There you go.

GL and other Canadians,
It's not lost on American nhl fans that without Canada, nhl doesn't exist.
most nhl fans love canada
It's fun to lolcanada, but 100% with love

Nice to see some bargaining movement, but still a long way to go.

While I def think that's true for everyone ITT, I feel it is not with love for other SE regs

there are other se regs?

what is this "SE" you guys are talking about?

Yeah, nice shot of excitement, but the more I read the less I think players accept this.

That 50/50 thing is sooo good for the league. "Look, we're meeting halfway. Why don't they accept?" etc.

Proposal has 5 year term limits with no more than 5% yearly variance. Trying for the NBA formula.

Entry level contracts are 2 years, arbitration eligibility from 4th year to 5th.

what? i read that ELC will be 4 years, but arbitration stays.

It's a weird paradox. I've never understood people up here who say "well, I'm cheering for the last Canadian team left." I tell people all the time how dumb they sound when they say that. I would've had one leg dangling off the bridge if the Canucks won two years ago. But yeah, the anthem is an easy way to get the crowd riled up into a frenzy, just like in Chicago; don't think it's much different than that. I swell up with pride when I hear the anthem but I have no disillusions about any type of "us vs. them" complex. There are players of all nationalities on every team and my favourite team isn't contingent on nationalism.

Having said that, even though I have no real attachment to Winnipeg, I was ecstatic when the Jets returned. I'll be ecstatic when the Nordiques return. Hindsight is obviously 20/20 and it was never a guarantee that our dollar would've recovered as dramatically as it has, but there are a lot of us who've always been adamant that these markets foster the right environment for success; watching this league run headfirst into two work stoppages because they're running an unsustainable business model - which is their own doing - is maddening as hell.

My new favorite part of this thread is when Goose said all of Canada was rooting for Edmonton and Calgary when they went to the finals.

Bruins beat writer:

Geddy, sorry about the story with your dad's company, but is not unique to Canada. Plenty of American businesses went broke under new management. It's a self imposed crutch, just like the "oh well, we were victims of our weak dollar in the 80s-90s. not like we could do anything about it" inferiority complex.

It's strictly business. There are inefficiencies in the market, and franchises/factories/jobs move because of this all the time. Hell, Canadians are buying ALL the american milk from a costco somewhere across the border from Surrey because of the weak American dollar. Some people are upset that they can't buy milk, but Costco is laughing all the way to the bank. No one feels inferior because of it over here.

They also wouldn't feel inferior if all American franchises were eliminated from the playoffs, or if the national team lost to honduras 6-0. gj;ge.

My apologies, the actual footy score was 8-1.

I remember walking out of a Hooters after Game 6 with the biggest grin on my face knowing that Calgary just got robbed of the Stanley Cup.

To be honest I do remember quite a few casual fans with that sentiment "Might as well cheer for the last Canadian team" during Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver's years.

I'm pretty sure CBC and TSN create this idea, much like Norman Chad and ESPN create the buzz around "The last woman standing" at the WSOP.

Yes I realize I just compared Canadian hockey teams to female poker players.

I don't think you're really catching the grasp of what I'm saying here. I get that economic circumstances can dictate relocation and restructuring; I was talking about situations with subsidiaries where the prevailing attitude was "we know better and we'll do it better because we are better." That's not a crutch and that's a problem we've had to deal with for years.

Bob McKenzie ‏@TSNBobMcKenzie
1. Entry level would go from 3 to 2 yrs. 2. Salary arb eligibility would go from 4th to 5th yr. 3. UFA goes 7/27 (service/age) to 8/28.

That's hilarious

A PA rep or two say the NHL is changing the definition of HRR.

NHL says "no we're not. Here's our full proposal as proof!"

http://www.nhl.com/ice/m_news.htm?id=643570

Logan Couture tweeting that he must have missed the league releasing all the info from their first proposal. Love it.

PR battle is exactly what the fans want....

Some highlights from the proposal that was posted on NHL.com

2012-13 salary cap: $59.9M
No roll back of salaries
HRR still to be defined clarified, likely staying the same

ELC of 2 years
UFA at 28 years old or 8 seasons

5 year contract limit
Maximum 5% increase or decrease in salary from year to year in a contract

sorry, I got most of that, but ELC?

Entry level contract.

lol at this. escrow is still there, so players salaries are still reduced in the event the league does poorly (most likely because of the lockout).

the owners don't really care if they rollback the huge salaries or if they just reduce everyone's paycheck by X% as long as X% of league-wide payrolls is at least as large as the rollback they want.

yeah i don't really get where they're going with that, or why.

if you're giving up 5-7% and the cap is going down, you're giving up money somehow, whether it's in the form or rollbacks or escrow payments that you end up losing.

do they think there's a possibility that revenue will increase to the point that they'll get that escrow money back or something? any financial experts wanna chime in here?

if this CBA offer ends up as the framework of the new deal, then i am real curious about the ELC clause.

seems like guys who just signed 3-year ELCs just got pwned. Malcolm Subban probably did ok though, because lolGoalies. everyone who is already playing on their ELC deal just lost a year of RFA to arbitration and a year of UFA to RFA. which could be huge for guys like Nugent-Hopkins, Subban, Landeskog, O'Reilly, etc.

eberle ends up giving up just 1 year of UFA instead of 2 for the big money. hall ends up giving up just 2 years instead of 3. so they made out ok.

shea weber may be the biggest winner, with that much signing bonus he is lockout-proof.

I think the owners deal is more than fair. I like 5 year maximum contracts.

I just do not understand how NHL players deserve NFL and NBA type contracts. You have no TV revenue and are gate Driven. Players are greedy in my opinion. This type of contract should protect us from the idiot owners. Heck Even the Minnesota GM turned into an idiot owner with those two last signings

Salary caps and lockouts do not exist to one Paul Holmgren.