Donald Fehr on NHL honoring full contracts, perception of fans that players are ‘greedy’

20 Oct
2012

How contentious is the relationship between Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman at this point in the lockout?

Two weeks ago, the answer was that there was mutual animosity but nothing resembling the decade-long blood feud between Bettman and Bob Goodenow that manifested in the last work stoppage.

But after this week's failed negotiations in Toronto, it's getting a little nasty. To wit, Donald Fehr to the Ottawa Sun in their Q&A this morning:

"I don't go in for the very dramatic 'I am very disappointed' press conferences that other people engage in."

He's right: This was a tad dramatic. Maybe it was the creepy black backdrop.

The full details on the NHLPA's offer have been leaked to the media, and you can read them on USA Today's site. Please remember that the NHL was slammed by the players for making theirs public. Silly League: leak it next time. Here's Fehr's memo on the third option from the players:

Wrote Fehr: "This means that an individual player under an existing contract would receive the 13% segregated, plus a normal payment, subject to escrow, of 87% of his salary. A player with a new contract would have 100% of his salary subject to the 50-50 split. However, since the 13% of existing contracts are off the cap, this should create more cap space, which will be important as the cap will be squeezed. Over time, the existing contracts expire, and the share will fall towards 50%."

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly had publicly objected to this proposal, saying players would get a 56% to 57% share in the first year and he doubted that the split would ever reach 50-50.

Fehr and Bruce Garrioch had a conversation on Friday that you can read here, and there are a few reactions to it, beginning with:

• Stop with the history lessons. Just stop. Yes, the NHL's owners are likely influenced by the concessions won by their NBA brethren. Yes, their first offer to the players in July was a joke wrapped in a farce wrapped in a 24-percent rollback that set these talks back months due to its ridiculous demands. Yes, the basis for the owners' claims for contractual restrictions and suppression of salaries can be hypocritical and downright nonsensical.

But you know what? Their motivations aren't the issue.

You're not going to shame them into a resolution by repeatedly pointing out that the lockout is built on a shaky premise or that basketball did it first. We all know it is, and most of the owners know it to.

But on Oct. 20, we should be past the "why?" and deal with the "how?"

[Related: NHL and NHLPA wasting time with scare tactics and PR stunts]

• Two questions of note from the Garrioch interview, including this one that's frankly leading the witness a bit:

QMI: Why does the league not want to honour the deals that were signed?

FEHR: "They want to pay less money. That's all. It's really very simple: 'We've agreed to pay to the dollar all the contracts we've signed.' We've now decided that's more money than we'd like to pay.' The reason we made the last proposal the way we did was simply because they want to move toward 50-50. The players have already indicated they are willing to do that over time. The question is: Should you agree to honour the contracts you signed between now and then? Players think that's a straight-forward thing to do and not an unusual thing to do. It's sort of the way everybody does business."

The "make whole" provision the NHL proposed tries to give the owners what they want (an immediate reduction in player costs) and the players what they want (the full value of their contracts, through deferred payment). No one can blame the players for being suspicious or mistrustful about the League's proposal, because the NHL has done little to earn that trust in this negotiation or through its actions back in 2005.

That said, Nick Cotsonika nailed it: This was a path for the NHLPA to achieve its primary objective, and "they could have proposed that it come out of the owners' share instead. They didn't."

The players deserve the full value of their contracts, and any NHL proposal that doesn't achieve that is garbage. But there's no question the League's latest salvo showed a desire to fulfill that obligation through some creative accounting; it's just a matter of whether the numbers add up and who pays for it. Which is why the NHLPA should build off that idea. It has potential.

• This was also interesting, regarding the PR victory for the League this week in gaining major sympathy from the fans:

QMI: What's your message to fans who have spent the past couple of days calling players "greedy" after the 50-50 offer from the league?

FEHR: "It's pretty hard to treat seriously the notion that the athletes, who are the only people who anybody comes to watch, that they would be greedy in the face of a 24% reduction in their pay last time; billions of dollars went to the owners, not the players; seven years of record revenues that was more than anybody thought. The result of all that success is for the owners to say, 'OK, now we want to renegotiate all the contracts again and we want to lower them.' My message to the fans is: I don't think that characterization hits the facts very well. Hockey players are pretty down-to-earth people. That's why fans like and identify with them. They want to do the right thing. The right thing here happens to be proceeding in a way which is not merely, 'Oh the owners asked for billions of dollars I guess we have to give it to them because who are we? Hockey players.' "

Fehr is completely right here.

It's been stunning to witness fans and media turn off their brains and swallow up the NHL's talking points out of an insatiable desire to have an 82-game schedule. There's been way too much "oh, they went 50/50, take the deal boys!"; it's a sentiment that exists without regard for the contractual concessions the players would have to make, the revenue sharing system and other considerations that make "50/50" an unbalanced deal.

We ask these men to sacrifice their bodies on a nightly basis. We ask them to sweat and fight and bleed, to show resolve that many of us couldn't imagine having in pressure situations.

And then we expect them to fold like origami when the League finally makes a mature, quasi-equitable proposal?

Again, it's a credit to Bettman and the NHL (and Frank Luntz) that the proposal and the PR blitz worked this week. But like Fehr said: If you're a "greedy players" person, that characterization doesn't hit the facts very well.

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Tags: cap, , Donald Fehr, , , , , NHLPA, payment,
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Canucks extend Burrows; should Bettman recuse himself?; Fart Cat (Puck Headlines)

14 Sep
2012

• Not sure what's more embarrassing about this photo for Ryan Miller: the fact that he appears to be struggling to stay awake during the NHLPA presser yesterday, or the fact that the caption reads, "Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks listens to the NHLPA press conference."

• The players really need a win this time around. [National Post]

• Elliotte Friedman thinks now might be a good time for Bettman should excuse himself. Is his presence in the CBA negotiations just making it harder to get a deal done? [CBC]

• Speaking of Bettman, during the 2011 Stanley Cup riot, he ducked into The Flying Beaver for a salmon burger and everybody was really nice to him. [Deadspin]

• The biggest news of the day: Mobile game "Fart Cat", which sounds just amazing, frankly, utilizes the St. Louis Blues' goal horn as a sound effect for the flatulent feline's most epic cheese-cuts. What an honour! [St Louis Game Time]

• Taking the owners' side in all this? These numbers might help you reform your opinion. [Copper & Blue]

• Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar are already practicing with Metallurg Magnitigorsk of the KHL and likely to play as early as next week. [TSN]

• Is Alex Burrows the odd man out if Shane Doan signs in Vancouver? No, no he isn't. [Canucks Army]

• Especially since he just signed a four-year extension with the Canucks worth $18 million. [Canucks]

• You know which fanbase is going to feel this lockout the hardest? Winnipeg. They had to wait a decade and a half for NHL hockey. Then they got it back. And now they have to wait again. Worst. [The Telegram]

• That outdoor hockey game in the Roman amphitheatre is this weekend, so get ready for more stunning photographs like this one. [Sportida Facebook]

• The Halifax Mooseheads had to cancel a preseason game because half their team has the flu. Gentlemen: cough into your sleeves, not the team's water supply. [CBC]

• The media continues to blame the victim in this labour dispute. Why is this lockout happening? Because of the way you're dressed, hockey fan. [ESPN]

• Ellen Etchingham thinks normal people should play for the Stanley Cup. I think it's a awful idea that just makes the Cup less special, but as usual, it sounds nice when Ellen says it. [Backhand Shelf]

• In praise of billet families, who have never tried to unionize. [OHL Writers]

• The Kings recently signed prospect Nicolay Prokhorkin, one of the standouts at their development camp, to an entry-level contract. Except they didn't, because they can't, because he has a deal with Red Army Moscow in the KHL. [Mayors Manor]

• Jordan Eberle has his choice between the AHL and Europe during the lockout. Where will he go? [Edmonton Journal]

• Say goodbye to Andrei Kostitsyn, who has signed a deal with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL. Hey, Jan Bulis plays there! [TSN]

• Speaking of Bulis, Pass it to Bulis continues to raise money for the Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer charity, and a $500 donation by a gentleman named Nelson Ong necessitated a song in his honour. [PITB]

• If you weren't upset about the lockout before, you will be after this furious rap-rock protest anthem.

Tags: Alex Burrows, , Bettman, Canucks, Fart Cat, , , , Roberto Luongo, Speaking, , TSN, vancouver canucks
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