Like every other hockey fan out there, I am not at all pleased that the NHL is locking out again this season. The whole situation seems absolutely idiotic to me.
First and foremost, I don't think that Gary Bettman is to blame for this lockout. Yes, you read that right. I'm not blaming Gary Bettman. Now believe me, I definitely am not a fan of the work that Bettman has done in his time as commissioner (I think it has been quite awful actually), but he should not be the one solely to shoulder the blame.
While Bettman is the ringleader of the NHL Board of Governors, he is not the sole member. To give some background to what the Board of Governors, it is a group that includes seven executives employed by the NHL, as well as three representatives (one governor (usually the owner) and two alternates) from each NHL team. So when you hear the term "the owners", what they are actually referring to is the board of governors.
As much as I am dissatisfied with how the Board of Governors is handling the situation, I am equally displeased with the NHLPA. The NHLPA, lead by Executive Director Donald Fehr, is made up of thirty NHL players (one from each team), and is the group "battling" against the Board of Governors. They have been very quick to shift the blame to "the owners" and taking very little responsibility for the lockout upon themselves. Making a deal requires two sides to come to an agreement, and often a compromise from at least one side is involved. The NHLPA is being very stubborn and seems to have absolutely no desire to make any compromises in order to strike a deal (and every video they make makes me that much more frustrated with them).
Secondly, another thing that the players have started to do that I absolutely HATE is that they have started going elsewhere (Switzerland, Russia, etc.) to play. The part that I don't like is that the same players who are locked out because they don't want to take a pay cut are now going and taking a pay cut by going to play overseas. Yes, the KHL has been known to offer some lucrative contracts to NHL players (Jonathan Cheechoo, a former Maurice Richard trophy winner, but now just a top level AHL player, was offered $4 million/year), but they have stated that they will at best pay NHL players 65% of their NHL contract. That's only in the KHL.
Things look much worse dollar wise in the European leagues. The average salary for a current NHL player is $2 million/year. Nobody, and I mean nobody, makes that kind of money playing hockey in Europe. Even the minimum NHL salary ($525K/year) is a number reserved only for the best of the best European players. Most players in Europe can only dream of making money like that. The NHL players that are going overseas are not the 3rd or 4th line guys that "need" the money. No, these are the superstars that are going over, the ones that make upwards of $5 million/year. These selfish NHL players are going overseas because they "need to play hockey", but in the meantime, they are taking away jobs from those players who are struggling to make the cut, and taking away the dream of playing professional hockey that so many of us Canadians can relate to (I know I can).
Also, the lockout affects more than the bank accounts of the players and owners. In Winnipeg, we have been able to see first-hand how having an NHL team in a city can directly stimulate that city's economy. People are employed at the arena's during games. Taxi cab drivers make a killing on game nights, while other nights they may struggle to make a decent income. People want to watch games in public places, so bars and restaurants thrive on game days. There are so many people who lose financially from the NHL being locked out, it really isn't fair to them that the NHL is locking out.
I have lost a lot of respect for the NHL throughout this whole process. I won't be one of those fans who will say that they're boycotting the NHL because I know that as soon as the NHL is back, I'll be one of the first ones sitting down on the couch for that first pre-season game, just waiting to get a taste of NHL hockey again. But I do think that moment may be slightly bitter-sweet. A part of me will be thinking back to all the bargaining meetings, the constant blame game, and most importantly, the greed. Because that's what this whole issue boils down to. The owners want money. The players want money. Everybody wants money. We have seen clearly here how money talks, and how the desire for money can make people willing to stop partaking in the sport that they love more than anything else. Here's to the love of the game...
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