The NHL offseason has entered a period of stasis as teams and players await clarity on '20-21GETTY IMAGES
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has "faced ownership frustration right from the onset from the originality of the agreement" with the NHLPA on a revised CBA earlier this year, according to TSN's Darren Dreger. But "obviously both sides are frustrated here." There has been "some speculation" whether owners will "decide that they can't go in '20-'21 (and) they cancel the season." Dreger wondered if the union is "in a position where they can challenge" a potential cancellation in federal court, "effectively calling it an illegal lockout." Dreger: "But the owners say if that's the case then force majeure would be applied, it is a pandemic. And the NHL believes that in the spirit of their existing agreement, they've got cancellation protection." TSN's Pierre LeBrun said the NHLPA has "really stuck to its guns in that it hasn't agreed to anything beyond the terms already negotiated four or five months ago." He said, "That could change, but at this point they are very much in their resolve in believing that the NHL should honor those terms." Meanwhile, LeBrun said one thing that "seems pretty locked in is the idea of coming back with four realigned divisions." One will be the "all Canadian division and then you get your three U.S. divisions." But a source suggested that there is "still not a firm decision on exactly how those U.S. divisions will look" ("Insider Trading," TSN, 12/1).
MONEY MATTERS: In Boston, Conor Ryan wrote "no major progress has been made during discussions between the NHL and the NHLPA about the upcoming season -- with the failure to agree to a framework by this week just about spelling doom for any hope of the league realistically getting the green light for a new season by the new year." The "top impediment remains unchanged from just a few weeks ago." It is "not about safety measures." It is "not about vaccines," nor "about border issues." Nor is it "even the amount of games even feasible on a shortened docket in 2021." Ryan: "No, of course not. As [singer-songwriter] David Byrne famously puts it: 'Same as it ever was.' It once again is coming down to money" (BOSTONSPORTSJOURNAL.com, 12/1). NHL Network's Mike Rupp said, "I like the ambition of the league to say, ‘We’re going do everything we can to make sure we start as soon as we can. We want as much hockey as possible.’ I don’t think anybody needs to be hung up on the dates per se right now. There’s going to be movement, there’s going to be some adjustments being made, and the biggest thing is we just get hockey back” (“NHL Tonight,” NHL Network, 12/1).
WAITING GAME: THE ATHLETIC's Thomas Drance writes it has been nearly seven and a half weeks since two NHL teams last completed a trade, and there has not been a single unrestricted free agent that has signed a one-way deal with an NHL team, which is "remarkable considering the quality of the players still available." Over the span of a "stunted month of hockey business, with NHL teams in obvious need of a diuretic, the news has been sparse." Occasionally, teams have signed their own restricted free agents. This "most uncertain NHL offseason has entered a period of unprecedented stasis as teams and players await clarity on what exactly the 2020-21 season will look like." Aside from the "latest sally in ongoing labour negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA, the conduct of normal NHL business has been unnervingly placid on the surface over the past month." Yet, there is the "usual churn of conversation and negotiation taking place just beneath it." Clubs are "still laying groundwork with various UFAs," for there is "widespread anticipation that once the NHL and the NHLPA come to a revised agreement for the new season, a second wave of offseason activity will begin" (THEATHLETIC.com, 12/2).
