New CBA highlights

[armandtanzarian]

Got this from a poster on HF. It has some good info in it.

Just some of the details of the new CBA

We already know cap numbers and such, so thought I’d add some of the finer details. Will add as more info comes in

Performance bonus cushion of 7.5% will remain but it will no longer be counted to help clubs get to the floor or the leagues minimum salary. In other words, teams must be at the floor not counting bonuses and a player’s salary must be at the league minimum not counting bonuses. This does not include signing bonuses.

Performances bonuses remain the same as in previous CBA.

LTIR remains the same.

All 14 non-playoff teams have a chance at the first overall pick (odds still to be determined). For every first overall pick any of those teams had in the previous three years, they will lose a ball in the lottery. Call this the Edmonton Rule.

The league agreed to immediately input $2 million into the retired player’s emergency assistance program and will replenish it when needed. The fund will be administered by both the NHL and NHLPA.

Teams cannot walk away from salary arbitration if the awarded contract is for less than $3.5 million per season. Under previous CBA, teams could walk away from any arbitration award.

Teams are no longer protected from offer sheets to their RFA’s if they file for salary arbitration. The previous CBA didn’t allow for offer sheets to players that were taken to/or filed for salary arbitration. Best example I could come up with was two seasons ago when Shea Weber was taken to arbitration (and awarded $7 million). Teams could not give an offer sheet to Weber because Nashville had filed for arbitration. Now they can. I guess we can call this the Weber rule.

No change in the number of players you can take to arbitration in a season (two) and a player can only be taken to arbitration once in his career.

Players get a bigger share of playoff revenue compared to the last CBA.
Waiver period is now 24 hours and is now 7 days a week. Previous CBA was 48 hours and had to be done Monday to Friday (5:00 pm EST was the deadline). A player can now be sent down to AHL on a Saturday and if he has to clear waivers, can be claimed on a Sunday.

Teams cannot buyout players earning less than $2.5 million per season if they were not on the teams reserve list prior to trade deadline – which has yet to be determined for this season. This is not the compliance buyout but regular buyouts. Anyone can be bought out under the compliance buyout except players on LTIR (Savard, Pronger).

Cap recapture applies to players on deals longer than 6 years and are front loaded. This is a very complicated issue and requires a thread of its own to explain. Basically, if a player retires before his contract expires, his actually salary paid up until he retires minus his total cap hit up until then divided by the number of years remaining on that players contract will be the teams cap hit for how many years were remaining on that contract. Basically, it charges the team for the cap hit that was saved by front loading it for the time that he played. However, it gets real complicated if that player is traded. For the sake of an easy explanation, let’s assume that at season’s end the Bruins acquired Ilya Kovalchuk in a trade. Kovi would have played 3 years with New Jersey earning actual dollars of $23 million. His cap accumulated cap hit in that time was $20, million. Now let’s say he retired with 4 years remaining on his deal. The Bruins would have paid him real dollars amounting to $67 million and an accumulated cap of $53,333,336. Upon his retirement the Devils would be charged a cap hit of $23 million (real dollars) minus $20 million (accumulated cap hit) = $3 million divided by 4 (years remaining) = $750,000 for 4 years. The Bruins on the other hand would be charged $67 million (real dollars) minus $53,333,336 = $13,666,664 divided by 4 (years remaining = $3,416,666 per year for 4 years.

Wade Redden rule: a player with a one way contract earning $375,000 per year above the league minimum and playing in the AHL will have the entire cap less $100,000 count against the teams cap. This does not include players on a conditioning stint.

League’s minimum salary remains the same and goes to $650,000 by 2017 and ends at $750,000 in year 10 of the CBA.

Compliance buyouts will count towards players share of HRR but NOT against the teams cap. In other words, any player bought out as a compliance buyout, the buyout amount (not his salary) will count as a player’s share of HRR but the team is totally clear of it in terms of the cap hit.

Teams can retain cap hits from trades for a maximum of three contracts at any one time as long as it’s not more than 50% of the cap hit and is not more than 15% of the teams total cap limit. May sound complicated but will require strict bookkeeping to keep track of.

Teams can still pay a salary to drafted junior players playing in the CHL to a maximum of $20,000 per year if negotiated in their SPC and does not count towards the teams cap or the player’s share of HRR.

Revenue sharing is set at $200 million with a $60 million growth fund to be managed equally by the NHL and the NHLPA. That $60 million is based on a percentage of revenue growth from year to year and is not accumulated from year to year meaning if it goes to $260 million in one year, the next year reverts back to $200 million with another opportunity to increase by $60 million and not $260 million as the minimum.
The NHL and the NHLPA agree to keep the existing independent auditors and accountants.

League discipline will be headed by Brendan Shanahan. First appeal is to Gary Bettman and any appeal for suspensions of more than 6 games goes to an independent arbitrator.

Still some things to be negotiated and will become amendments to the CBA such as age eligibility of CHL player’s for the AHL and emergency call up to the NHL (ongoing negotiations with CHL), international hockey (not just Olympics but bringing back the World Cup – will require ongoing negotiations with IIHF, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey).

Over the last few days, I’ve posted most of these throughout other threads and if mods feel the need to merge, by all means do so. Just thought one stop shopping will make it easier for everyone. As any new info becomes available, I will try and add it here.

Some of these are complicated, especially trading of cap space (more like retaining cap then trading it) and I’m sure there is going to be questions. If you have any questions for me, I will do my best to answer them or get answers, but you’ll have to be patient. Someone else may have an answer for you as well.

Scrambled brains? You should see mine !!

[Mike]

For every first overall pick any of those teams had in the previous three years, they will lose a ball in the lottery. Call this the Edmonton Rule.

dayum

[Mike]

For every first overall pick any of those teams had in the previous three years, they will lose a ball in the lottery. Call this the Edmonton Rule.

dayum

Also this fucks up our draft mimicry.

[armandtanzarian]

Yea thats an interesting one. I can see us actually doing a picking out of the hat exercise where the previous winner will have to lose a piece of paper???

[Mike]

Yea thats an interesting one. I can see us actually doing a picking out of the hat exercise where the previous winner will have to lose a piece of paper???

I guess. Hopefully with both an electronic hat and electronic paper.

[armandtanzarian]

lol i think it would be fun to view some of you clowns that live near eachother do a live draft. I know id tune in...

[Lee]

I think that would be awesome.

And then we'd get to someone..and I'm not naming names... and we'd have to wait for 7 hours and 59 minutes.

[Shep]

Performance bonus cushion of 7.5% will remain but it will no longer be counted to help clubs get to the floor or the leagues minimum salary. In other words, teams must be at the floor not counting bonuses and a player’s salary must be at the league minimum not counting bonuses. This does not include signing bonuses.

Does this affect us at all?

Are we going to count salary without bonuses? Or am I mis-reading the above?

[kyuss]

And then we'd get to someone..and I'm not naming names... and we'd have to wait for 11 hours and 59 minutes.

fixed, i guess

[Nick]

Performance bonus cushion of 7.5% will remain but it will no longer be counted to help clubs get to the floor or the leagues minimum salary. In other words, teams must be at the floor not counting bonuses and a player’s salary must be at the league minimum not counting bonuses. This does not include signing bonuses.

Does this affect us at all?

Are we going to count salary without bonuses? Or am I mis-reading the above?

Does not effect us.

[Mike]

"Contracts with salaries in future years that are below the league’s minimum salary will be adjusted upwards, thus changing their cap hits."

"Examples of such contracts: #Flyers Chris Pronger and #Bruins Marc Savard."

From CapGeek. Looks like a few cap hits will be changing. Check your rosters.

[anton]

came in expecting video highlights of the CBA being signed.

left disappointed.

[tyler]

Wasnt previous cap ceiling 70m now its 64. do we get a salary % rollback? or are we expected to cut our rosters to the 64m.

[Mike]

Wasnt previous cap ceiling 70m now its 64. do we get a salary % rollback? or are we expected to cut our rosters to the 64m.

70.2 this season

64.3 next

no rollback

[tyler]

ok so we keep same salary this year (50 games) - next season we drop to 64

[Mike]

70.2 was the projection from the last CBA and the NHL is keeping it for one year.

Next year we go back to the 2011/2012 cap (64.3). After that it depends on revenue, but it seems like 64.3 is the lowest it can go.

[tyler]

ok clarify - cap ceiling = 70.2 for the 50 game season we have coming up.

[Mike]

ok clarify - cap ceiling = 70.2 for the 50 game season we have coming up.

48 games, but yes

[Monk]

ok clarify - cap ceiling = 70.2 for the 50 game season we have coming up.

whats the floor??

[kyuss]

whats the floor??

44M, for this season and next season.