The NHL's league office has put itself in a power position.
The players' association must accept the league's newest proposal or risk losing face. The deal may not be perfect, but it's close to perfect for an imperfect situation.
Assuming that the game of hockey and its devoted fans are what's really important here, compromising and taking the deal is the players' only option.
Here are a few of the proposed details, courtesy of Associated Press reporter Ira Podell (via the Washington Times):
The league proposed raising the limit of individual free-agent contracts to six years from five — seven years if a team re-signs its own player; raising the salary variance from one year to another to 10 percent, up from 5 percent; and one compliance buyout for the 2013-14 season that wouldn’t count toward a team’s salary cap but would be included in the overall players’ share of income.
That's not exactly what the players want, but these athletes also need to measure their priorities.
When the lockout started 104 days ago, most fans looked at Gary Bettman as the lone culprit for the issues at hand. ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Ian Hanford
NHL Lockout 2012: Players Must Accept New Proposal to Save Face
December 29th, 2012 by Ian Hanford Leave a reply »
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