Menu
NHL Season Preview

After Four-Month Lockout, Many Questions Remain Heading Into Start Of NHL Season

Blackhawks Chair Rocky Wirtz said that he "doesn't believe the NHL suffered any lasting damage" from the 113-day lockout that jeopardized the '12-13 season, according to Tim Sassone of the Illinois DAILY HERALD. In a Q&A, Wirtz said, "Short term there's pain. I think you have the natural anger and resentment and disappointment, but long term I don't think there was any damage because the owners and players are truly joined at the hip now with a 50-50 deal." Wirtz acknowledged the lockout was necessary because "there were too many teams losing money." He said, "I don't know how many because the league doesn't share that, but I know there are plenty that were really having trouble. ... If we're struggling making money in Chicago -- in an Original Six market -- I can imagine if you're in a nontraditional market how tough it is." Wirtz said there "absolutely" were plans in place to cancel the season. He said, "I was prepared personally. I had earmarked money for what it would take to cancel. I didn't know until the very end." Wirtz said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "did exactly what the owners asked him to do." He said, "I don't see any difference than what [NHLPA Exec Dir] Don Fehr did for his players. Don Fehr did a great job negotiating and representing his players, and I think Gary Bettman equally did a good job in doing what the owners asked him to do" (Illinois DAILY HERALD, 1/18). ESPN.com's Scott Burnside wrote Fehr will "stick around for the time being, but there was never any sense he was hired to be anything more than a one-shot, hired gun brought in to wage war against the evil tyranny" of Bettman. Meanwhile, NHLPA Special Counsel Steve Fehr was an "integral part of the deal being made to save the season," and it is "more likely" that Steve, rather than Don, will be "a long-term fixture with the NHLPA." Burnside wrote, "Will the fans come back? Probably. Will the sponsors? Sure, if the fans come back." But the game "and its brand, enjoying an unprecedented upswing in the past five years, has been treated with such reckless disregard by its own caretakers that it will take a long while before the acid taste of this lockout leaves entirely" (ESPN.com, 1/16).

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE DEAL: TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported the NHL and NHLPA have "come to an agreement on players being forced to stay home for salary cap reasons this season." Teams now are "eligible to exercise an 'accelerated compliance buyout' on one player with a new salary cap hit of $3 million or more before the regular season beings on Saturday." TSN's Bob McKenzie reported in order for a player "to be bought out this week, he still must clear waivers first" (TSN.ca, 1/15). Meanwhile, in Toronto, Damien Cox reported NHL owners last week, after ratifying the new CBA, also "unilaterally decided to improve a special benefit program for former players 65 and over by 50 per cent." The NHL will increase to $3M its "annual contribution to the Senior Player Benefit," up from $2M. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, "Our board enthusiastically agreed that it was the right thing to do. These are the people who helped make the game as big as it is today. We are all in their debt." Cox noted as of Monday, the NHLPA, which "improved pension benefits for current players in the new CBA, had not committed to increasing its contribution" to the Senior Player Benefit to $3M annually (TORONTO STAR, 1/15).

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: SI's Michael Farber writes the shortened '12-13 season "would have been a natural timeline" for expanding the NHL playoffs. The league could have "boosted playoff participation from 16 teams to 20." The concept "works like this: The first six teams in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs. The teams that finish seventh through 10th in the conference meet in a one-game playoff, televised doubleheaders guaranteed to resonate." A 20-team playoff "at least honors actual tradition." From '42-67, the "hallowed Original Six era, four teams qualified for the playoffs, the same two-thirds ratio that would exist under an expanded post-season format in a 30-team league." But mostly it would "be a reward to fans, who adore playoffs as much as they loathe lockouts" (SI, 1/21 issue). In Ottawa, Ian Mendes wrote the NHL's lottery system "has done nothing to eliminate the culture of tanking in the league." The NHL had "a chance to change this perpetual cycle of rewarding losers" in its latest CBA. Instead, the league decided the "only change necessary to the draft lottery was to allow all 14 non-playoff teams to have a shot at the first overall pick." The fix to "the tanking problem in the NHL is simple, and it's called the Points After Elimination system." After a team is "mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, they start trying to gain as many points as possible." The team with the "most points after elimination would be awarded the first overall pick" (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 1/17).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/01/18/NHL-Season-Preview/NHL.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/01/18/NHL-Season-Preview/NHL.aspx

CLOSE