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2020-2021 NHL Thread

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29294970/islanders-johnny-boychuk-fully-recovered-eye-injury-set-skate said:
Johnny Boychuk, who suffered a gruesome-looking eye injury just days before the NHL season was paused in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, told Newsday on Wednesday that he's fully recovered and will be ready to play if the season resumes.

The Islanders defenseman needed 90 stitches to repair a cut above his eyelid, which he suffered when he was hit by the skate of the Montreal Canadiens' Artturi Lehkonen on March 3. He didn't suffer any damage to the eye itself.

"My eye seems to be almost like 100 percent," Boychuk told Newsday. "There's going to be a little bit of discomfort, but not much. Nothing to have me worried about being on the ice again."
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Good for the Isles, I wouldn't be surprised to hear about a Barzal signing.

Will the rest of the hockey world whine about this as much as they did when it was Lupul?
 
Honestly, I'm not sure I can handle a 3rd lockout in 15 years.  If the NHL said "we are shutting down for the 20/21 season due to COVID and feel that safety is paramount for our players and their families" I'm good with it.  But if it is more of this "poor owners" vs. "rich players" crap I might lose interest in it altogether.

The first two lockouts have cut my passion down quite a bit and a 3rd one is really not something I'm sure I'm interested in supporting.
 
https://twitter.com/StatsCentre/status/1332948328368263168

What a brutally one-sided trade that was. Career numbers:

Naslund
1117-395-474-869

Stojanov
107-2-5-7

Stojanov was a winger picked #7 overall.
 
Heroic Shrimp said:
https://twitter.com/StatsCentre/status/1332948328368263168

What a brutally one-sided trade that was. Career numbers:

Naslund
1117-395-474-869

Stojanov
107-2-5-7

Stojanov was a winger picked #7 overall.
Click to expand...
What a fleecing.
 
If some of the things I've been reading about what the next 6-8 weeks might look like in the states comes true then there's going to be a point where all the testing needed to make a sports season work is going to look very, very bad if front line care workers can't get them.
 
Nik said:
If some of the things I've been reading about what the next 6-8 weeks might look like in the states comes true then there's going to be a point where all the testing needed to make a sports season work is going to look very, very bad if front line care workers can't get them.
Click to expand...

Heh, I'd take it further than testing...where money trumps morals, I can see athletes getting access to a vaccine through the side entrance at the same time as at-risk populations.
 
Frycer14 said:
Nik said:
If some of the things I've been reading about what the next 6-8 weeks might look like in the states comes true then there's going to be a point where all the testing needed to make a sports season work is going to look very, very bad if front line care workers can't get them.
Click to expand...

Heh, I'd take it further than testing...where money trumps morals, I can see athletes getting access to a vaccine through the side entrance at the same time as at-risk populations.
Click to expand...

I'd 100% bet on the leagues contacting the pharma companies and buying their own supply.
 
https://twitter.com/darrendreger/status/1333943417299144704

We all should have known that CBA extension went way too smoothly.
 
Until the PA can get it together to the extent that they can win a labour standoff there's really no downside for owners to keep coming back and asking for more. All of the rumblings about Force Majeure or anything else is just going to be window dressing for the owners thinking, with good reason, that if they withhold a couple of paychecks the players will fold as quick as you like.
 
Nik's got it right, in my opinion. I've actually been involved recently in a "force majeure" argument (on the losing side). While I'm not an expert in law or insurance, the crux of the argument was that with force majeure you have to indicate a couple of things: 1. that there is no other alternative to the matter, and 2. that the "force" was solely responsible for the loss.

In this case, an NHL season's schedule can change, can shrink/expand, etc. I doubt the NHL has a strong argument for force majeure.
 
Bullfrog said:
Nik's got it right, in my opinion. I've actually been involved recently in a "force majeure" argument (on the losing side). While I'm not an expert in law or insurance, the crux of the argument was that with force majeure you have to indicate a couple of things: 1. that there is no other alternative to the matter, and 2. that the "force" was solely responsible for the loss.

In this case, an NHL season's schedule can change, can shrink/expand, etc. I doubt the NHL has a strong argument for force majeure.
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Yeah, I'm not an expert either but I think they need something stronger than "If we play under the MOU we signed, we'll lose money" especially when they signed it while everyone knew the risks of potentially playing another season without a vaccine.
 
I thought that was a good thread on the subject:

https://twitter.com/garik16/status/1334104980668739587

The NHL, like the NBA, has since the lockouts featured a CBA that includes both a salary cap and a guaranty that players and owners each get a fixed percentage of Hockey Related Revenue. So if the League unexpectedly profits, players gain.  If League unexpectedly loses, they lose.

This leads to the players' hated mechanic of "Escrow" which holds back money from Players' salaries to ensure players get their exact proportion of the pie.  And since the two sides have agreed to keep increasing the cap ahead of rises in profits, escrow takes away from players.

By contrast, compare MLB (as I'll be doing a bunch in this thread), with no fixed proportions, players are guaranteed their salaries, but if the league profits - as it has for years - they don't get any benefits.  If it loses, they're also not affected.

COVID hit the US notably in March shutting down all sports seasons.  This was an unexpected event no one anticipated when signing the last CBA, and no one can argue Leagues couldn't have shut down entirely as a result for the pandemic.

Leagues didn't want to do that.  So they began to negotiate deals with players to try to make a season - a continuation for the NHL/NBA, a start of one for MLB - possible.  For the NHL, TV contractual obligations, plus escrow for the players made that highly desirable.

MLB signed a deal with its players in March, guaranteeing them a portion of their salaries.  It then tried to back away from the deal for months on end, but was stuck with the terms - WHICH did anticipate COVID and thus had to schedule the season starting in June.

Meanwhile, the NHL came to not only a deal to return to play, but a 4 year CBA extension in JULY, after MLB's mess and well after COVID became apparent.  The NHL had no obligation to extend the CBA or adjust Escrow, but they did anyway and were contractually bound.

Okay Background over, sorry for the flood.  NHL now wants to renegotiate these terms from July, claiming it can't afford them, and now leaks to NHL-friendly reporters that it can cancel the season if the players don't agree. 
Can it?  The answer is: Doubtful.

Again, not actually looking at the CBA clauses itself, but I'd be stunned if this was otherwise:  The NHL can't try to argue COVID-19 is an unexpected Force Majeure event...because they signed the deal in JULY.  COVID was already well apparent at that point!

Moreover, MLB had already signed an MOU like the NHL's (just not as permanent) and had a 3 month dispute over it due to changing COVID circumstances.  All before the July CBA extension. 
The situation was pretty easily foreseeable and they signed the CBA anyhow!

Again, there was no obligation on the NHL's part to enter into the July extension.  There was no obligation to alter escrow rules in it, or to extend the CBA beyond COVID.  But they did anyhow, despite COVID's situation being clear!  They can't just back out.

As such, NHL has no grounds for entirely canceling the season, and if they do so or keep postponing indefinitely to the same effect, it's arguably (and to me pretty clearly) a wildcat lockout, which is a massive violation of labor laws that Courts won't let stand.

This is THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES - in fact even more blatant - MLB wound up giving up its dispute in June of last year: they knew a Court would rule against them.  The NHL has even less ground to stand on.

It doesn't matter how much the teams and league are losing at this point, they're stuck.  And sucks for them, that's how the mechanics they negotiated work. 

/End Rant.
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https://twitter.com/kevin_mcgran/status/1334188296772136965

A February 1st start date seems like the most optimistic scenario right now.
 
https://twitter.com/kevin_mcgran/status/1334198675149611008
Just put the discussion on public Zoom

CarltonTheBear said:
A February 1st start date seems like the most optimistic scenario right now.
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This helps give WJC players under contract a shot at their NHL rosters (e.g. Nick Robertson)
 
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