Harrison Mooney of the Vancouver Sun: Shane Doan wants to have a contract in place before the CBA expires on September 15th. It could be good news for the Canucks as the sale of the Coyotes is still in limbo. After the 15th, it’s possible that Doan would get less than he would before since it’s rumored the salary cap is going down.
Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic: The Coyotes are about $9 million below the salary cap floor.
The Coyotes are anticipating the addition of Doan’s contract, but without an owner in place by the expiration of the current CBA on Sept. 15, the Coyotes could expect Doan will pick a new team. Doan has decided to sign before a potential lockout to avoid the uncertainty of a new labor agreement, and he’s waited since becoming a free agent on July 1 in an attempt to give Jamison time to complete his bid.
“We hope to settle Doan,” Tippett said. “That would be the one big one, obviously. Other than that, I don’t foresee any other moves before camp.”
Allen Muir of Sports Illustrated: The Dallas Stars may have to give Jamie Benn a contract bigger than they originally planned. They may have been hoping to give Benn a ‘bridge’ contract, a deal between an reasonable entry level deal and a ‘striking it rich’ deal. They had done something similar with 2 year deals they gave Loui Eriksson and James Neal.
Here’s the twist: now that it’s known that the league wants a CBA that won’t honor the full value of previously signed deals, there’s no reason for Benn to sign any time soon unless he’s given an even higher AAV to protect him when escrow claws back 15-20 percent of every deal. Or he could threaten to hold out when play resumes, knowing that a team struggling to regain its footing in the Dallas market can’t afford the negative optics of starting a delayed season with its franchise player on the sidelines.
Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal: The Oilers blueline may once again be their weakness, but they will bank on Ryan Whitney to play a big role. He looks to be healthier than he was heading into last season.
Ryan Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News: Mailbag question: Surely the owners and players (hockey) are smarter than having another strike?
You’d think so. But for a guy like Jaromir Jagr, this will be the third time his career has been interrupted by a strike or lockout. That’s money he’ll never get back. Players and owners in all sports provide lip service during labor negotiations that their game “is all about the fans.” It’s not — it’s about the money. The fans always have been and will continue to be an afterthought when it comes to carving up the financial pie. So, do I think the owners and players are smarter than that? No. Greedy, yes. Smart, no.
Khan of Ansar MLive: The Red Wings are still interested in Shane Doan, but not at what some teams are reportedly offering, 4 years, $30 million. They were reluctant to sign Alexander Semin and made trade offers for Rick Nash. They tried to sign Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Justin Schultz. They’ve talked to the Coyotes about Keith Yandle, and the Flames about Jay Bouwmeester, but both teams are not wanting to trade their players just yet. The Wings have trade chips in Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula to bring in a defenseman, but then they would have a hole up front. Had they signed Doan or another top 6 forward, they may have dealt one of them for a top pair defenseman. It’s more likely they’ll try to package a bottom 6 forward and a draft pick to get a top 4 defenseman. The Wings still have a 2 year offer on the table for Carlo Colaiacovo, who is holding out for a 3 year deal.
Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: Both the Canucks and Bruins would prefer to trade their former number 1 goalies, Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas.
“I’ve been preparing all summer as if I’m going to be the starting guy and play a lot of games,” Schneider said. “If we come back to some kind of shortened schedule, then we’ll have to adjust.
“It’s tough because I’m eager to get back, be a part of the city, and take a more prominent role on that team. Hopefully it will happen on time. If not, I just need to be patient, make sure I’m sharp, and that I’m ready whenever we do start.”
Cory Schneider has yet to decide where he would play if there was a lockout.
Insurance policies for North American players wanting to play in Europe if there is a lockout can be really expensive, as they “can cost up to $12,000 per every million dollars of a player’s NHL contract.” European teams usually cover the cost, and offset it with a small salary.
Canadiens P.K. Subban and Capitals John Carlson, both RFAs, are good comparables for each other.
Bruins Nathan Horton didn’t suffer any postconcussion-syndrome setbacks during his summer workouts.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: On league executive last week, “It’s eerily quiet.”
“This is just like 2004: We got to July 15 and basically nothing was done,” said a high-profile agent. “It has pretty much gone the same way this year. You haven’t really see anything, with the exception of some contract extensions.”
“Teams are saying, ‘We’ll give this to you now because we’re not sure what the rules are going to be down the road.’ In most cases, the players are jumping at the chance to get the security,” said the executive.
Shane Doan has a 4 year, $30 million offer from the Sabres. The Canucks, Penguins, Flyers, and Rangers are all willing to go 4 years and $24 million. The Ducks were shopping Bobby Ryan at the beginning of the summer, but they were asking for a king’s ransom, and now they may not move him anymore. The Maple Leafs, Blackhawks and Panthers have shown interest in Roberto Luongo, but the Canucks want assets back and aren’t going to give him away. The honeymoon period is over for Brian Burke in Toronto, and Luongo would be a major upgrade over James Reimer. If the Canucks can’t trade Luongo, they could put him on waivers and see if someone claims his 10 year, $5.3 million salary hit. You have to think that if there was a CBA, Luongo would have been moved by now.
“This is a deal that will likely have to wait until the CBA is settled,” said a league insider.
If the current salary cap of $70.2 million drops under the new CBA (latest NHL offer had salary cap at $58.3 million), there will be plenty of teams scrambling to make moves.
“Suddenly you’d have a lot of players with big salaries available,” said the insider. “I’m sure you’ve got teams right now that are waiting.”
Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: Wild lines to start training camp: Matt Cullen, Mikael Granlund and Devin Setoguchi, Pierre-Marc Bouchard with Kyle Brodziak and Cal Clutterbuck. The 4th line will have Darroll Powe, Zenon Konopka and Torrey Mitchell. (1st line would be Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, and Dany Heatley). Defensive pairing would be Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella and Tom Gilbert, Clayton Stoner with one of Justin Falk, Nate Prosser or Jonas Brodin.
Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: Portzline offers 3 steps to avoid the lockout.
1. The Players Share:
Take away the link between hockey-related revenue and the salary cap for the first year of the deal, and set the salary cap at an arbitrary figure, say $56 million. Then, each year’s revenue sets the next year’s salary cap, thus eliminating the need for escrow. Each year that the league’s revenues grow by 5 percent or more, the players’ share goes up 1 percent. Each year it grows between 0 and 4.9 percent, it remains unchanged. If revenue falls, the players’ share drops 1 percent. The players can never take more than 55 percent of revenues and never less than 48 percent.
The team salary minimum will sit at $12 million below the cap, less than the current $18 million.
2. Revenue Sharing:
The league makes roughly $200 million a year in its contract with NBC Sports. From Canadian TV, the league gets about $35 million per year from TSN and $15 million for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. But, since it is U.S. franchises that are struggling, use the NBC money to aide the bottom 10 clubs. Clubs that land 28th to 30th in revenue each year get 15 percent of that ($30 million each), clubs in the 24-27 range get 10 percent ($20 million), and clubs between 21-23 get 5 percent ($10 million).
3. Contract terms:
A six-year contract limit seems reasonable, as does seven seasons to unrestricted free agency (as it is now). No more front-loaded contracts. All contracts will pay the same in every season, including signing bonuses. And no more burying NHL contracts in the minor-leagues to circumvent the salary cap; that’s a huge advantage for big-market clubs. Entry-level deals should remain at three years.