Hockey Night in DSP-Season 2011-12

[toonarmy]

Nashville has one of the richest owners in the league, worth around $1.5 billion. The Preds were 20th in the league in attendance last year, and that was with Weber, Suter, and a competitive team. If they do not re-sign Weber then their franchise will struggle to sell tickets. Four first-round draft picks are meaningless. First off, it will be many years before the picks will be ready for the NHL. Second, those picks may or may not pan out. The fans can lose interest fast in a team without a bonafide star and that performs poorly. Nashville is not exactly a market with a long tradition of hockey fans, so they need to maintain the momentum they have gained. I know the Preds would have to throw a lot of money to keep Weber, but that is the nature of the business sometimes when you are looking at the health of your organization. It will be tough for the Preds to suck it up and pay that much to a player, but they will be stupid not to do so. Either way, I like what the organization has done over the years and hope they come out of this situation okay.

BTW, just think about the first PP unit for Philly with Weber on it. That would be fun to watch.

[Diablo25]

BTW, just think about the first PP unit for Philly with Weber on it. That would be fun to watch.

[Naples39]

Looks like Rick Nash has been traded to the Rangers. I don't really care where he goes, just as long it's finally done.

[10spro]

Obviously the asking price went down for Howson.

[Feanor]

Looks like Rick Nash has been traded to the Rangers. I don't really care where he goes, just as long it's finally done.

Thank god Holmgren didn't give Columbus Schenn plus Couturier for him.

[Diablo25]

Looks like Rick Nash has been traded to the Rangers. I don't really care where he goes, just as long it's finally done.

Thank god Holmgren didn't give Columbus Schenn plus Couturier for him.

AMEN. I like them both but love Couturier.

[10spro]

As I expected, NAS matched the Flyers' offering. A no brainer really given the caliber of Weber's play. The upfront money may hurt them in the short run but looking at the future they have a solid foundation now in Shea and Rinne. Now, if Weber is really unhappy in music city we'll all find out after this coming season where D. Poile can ask for the moon if the situation so arises.

[10spro]

Owners don't seem to like the NHLPA's counteroffer to the league. At this point it looks to me that it would take a miracle for the 12-13 season to start on time, but at least there's talk albeit very little progress.

[Diablo25]

Wayne Simmonds 6 year extension with the Flyers one of my favorite players in the city...any sport. Now let's please get the season started on time.

[Naples39]

Mostly out of boredom, I wrote a blog today explaining my willful ignorance of CBA negotiation "news." I get the feeling a lot of hockey fans feel the same way. If you're bored... http://mostlyflyers.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... ckout.html

[Diablo25]

Mostly out of boredom, I wrote a blog today explaining my willful ignorance of CBA negotiation "news." I get the feeling a lot of hockey fans feel the same way. If you're bored... http://mostlyflyers.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... ckout.html

Nice take Naples. I feel the same way on most of your points. It is going to blow when things would normally be kicking in and they don't.

[Naples39]

I thought this was pretty interesting...
http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/list/#p_1_s_d6_

18 NHL teams in the red last year. League profits heavily concentrated in a few teams (including the Oilers!? although their revenue was strictly middle of the pack)

[Naples39]

So I've watched a few minutes here and there of euro-hockey.

I saw the first few minutes of ESPN's broadcast of the KHL Prague-Moscow game. It was mostly for the sideshow and curiosity. Steve Levy was a bemused pbp-guy, Melrose was cackling left and right, one of the coaches looked straight out of Hollywood casting as "drunk russian man #2", and there were cheerleaders in aisles. The hockey I saw was pretty boring though, slow pace of play, extremely conservative neutral zone coverage. Admittedly it was a small sample size though, but I know the game ended 1-0 on a garbage goal.

I watched a little more of the Berlin game just now, which is streamed for free online. Briere and Giroux are playing on the same line for this team. Other than the bigger ice surface, the game was not entirely dissimilar from NA style hockey. A 6-5 final in the end. The funny thing watching this game was Giroux is wearing his usual 28, but Briere is wearing 84 and another guy named Talbot on their line was and wearing 48.

I might have to get used to it as the CBA negotiations still have yet to really begin in earnest.

[10spro]

I was just going to suggest that if fans want to see some the physicality practiced in the NHL, the German league would be the one to follow. This along some KHL and the junior programs here will keep me satisfied until Bettman decides to resume the season in mid December.

[10spro]

The league just came up with a new proposal that's encouraging. The new NHL proposal includes four year deals on entry level contracts, UFA for players at age 28 or eight years of NHL service, a five year limit on non-entry level contracts and revenue sharing at or near $200 million. It also includes A 50/50 split on share revenues. The season would start Nov 02 consisting still on 82 games. It's up to the players now...

[Naples39]

The league just came up with a new proposal that's encouraging. The new NHL proposal includes four year deals on entry level contracts, UFA for players at age 28 or eight years of NHL service, a five year limit on non-entry level contracts and revenue sharing at or near $200 million. It also includes A 50/50 split on share revenues. The season would start Nov 02 consisting still on 82 games. It's up to the players now...

I need to read more about this proposal, but it sounds like the negotiations are actually about to begin for real.

[toonarmy]

It's about time! Too bad it took the owners this long to propose something reasonable. My guess is the players will want a slightly higher pct. and perhaps slightly longer contract lengths, among other things. Not enough details have been revealed to get a comprehensive picture of the offer, but what has been revealed seems promising. As Naples says, at least the negotiations can get serious now. A lot more pressure has now been shifted to Fehr. It'll be interesting to see what he counters with. Getting a full 82-game season in with a Nov 2 start would only mean an extra game every 5 weeks for each team supposedly, so there is definitely some hope of having a full season.

One thing that would be a nice gesture to the fans would be to offer a very steep discount on the various TV/internet hockey packages. It's still not too late to save some face and gain some of the goodwill back from the fans.

[pk500]

One thing that would be a nice gesture to the fans would be to offer a very steep discount on the various TV/internet hockey packages. It's still not too late to save some face and gain some of the goodwill back from the fans.

Amen. But don't count on it. Bettman knows we're lemmings.

[greggsand]

If this deal ended with premant 50 game regular seasons, it'd be all for it. Less games, they mean more, so charge more. Win win win. (Yes, I know it won't happen - let a guy dream).

[Naples39]

One thing that would be a nice gesture to the fans would be to offer a very steep discount on the various TV/internet hockey packages. It's still not too late to save some face and gain some of the goodwill back from the fans.

Amen. But don't count on it. Bettman knows we're lemmings.

Tomorrow will be a huge day when the players make their formal response. A huge motivating factor for the NHL is the 10/25 date to make a deal and preserve the 82-game season, precisely because they won't have to concede any revenue for things like season tickets or subscription packages.

The more I think about it, I think a deal will come together very quickly, or the players will say "there is no way we can make a final deal in 8 days" and the NHL will lose their urgency to save the 82-game season, and the sides will re-trench their positions.

[Diablo25]

LETS PLAY HOCKEY! Get this s*** done!

[10spro]

One thing that would be a nice gesture to the fans would be to offer a very steep discount on the various TV/internet hockey packages. It's still not too late to save some face and gain some of the goodwill back from the fans.

Amen. But don't count on it. Bettman knows we're lemmings.

Tomorrow will be a huge day when the players make their formal response. A huge motivating factor for the NHL is the 10/25 date to make a deal and preserve the 82-game season, precisely because they won't have to concede any revenue for things like season tickets or subscription packages.

The more I think about it, I think a deal will come together very quickly, or the players will say "there is no way we can make a final deal in 8 days" and the NHL will lose their urgency to save the 82-game season, and the sides will re-trench their positions.

Well, I am thinking otherwise. Until the league definitively declares what's in the 50-50 pot, the players won't bite. I don't think they're too happy about contracts lasting only 5 years either and honestly owners want to get rid of the bad ones they signed NOW if they could. Tomorrow will be very interesting though, I don't expect the NHLPA to accept this at all but at least it's an offer that they can talk about. An offer that the league should have proposed from the beginning. When all is said and done, I doubt they'll start the season on Nov 02nd.

[Naples39]

The players presented 3 plans today. Bettman says they're not speaking the same language, that the proposals are nowhere close, and that today was a step backwards.

Looks like these negotiations may not even get off the ground.

[pk500]

The official theme song of today's negotiations:

[10spro]

The players presented 3 plans today. Bettman says they're not speaking the same language, that the proposals are nowhere close, and that today was a step backwards.

Looks like these negotiations may not even get off the ground.

Not surprising. The longer this drags on and based on the counter proposals today, the worse it'll look on the PA side. D. Fehr is a harda$$, not much baseball was played when his was representing his players there, and based on Bettman's body language today, if this doesn't get solved by mid- December, you can kiss this season goodbye.