Sabre Rattling

And the Salary Deflation Begins

Apparently Sandis Ozolinch didn't get the NHLPA memo about trying to keep his salary near the level of his old contract. With the changes to both the Ducks front office and the NHL's rulebook, Ozolinch looks to be a much more valuable player tomorrow than he was yesterday.

So, if that's the case why is TSN reporting that he signed for nearly half of what he would have made under his old contract of $5.5 million? If he signed a 2 year deal at $2.8 to $3.0 million that's still more than a full million less than what his old contract was worth after the 24% rollback.

Finally!!! It's Over...

This article originally appeared here on July 13, 2005

THE NHL LOCKOUT IS OVER!

In the end, the owners got exactly what they wanted and the players capitulated, exactly as I figured this would play out. Not only will there be a hard cap in place, it will be directly tied to a percentage of revenues. The talking points of the final agreement haven't changed much from the NHL's proposal of Feb. 9th, only the numbers. The players will receive 54% of league revenues in compensation for their efforts with profit sharing and an enhanced pension system.

The bone that the players negotiated for themselves is a lowering of the age for gaining Unrestricted Free Agency. The age will drop by one year from 31 to 27 over the first four years of the 6-year deal. I will pat myself on the back again as I said that the final deal would include dropping the UFA age to 28... okay... I was off by a year. Moreover, the even bigger change to the UFA rules is that a player only needs 7 years of service or have reached the requisite age. This means that for guys like Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash they'll be UFA's at 25 or 26.