There are no losers with this settlement

Sporting News, The, Dec 13, 1993 by Larry Wigge

Don Van Massenhoven hasn't blown his whistle in the NHL yet. But he has paid his dues.

Van Massenhoven, 33, is the NHL's star referee prospect, now working in the American Hockey League. It's on-the-job training, but it has come at a steep price: He turned down a $50,000-a-year job as a fulltime police officer to officiate games for $25,000 a year.

Now that the NHL and the NHL Officials Association have ended their 17-day standoff, Van Massenhoven's gamble isn't so striking. When he breaks into the NHL next season, he will get $65,000 to start. That's $15,000 more than an entry-level referee would have made before this new contract.

What all this means is the NHL now can put better people in those striped shirts, people who previously might have thought twice about taking the job because they could make a better income elsewhere.

"I've known a lot of former players who would have made great officials, but they had decent jobs and couldn't afford to stay in the game as a referee or a linesman," Maybe Leafs captain Wendel Clark says.

This, you should know, is the same game in which Darrin Kimble and Rob Ray make $325,000 and $300,000, respectively. Meanwhile, Andy vanHellemond, the league's best referee, has given the NHL his best for 16 years and tops the salary list at $125,000, including playoff money.

Now officials will get more respect

"(Blues winger) Brendan Shanahan told me last night he would never, ever question any call I ever made again," referee Don Koharski said before a home-and-home series between St. Louis and Toronto last week.

Koharski, who you may remember as former New Jersey coach Jim Schoenfeld's have-a-doughnut referee, was pleased to hear a few cheers at St. Louis last Thursday -- for a little while anyway.

"I always knew they had the worst job in the game," Blues star Brett Hull says. "If the players who didn't appreciate them before don't now, they're not very smart."

No one could have expected that replacement officials would do the same kind of job the regulars did. But during the strike, good players were at a disadvantage because of all of the clutching, grabbing, hooking and slashing that crept back into the game.

"With the replacement officials, we went as far as we could and then some, knowing we could get away with things," Toronto defenseman Jamie Macoun says. "It's tough to stop Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux without taking liberties."

The NHL realizes it has to showcase its stars, and we learned from this settlement it also wants to improve the officiating.

Referee Ron Hoggarth, who kept his job at the start of the season to remove the threat of a strike at that time, has announced he will resign at the end of the season. Referee Denis Morel and linesman Ryan Bozek also will be asked to take their severance.

"Some of the refs just aren't in good-enough shape to keep up with the game," Boston center Adam Oates says. "Some of them think their jobs are secure, so they think they don't have to work. I don't care what line of work you're in, you've still got to work hard to do your job."

A very good reason for the NHL to want control of the officials.

The package offered to the officials essentially is the same as the league made November 9, six days before the strike -- with the exception of severance, pension and playoff guarantees.

Here's the report card on the settlement:

The NHL

* Won the right to fire officials and rehire replacement officials after this season.

* Got a four-year contract, whereas the officials wanted only a two- or three-year deal.

* Got the 29 percent raise this season and the 65 percent over the four years of the contract that was their initial proposal.

The officials

* All 58 officials were rehired and will receive retroactive pay increases from the start of the season, excluding the strike time.

* Raises for the league's entry-level referees will increase from $50,000 to $65,000 and from $33,000 to $45,000 for rookie linesmen. Referees with 16 years experience will top out from $90,000 to $210,000 in the fourth year of the contract.

* The league pays 11 percent of base salary -- up from 10 percent -- into the officials' pension plan, which is significant considering the salary increases.

* Officials are guaranteed $6,000 each, whether they work or not, in the playoffs. That total increases to $11,500 in four years. And referees working the finals can make a maximum of $29,000; linesmen, $24,000.

* Although they gave up their job security, the officials gained a huge severance package -- two years' pay for 16-year veterans, up from one year, and one year's pay for officials from 11 to 15 years, plus an additional two months' pay for every year in the league.

* The entice prospective new officials, referees and linesmen who split time between the NHL and the minors increased to $35,000 from $22,000. And NHL trainees such as Van Massenhoven will get a raise from $25,000 to $43,000.

But the real winner is the fans because they eventually will get a system that will enable NHL players to play at their best.