2012-13 NHL Labor Problems Settled

After a 119 day lockout and 510 games missed, the owners and players agreed to a deal on the this past Saturday (the 12th). Due to the length of the lockout training camp opened on Sunday (the 13th). Instead of a 82 game schedule, teams will play 48 games all vs. only teams in their same conference.. The season will start this Saturday (the 19th) and run until the end on April 27. The Finals will end near the end of June. I will compare important parts of the new one the old CBA and give my opinion.

The deal is good through the 2021-22 NHL season with a opt-out after the 2019-20 season. The players wanted a opt-out after 7 years (after the 2018-19 season) but the owners got what they wanted. This great we should hopefully go an entire decade with out a NHL lockout. 

Another big things that had to be worked out was the new salary cap rules. Starting next season the salary cap will be at $64.3 million and the floor at $44 million. The players wanted as high as $70.0 millions but they finally agreed at 64.3 and 70.2 million for this season to help teams get under the cap. 

The last big issue was the hockey-related income split. The players' share of hockey-related revenue will drop from 57 percent to a 50-50 split for all 10 years. This should make the owners happy and if a 50-50 split neither side can be angry because they are split equal on both sides.

Seven-year term limit for NHL player contracts  or eight years if player is re-signing with his own team. This a big change which makes the NHL more like the other big three sports. This prevents players signing 10-15 years deals and the owners being stuck with them almost forever. The owners wanted as low as 5 years but 7 years sounds about right to me.

Salary variance was change to no more than 35 percent year-over-year and no year less than 50 percent of the highest year. This will help owners as well. Instead of be stuck with a players of years with super high salary that is seemly untradeable they can now have more help to get rid of such players. 

Start of free agency remains July 1 for Years 2 through 10. (Obviously because of the late start, free agency will begin later this year.)
The NHL tried hard to move the start of free agency to July 10, wanting to move it away from the two national holidays (July 1 in Canada and July 4 in the U.S.). Personally this didn't matter as much to me. I like the early day so teams can started signing and working out deals early rather then later. 

Last was the change to the Draft lottery system. Now all 14 teams that missed the playoffs a crack at the No. 1 overall pick just like the NBA. I like this because it helps all teams know have a chance at help in the draft quicker. Previously, it was only the bottom five teams that could pick first overall out of the lottery. It also discourages teams even further from tanking late in the season to try to finish as close to the bottom as possible. 

I hope now we can have 10 year of no labor problems and all the problems the NHL has can be fixed after having a lot in the past 20 year or so.