Owners had a hammer, and they used it well

Sporting News, The, Jan 23, 1995 by Larry Wigge

Whenever Brett Hull or Jeremy Roenick skates in alone on a goaltender, he has a huge advantage. But all the advantage belonged to the owners during the 103-day lockout, and they didn't give the players anything to shoot at. They took the pucks and nets home with them.

The negotiations were never on a level surface because the owners had the power to cancel the season -- and nearly did several times. Using that hammer relentlessly, the owners finally wound up with a big victory.

Although the players successfully fended off management's demands for a salary cap/luxury tax, they paid dearly in the areas of entry-level salaries, salary arbitration and the final age for unrestricted free agency.

"We took an awful beating. It's a terrible deal," Hull says. "I think a lot of players pushed (NHLPA Executive Director) Bob Goodenow to make a deal because they were feeling the pressure of not getting a paycheck. A lot of them were worried what would happen if the season was canceled."

Roenick agrees. "It seems almost like a waste to have waited 103 days for this deal," he says. "It's brutal."

With a 48-game schedule and four full rounds of playoffs, the owners probably will recoup about 80 percent of their normal income. But the players will wind up with only about half of their salaries.

Beyond those figures, here's what makes the new six-year collective-bargaining agreement so lopsided:

* The players did not want a cap, but they have one for entry-level players. The most a 1995 draftee can make is $850,000. That maximum will rise to $1.075 million for those drafted in 2000.

If Eric Lindros had entered the league under the new agreement, he would have made $850,000 maximum -- not the $3.5 million he got from the Flyers before playing his first NHL game in 1992-93. Plus all entry-level players -- players in their first three NHL seasons -- will be on mandatory two-way contracts, meaning they can receive no more than half the league minimum if they are sent to the minors.

* There is no salary arbitration for those in the entry-level classification or Group III free agency (32 and over for the first three years of this contract, 31 the last three years).

* Group I free agency (three-year NHL players under age 24) is eliminated, giving teams total ownership over players for three years -- including late-blooming stars.

* Teams will be allowed three walkaways from salary arbitration -- non-binding salary arbitration -- in each two-year period. That means a player can be released if the team chooses not to accept an arbitrator's decision. Awards must be at least $550,000 before a team can walk away.

What remains unsaid is that some players, who have made a home in a particular city and do not want to leave, likely would choose to take a lower salary rather than go to arbitration -- a clear victory for the owners.

* Even though the players won a better compensation system for Group II (middle veterans) free agents -- three first-round draft choices for a player making $1.7 million, or $700,000 higher than the old system -- a team that wants to delve into the freeagent market has an extra cushion without surrendering as many high picks as in the past. And no longer can a team match an offer and trade a player, as the Kings did with Marty McSorley in 1993. The team has to keep the player for at least one year.

* After baseball settles its labor mess, hockey probably will be the only professional sport without a tax system. That means franchises will be free to spend what they wish to put a winning team on the ice.

The bottom line: Teams can control players for up to 12 seasons through entry-level restrictions, elimination of free agency for Group I players and the narrowing of the arbitration scope for Group II players.

"When you get limits on what you can make, where you can go and when you can go, to the limits they put on us, it's just not right," says Roenick, 25. "It's almost like a form of communism. I can't become a free agent until I'm 32 years old? Who's going to want me at 32, anyway?"

If the players had agreed to a soft cap or tax system months ago, they could have won unrestricted free agency at age 28. Instead, Goodenow insisted on avoiding a tax at all costs.

"I don't think the new rules will affect the big guys," says Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who at age 22 would have qualified after the season for free agency under the old system. "If you're young, you're screwed. If you're in the middle, you're screwed."

Islanders right wing Mick Vukota says that the final, final, final, final deadlines the owners gave to squeeze more and more out of the players was an education. "The next time I go to buy a car, I'll know their final offer isn't their final offer," he says.

The dispute

THE SPORTING NEWS has learned that some owners screamed at Commissioner Gary Bettman during a heated conference call after Bettman and NHLPA head Bob Goodenow had hammered out a tentative agreement January 9 and 10 during more than 30 hours of negotiations. The owners, who rejected the plan, 14-12, directed their anger at Bettman because he did not get the salary cap he had promised.