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Atlantic Division Snapshots: Marchand, Julien, Toronto

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Brad Marchand has avoided a suspension for his “dangerous trip” of Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall in a recent game between the two clubs, the NHL Department of Player Safety has announced. Instead the pesky forward was assessed a $10,000 fine, the maximum allowed under terms of the CBA.

Given his history with the DoPS – he’s been suspended four times overall in his career and on three separate occasions since the start of the 2014-15 campaign – it seemed likely Marchand would be suspended. However, the fact Kronwall showed no apparent ill-effects from the incident may have saved the Bruins leading scorer from that outcome. Ultimately, not losing Marchand for any length is certainly great news for a Boston club fighting desperately for a postseason berth.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • In an ESPN Insider piece (subscription required), Rob Vollman makes an argument utilizing analytics for the Boston Bruins to refrain from terminating embattled head coach Claude Julien. Vollman compares the season-to-date performance of Boston to that of the New York Islanders, who dismissed head coach Jack Capuano recently. On the surface, the two are quite similar but an analysis of shot-based metrics reveal a different outcome. The Bruins have the league’s best shot attempt differential with a plus-488 while the Islanders were a minus-293 at the time of Capuano’s firing. He also compares the career accomplishments of the two coaches, and again Julien holds a decided advantage. Ultimately Vollman concludes it would be foolish to let Julien go. While the scribe makes a compelling case, it is known every coach has a shelf life and Julien is in his 10th season as the head man in Boston. If Bruins management concludes the bench boss has lost his team, or that his message simply isn’t getting through anymore, it may be best to move on.
  • Craig Custance, also of ESPN, believes the time is now for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the team’s management to add experienced talent to take advantage of the young guns currently on ELC’s. Custance compares the current Leafs roster with that of the 2007-08 Chicago Blackhawks. That happened to be the year both Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane debuted in the NHL. As Custance points out, even with the two talented young superstars leading the way, it wasn’t until Chicago added Brian Campbell (2008) and Marian Hossa (2009) did the team ultimately develop into a Stanley Cup contender. He maintains that the addition of Campbell helped turn the team’s defense corps into a quicker, more efficient puck-moving unit. Hossa, Custance adds, showed the team’s young stars how important it is to play smart, two-way hockey. The scribe suggests the Leafs should pursue a similar strategy and while there may be no player available comparable to Hossa, Kevin Shattenkirk could certainly fill the role for Toronto that Campbell did for Chicago. Shattenkirk might well be available via trade, though unless Toronto was able to ink the mobile defender to a contract extension, it would qualify as a risk to sacrifice the assets necessary to convince St. Louis to strike a deal.

Holiday Roster Freeze Explained

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The annual NHL holiday roster freeze starts Monday at midnight, effectively shutting down any player movement until after the holidays. The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (Article 16.5(d)) outlines that NHL rosters are frozen from December 19th at 11:59pm through to December 28th at 12:01am. That means no trades, no loans, and no waivers.  As with almost every CBA section, however, there are certain exceptions to the no-movement period:

  1. Players recalled from the minors. A player can be recalled from a team’s AHL or ECHL team during the roster freeze. This allows teams to replace injured NHL players with those in the AHL.
  2. Players claimed from waivers if placed before the roster freeze. If a player was placed on Regular Waivers before the freeze, and was claimed during the freeze, that player will still have to report to his new club immediately.
  3. Players reassigned after emergency recall. Any player in the NHL on an emergency recall may be loaned back to his minor league team during the freeze.
  4. Waiver-exempt players recalled after December 11th. Any waiver-exempt player recalled after December 11th may be loaned back to his minor league team until 11:59pm on December 23rd.
  5. Any movement necessary to make room for a player returning from LTIR. Teams are permitted to waive or reassign players if the team needs to make roster space for a player returning from Long-Term Injury Reserve. The clause states any transactions necessary, but it is unclear whether that would allow trades between NHL teams (assuming the moving team received non-frozen assets in return).

Aside from these exceptions, NHL rosters remain static until the 28th to provide stability for players and their families during the holiday period.

Department Of Player Safety Hands Down Suspensions

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It’s been a busy day for the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman and Dallas’ Cody Eakin both had scheduled meetings with the DoPS today—Hoffman for a cross-check to the back of Logan Couture’s head and Eakin for running heavily into Henrik Lundqvist – and the two have each received their penalties.

According to John Shannon of Sportsnet, Hoffman received a two-game ban for his infraction and will forfeit $57.6K in salary. Meanwhile, Eakin has been suspended for the next four contests, according to Mark Stepneski, who covers the Stars for NHL.com. Eakin’s suspension will cost the six-year veteran more than $85K in forfeited salary.

Additionally, Marc-Edouard Vlasic was fined $5K, the maximum allowed under terms of the CBA, for spearing Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson. Vlasic speared Karlsson in the second period of the same game where Hoffman crosschecked Logan Couture.

Bettman Clarifies NHL Position On Olympics

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to media today following a Board of Governor’s meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. The Commissioner touched on Olympic participation, escrow payments, and the salary cap, but emphasized that no vote on Olympic participation was taken.

Concerning NHL participation at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Bettman stated that the sentiment was increasing negative. Ever the lawyer, Bettman does not indicate whether the increasingly negative feelings towards participating represents a majority of owners, or only a (growing) minority. Olympic participation is a complex issue for NHL owners as they have to weigh increasing exposure to the sport at the expense of potentially losing one of their star players for the year.

Bettman also indicated that it is “ambiguous” whether skipping 2018 forecloses NHL participation in 2022. The 2022 Winter Games are in China, and the NHL would love to gain a foothold in the Chinese sports market. Participation in 2022 may tip the scales and give NHL owners a reason to send players to the 2018 Olympics if owners are sufficiently worried that they would not otherwise be able to do so.

Turning to the CBA and the salary cap, Bettman clarified that the NHL did not offer to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in exchange for the NHLPA to agree to a three-year CBA extension. Rather, CBA extension talk was tethered to a larger conversation about international play and included a potential 2020 World Cup. Bettman did address the NHLPA’s concern over high escrow payments, stating simply that lowering the cap would lower escrow payments. Relatedly, he also announced that while there is no official decision on any salary cap movement, he expects that it may rise by “a couple of million.“

Toronto Wins Jared Cowen Arbitration Case

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have won their arbitration case with defenseman Jared Cowen, according to multiple hockey insiders including Elliotte Friedman and Bob McKenzie.

Cowen will remain an unrestricted free agent, as Toronto’s buyout of his contract was deemed legal. Back in January, Frank Seravalli of TSN reported that a buyout of Cowen’s contract would give a team a $650K cap credit for 2016-17, and count for $750K against the cap in 2017-18.

Shortly thereafter, the Maple Leafs acquired Cowen in the Dion Phaneuf trade. Cowen did not play a single game for Toronto as GM Lou Lamorellio sent him home to home await a buyout in March; Cowen’s agent was given permission to speak with other teams about signing as a UFA. Cowen was sent home because the CBA  stipulates that an injured player cannot be bought out, so the Maple Leafs did not want to risk him re-injuring his hip and being unable to be bought out. However, Cowen and his agent grieved the eventual buyout for that exact reason: they believed he was hurt and therefore ineligible to be bought out.

The two sides met with the arbitrator on October 19, and ultimately the arbitrator ruled that there was no evidence that Cowen was unfit to play when the Maple Leafs bought him out in July.

Prior to this decision, Cowen was a free agent in the eyes of the NHL. He remains free to sign with any team, and the Maple Leafs remain at 48 contracts with the cap credit for this season.

 

Custance’s Latest: Teams Hurt By Cap Recapture Rules

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In the salary cap era, there is nothing worse than a bloated contract, especially one susceptible to the cap recapture rules. ESPN’s Craig Custance listed a number of teams who suffer from such a fate, and explains as such:

For some teams, that pain has arrived. And it could be worse than originally projected because of cap recapture rules since put in place in the new CBA to punish teams if the player retires early or the contract is traded.

“Teams that did those contracts essentially embarrassed Gary [Bettman]. We found a way to circumvent the CBA legally,” said one executive. “He was incensed, and said ’I’m going to get you back.’ Which he did.”

Now because of decisions made years ago, in the name of winning it all or rewarding players who helped make it happen, there are a group of teams that have legacy costs built into their current salary cap structure.

Two teams who managed to stay in good shape contract wise–while contending– are the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins, with the Pens not having any legacy costs. But the teams below, according to Custance, are the ones who suffered from the wrath of Bettman.

  • Los Angeles Kings

Dustin Brown, Marian Gaborik, and Matt Greene are the contracts that have the Kings on the hook for awhile. Along with Mike Richards’ cap recapture hit of $1.32MM, the Kings have a legacy cost of $8.545MM. Though they won two Stanley Cups since 2012, the cost may have hurt them in terms of losing Milan Lucic and Justin Williams due to a lack of cap room.

  • Chicago Blackhawks

Sure, they’ve won three Cups since 2010, but the Marian Hossa deal will eventually be a “real headache” since it still has four years left. Further, Custance writes that the Hawks could be in for real trouble by the 2019-20 season when the core of the Hawks, namely Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford are all into their 30’s and saddling the payroll with a combined $40MM.

  • Detroit Red Wings

General manager Ken Holland anchored the team with a number of long term, and expensive contracts. Custance’s list doesn’t include the new deals that include a 32-year-old Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, and Darren Helm. Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Jimmy Howard, and Johan Franzen combine for a legacy cost of $9.34MM. Custance believes the Wings could get out of the Howard contract by trade, but Kronwall and Zetterberg’s deals will cripple the Wings for years to come, especially as their play declines. The legacy cost for Detroit: $9.34MM.

  • Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks have a few big contracts, namely the Sedin twins, Alex Burrows, Alexander Edler and Roberto Luongo ($800K retained). Custance notes that while he would take the Sedins on his team any day, their decline is certainly happening.

 

NHLPA Rejects League’s “CBA Extension-For-Olympics” Offer

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As has been widely assumed, the NHL’s offer to the players to allow continued Olympic participation in exchange for an extension on the current collective bargaining agreement has been shut down by the players’ association. The NHLPA officially informed the league today that they are not considering a deal to continue the CBA just because the NHL is holding Olympic participation hostage. While the breakdown of these negotiations does not signal the definite end of the NHL at the Olympics nor an upcoming lockout, it would have been a win-win for hockey fans by eliminating the possibility of either.

The problem with this offer is that the players have issues with the current CBA, namely the uncapped status of escrow costing them money, and also know that they have the free will to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea if they so choose. Superstars like Alexander Ovechkin have said as much, stating that they will play next winter whether the league officially participates or not. Similarly, many, like Brad Marchand, have said that it is their belief that the league has a duty to grow the game of hockey with continued Olympic participation, especially with the next two Games in Asia.

With the players taking a hard stance on playing in the Olympics, the owners felt they could extend a favorable CBA by offering up participation in exchange. It might have worked, but the owners made a mistake: it wasn’t their first demand. The league initially stated that it was concerned about costs, but would approve of the current relationship between the league and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) funded the players’ participation. When IIHF president Rene Fasel said that the Federation would indeed cover costs, that was expected to be the end of the conversation. Instead, the owner kept pushing for more, this time trying to squeeze the players. It didn’t work. The NHLPA saw right through a transparent attempt at coercion.

Don’t fret though hockey fans. The IOC has given the league until January to make a decision on their participation, and with the pressure of high profile players and a failure to gain any more with hostage tactics, the NHL will likely give in and commit to the 2018 Games. With Beijing, China and potentially Calgary or Salt Lake City after that as the two Winter Olympics following Pyeongchang, continued NHL participation seems likely, but skipping South Korea continues to be an option for the NHL. However, if many players plan to go regardless in 2018, the league may as well stay the course as Olympic participants. The other optimistic view of all of this is that, unlike 2004 and 2012, at least one side of the collective bargaining table is content with the current deal. Another lockout seems unlikely, as the owners are happy with the way things are and the players simply want a hard cap on escrow. Finding a balance in revenue distribution is never an easy task, but that is all that’s holding the NHL and NHLPA back from their easiest labor negotiation of the 21st century.

 

Snapshots: Olympics, Vanek, Kane

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The NHL is using the Olympic dream to play hardball with the Players Association, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

As we’ve previously reported, the NHL is offering Olympic participation in exchange for a three-year extension of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA). But the NHLPA isn’t likely to accept that proposal due to their unhappiness with the escrow agreement.

Brooks compared the escrow situation to a classic Seinfeld quote, “the players are angry, my friends, like old men trying to send back soup in a deli.”

The players are not happy with losing 15% of their yearly salary. And they’re furious, according to Brooks, that the NHL is holding the Olympics over their head to increase the CBA’s length. Originally, the NHL said they needed the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to cover player costs, which President René Fasel ultimately agreed to. But then NHL decided it needed more from the players in order to go to the Olympics. As Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist put it, “it sounds like they’re pretty happy at the league with what they have, doesn’t it?”

Brooks writes that this could be the issue that finally unites the Players Association for the first time since they fractured during the 2004-05 lockout as different parts fought for and against the implementation of a hard salary cap. They could fight for a hard cap on escrow, like the NBA has.

With the NHL publicly open to extending the current CBA, it would be “an Olympian task” for them to lock out the players for a fourth time under Gary Bettman.

 

  • The Detroit Red Wings will have some scoring help when they face the Calgary Flames on Sunday as Thomas Vanek is set to return to the lineup. Vanek has missed 11 games, in which the Red Wings had a paltry record of 3-7-1. They’ve had trouble scoring just 18 goals in those 11 games. Vanek has four goals and eight points in seven games played, and should boost the Red Wings. He’ll play on the top line with Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin against the Flames, according to George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press.
  • On Friday, we reported that the Vancouver Canucks were no longer interested in pursuing hometown boy Evander Kane. On Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Sabres’ asking price was too high for the Canucks, and that’s what lead to the breakdown of talks. Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshnyski wrote that the two would have been a poor fit, as the Canucks are rebuilding and Kane averages “a police investigation per season and can’t stay healthy.” Wyshnyski said he doubts Kane would be able to stay on his “best behaviour during a prolonged rebuild,” and concluded “thank God for high asking prices.”

McKenzie’s Latest: Olympics, Escrow, And Star Treatment

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In a pair of radio appearances in Montreal and Edmonton on Friday morning, TSN Insider Bob McKenzie spoke about two big issues in the NHL.

McKenzie spoke in Montreal about the brewing fight between the NHL and NHLPA over Olympic participation and CBA (transcribed by Chris Nichols from FanRag). The current perception is that the owners don’t want to go to the Olympics and are “holding the players hostage” over the issue. The owners are offering Olympic participation at the price of extending the CBA.

The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta reports that it doesn’t seem likely that the NHLPA will accept the offer.

This is because the players’ biggest problem is with escrow. As Nichols puts it, “there may not be a more mind-numbingly awful subject to discuss for hockey fans than escrow.”

McKenzie says he empathizes with the players, because no one would want to lose an additional 15 percent off the top of their take-home salary. The players using the five percent salary cap escalator each season helps raise the salaries of free agents, but ends up hurting players by increasing escrow. While the players say they want a cap on escrow, the issue, according to McKenzie is that “you can’t put a cap on escrow in a hard cap system. I think some players – I’m not saying all players – some players don’t understand escrow.”

This is where McKenzie says the negotiations could get ugly now and when the CBA expires: “if the players actually think that the NHL is going to negotiate a cap on escrow, which would mean that the owners are getting less than 50 percent of the revenue – that’s going to be a motherhood issue on both sides of the fence.”

How will they come to an agreement? “Outside of shutting down the league and going back and fighting the battle over the salary cap and the share, I don’t know how you solve that… There’ll be blood on the tracks for escrow to come down in any meaningful way, other than by not putting the inflator in or the Canadian dollar getting stronger.”

Hopefully for hockey fans, the two sides can figure it out without costing fans the chance to see NHLers at the Olympics in 2018 and beyond, and avoid another season-long lockout.

Another hot button issue in the hockey world is the treatment of superstars. The Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau will miss six weeks with a broken finger after being slashed 21 times by the Minnesota Wild. Flames coach Glen Gulutzan spoke to the referees about Gaudreau’s treatment earlier in the game, but there was no change in the standard of calls. GM Brad Treliving said “it wasn’t a unicorn” that broke Gaudreau’s finger. Meanwhile, the Flames rivals in Edmonton also have an issue with the officiating: the Oilers super sophomore Connor McDavid has also been hooked and held with few or no calls.

Neither McDavid nor coach Todd McLellan have been vocal about McDavid’s treatment. McKenzie believes that is the right choice, telling TSN 1260’s morning show that complaining to the media won’t lead to the results they want. The TSN Insider suggested the Oilers organization will gather video of the missed calls and “lobby behind the scenes and if [Stephen Walkom’s office] thinks you have a valid point then they’ll send out a memo.”

McKenzie said, “one of the things I used to love about the NHL was it was really hard on the star players” but when that happened, “mayhem was going to follow” and that “often leads to serious injuries or criminal behaviour.”

With most enforcers out of the league, NHL teams don’t have the means they used to police the game themselves. If anyone got in Wayne Gretzky’s face, they could count on a visit from Oilers tough guy Dave Semenko. But now, McKenzie says “it’s up to the referees to make sure that Brandon Dubinsky doesn’t get away with murder on Sidney Crosby.”

Even if there are changes implemented, McKenzie wisely points out that “at the end of the day it’s officiating and no one is ever going to be happy about it.”

NHL, NHLPA Discussing Possible CBA Extension In Exchange For Olympic Participation

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After a group met today to discuss options regarding NHL player participation in the next Olympic games, the league put forward an offer that would see the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) extended in exchange for their blessing. Elliotte Friedman was first to report on the offer, with Chris Johnston offering up confirmation from Donald Fehr (head of the NHLPA).

Just yesterday, IIHF president Rene Fasel had promised that the Olympic organization would cover the costs of players attending the games, something that had been the biggest sticking point thus far. While this came as a sign of hope in the last few moments of negotiations, Fasel now left the meetings feeling less than optomistic.

The offer, as Friedman hears, would be to extend the current agreement by three years, which may just represent the full term of the deal as originally written. The deal runs until 2022, though each side currently has an opt-out date in September of 2019.

By all accounts, this seems like a hard stance by the NHL to lock in the high escrow period they’re currently in. In putting an option of agreeing to an extension or sacrificing playing for your country, it’s backed the NHLPA into a media and fan frenzied corner that it’ll be hard to walk out of. If they turn down the offer, and try to work out another way to head to the 2018 Olympics (one which seems unlikely at this point), they’d be seen as money-hungry and non-patriotic, something they’ve worked extremely hard to prevent over the past decade.

For fans, it would be a perfect scenario. The league ensures that there isn’t a lockout or work stoppage for another three seasons, while getting to watch the best players in the world compete on the grandest of stages. In practice, it’s not that simple for the NHLPA or the IIHF, and more work will need to be done over the coming days and weeks.

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