NHL News: Season on the brink, Panthers make historic hire, and more
Anthony Scultore
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Last night news broke that the NHLPA was being asked to renegotiate the CBA for the 2020-2021 season. The rumor circulating was that the NHL was hinting at a possible cancellation of the season if they did not.
NHL season on the brink?
The NHLPA met last night with almost 100 of its members for over 2 hours. They discussed the NHL asking its players to defer another 13% of their salary. This is on top of what they already agreed to and would bring the total to 62% of pay for next season.
If that wasn’t all, the league is also asking them to raise the escrow in the final year from 6% to 8%. All of this has the players upset and agents as well. Allan Walsh asked Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly a question on Twitter. “Does the NHL’s word mean anything?” he wrote. “The ink is barely dry on the new CBA and you’re demanding additional concessions from the players? You made the deal now honor the deal.”
The NHLPA is still discussing and will meet again on the issues.
NHL proposed a 60 game regular season to be played in four to four and half months. That would be one game every 2.25 days per team. This will be the season of the backups for sure.
Florida Panthers make a historic hire
The Panthers announced the hiring of Brett Peterson. He is the first black assistant GM in the NHL.
“It’s exciting whenever you get a chance to kind of reignite a boyhood dream of chasing the Stanley Cup, being in the National Hockey League,” Peterson said. “Having the opportunity to be the first at something is even more exciting, something I never would have expected.”
The Hockey Diversity Alliance’s Akim Aliu called the hiring a “huge step in hopefully the right direction.”