or this was all part of the plan, there is no getting around it:

The proposal just looks so damn handsome when you compare it with the bleak atmosphere surrounding talks and the owners’ repugnant proposal that started the negotiations in the summer.

Then, the owners were demanding players share of hockey-related revenue nosedive to 43 per cent from 57.

Now, quoting Rogen’s 2011 flick, Bettman is willing to go 50/50. A seven per cent nosedive doesn’t seem so bad now, does...

Three days of NHL meetings … at least they’re talking

Posted on September 27, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

They still can’t agree on a revenue split, the remainder of the NHL pre-season schedule has been cancelled and there may be a further exodus of players to Europe next week.

However, there is hope that three days of collective bargaining agreement meetings commencing Friday in New York between owners and the players’ association can gain some traction in the long road to end the lockout.

With core economic issues not the immediate focus, there’s guarded optimism that progress can be made in other areas — including pensions, benefits and medical care — to kick-start negotiations that slowed after formal presentations Sept. 12, three days before the work stoppage.

“The fact they’re in the same room and exchanging ideas is always a good thing — it’s never bad,” said Vancouver Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider, who’s part of the 31-player NHLPA negotiating team. “Hopefully, they can make some headway or at least get some momentum toward common ground. That will make a...

Canucks players criticize hypocrisy of NHL owners’ spending spree

Posted on September 17, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

You don’t pile up nearly $200 million in contracts in a couple days without players noticing a hint of hypocrisy.

The NHL’s version of Black Friday, a spending spree to beat the expiring CBA, isn’t going to help the owners make their case at the bargaining table.

In two days over the weekend, NHL teams went wild, desperately trying to sign players under the rules of the concluded CBA, the one they claim can’t work moving forward.

“It was ridiculous,” Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa said. “I think everyone sees that. If you don’t see that, you’re blind. The problem isn’t with us making too much, it’s with them overpaying guys and creating their own problems.

“They can fix themselves without asking for rollbacks and concessions from us.”

The owners’ defence? They just can’t help themselves.

“It’s a little counterintuitive,” Canucks goalie Cory Schneider said. “’Save us from ourselves,’ is what they said.

“They said they’re too competitive and they want to win so badly, these...

Canucks’ Kevin Bieksa senses plenty of fan support for players

Posted on September 17, 2012 by admin in Sun Hockey | No comments

VANCOUVER — It’s hardly a scientific poll, but Kevin Bieksa senses that this time things are different.

The feedback he has been receiving in these very early days of the National Hockey League lockout — at the coffee shops he frequents, from the fans he meets on the streets and the messages he gets on his Twitter account — has been largely positive and Bieksa feels support for the players. Lots of it.

“I think 75 per cent of the fans have been very supportive,” the Canucks’ defenceman said Monday after skating with some of his teammates at UBC. “I have been getting a lot of messages saying we support you guys, the players. There is a lot of information out there this time, it’s not like the last lockout where unless you were really paying attention you didn’t know what was going on.

“Now there is a lot of information out there. There are stats, numbers are being thrown around,...

NHL lockout close to becoming a reality with no negotiations scheduled

Posted on September 15, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

There will be no last-ditch attempt to avoid another NHL lockout.

With hours remaining on the collective bargaining agreement, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Canadian Press that he didn't expect any formal negotiations to take place before it expired at midnight on Saturday.

"We spoke again today, and in light of the fact that neither party has indicated an intention to move off of its last proposal, we have decided that there is no point in convening a formal bargaining session," he wrote in an email. "We will keep in close contact in the coming days and if anything changes, I am sure we will be in touch."

The NHL and NHL Players' Association let the final three days of the CBA pass without returning to the bargaining table. Steve Fehr, the NHLPA's special counsel, indicated the union requested a formal meeting with the league in New York before the "owners' self-imposed deadline" but was rebuffed.

"(Executive director) Don Fehr, myself...

Gary Bettman says no deal, no NHL season; NHLPA wants to keep negotiating

Posted on September 13, 2012 by admin in Province Hockey | No comments

NEW YORK -- Reiterating that the NHL season won't start until there is a new collective bargaining agreement, Gary Bettman offered a impassioned defence Thursday of the league's stance.

"Listen, nobody wants to make a deal and play hockey more than I do, OK," the NHL commissioner told a news conference when asked what he might say to fans dreading the prospect of a lockout. "This is what I do. This is what my life is about in terms of how I spend most of my waking hours.

"This is really hard. And so you only get involved in this situation when you understand what the issues are and you know you're doing the right thing for the long-term stability of our game and our sport.

"This is very hard and I feel terrible about it."

The current collective bargaining agreement expires Saturday at midnight. The season is slated to start Oct. 11 with training camps due to open Sept. 21.

Earlier, NHLPA...