NHL Player Salaries Continue To Rise, Expected To Hit $2M

Kelly Predicts Average NHL Salary To Surpass $2M In Upcoming Season

The average annual NHL player salary is slightly more than $1.9M, the “highest in league history,” and NHLPA Exec Dir Paul Kelly predicted that in ’08-09 the average “will surpass $2[M],” according to Fluto Shinzawa of the BOSTON GLOBE. Kelly: “I suspect that the current CBA has worked out better than the players imagined it would when we came out of the lockout in 2005.” Shinzawa wrote the players “appear to be satisfied with how the current CBA has worked out so far.” Still, Kelly said that some things players “might like to pursue are improved arbitration rights, expanded revenue definition, and greater say in franchise relocations and expansion.” Kelly said that if the “Sun Belt teams continue to struggle, the NHL should take cities such as Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Seattle under consideration for expansion.” Kelly: “The problem is that when teams struggle a bit financially with revenue and attendance figures, it does adversely affect players. We want to work with those teams to make them healthy” (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/22).

RANGERS SUIT: In N.Y., Larry Brooks wrote MSG’s legal dispute with the NHL is about MSG Chair Jim Dolan and MSG “challenging the despotic reign of [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman just the way [former NHLPA Exec Dir] Bob Goodenow had the temerity to do so.” Bettman “had the gall to blame the lawsuit that was filed in September for the league’s inability to undertake marketing and promotional initiatives.” Meanwhile, the Rangers are the “only US-based club among the NHL’s top six revenue-producers” (N.Y. POST, 6/22). In New Jersey, Tom Gulitti wrote, "The NHL has bigger problems, but needs a successful Rangers' franchise to boost its popularity in the U.S. The Rangers know that and seem to think that justifies them operating outside rules that the other 29 NHL teams follow" (Bergen RECORD, 6/21).