Ryan: As NHL owners backtrack on CBA terms, could we be looking at a lost season in 2020-21?

Just eight days after the Tampa Bay Lightning triumphantly hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup in front of an empty Rogers Place in Edmonton, the NHL and NHLPA issued a joint edict on the upcoming COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, declaring Jan. 1, 2021 as the targeted starting date for the new campaign.

Amid all of the turmoil and headaches brought upon by reviving (and safely completing) a season in the midst of a pandemic, etching the starting date for a new season into the calendar stood as another positive step forward for a league looking to weather the fiscal and societal maelstrom created by COVID-19.

If there was a silver lining (as extremely small as it was) to all that has transpired in the past eight months, it'd be that labor peace appeared to be achieved between the NHL and Players' Association in the midst of all this misery, with the historically quarrelsome parties finding common ground and making the appropriate concessions in order to see the 2019-20 season through.

That included the approval of a four-year extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement just ahead of the 2019-20 season restart in July, with compromises such as a 20 percent escrow cap and 10 percent salary deferment for players in 2020-21 struck as part of the new deal. These measures, which eat into the players' gross pay for a season, were made in order to keep the NHL afloat amid a bleak financial climate in 2021 — headlined by a season likely marred by dried-up revenue streams and the likely scenario in which games are played with little to no fans in attendance, at least through the winter.

But amid some of those dour scenarios, the NHL at least found itself on solid ground entering this offseason — braced by the backing of the NHLPA and the supposed security provided by this new CBA. Getting a new season off the ground would still be no small task, given the multiple safety protocols, realignments, scheduling and more measures that need to be addressed, but it appeared as though a suddenly united front between owners and players were committed to bringing hockey back in short order.

But fast forward a few months later, and any progress made between the league, owners and players — much like that Jan. 1 starting date — has been fixed in place.

While the NBA readies itself for its augmented 2020-21 season — in which individual workouts at training camp are set to begin TODAY — the NHL is still dragging its feet, failing to release any concrete details on what a new season might look like as that still-scheduled Jan. 1 date inches closer and closer.

As of Tuesday morning, no major progress has been made during discussions between the NHL and the NHLPA about the upcoming season — with the failure to agree to a framework by this week just about spelling doom for any hope of the league realistically getting the green light for a new season by the new year.

Of course, ensuring the safety of the players, coaches, staff, their families, fans and thousands of others should remain the priority when it comes to all parties putting a plan in place for the 2020-21 season.

But for now, the top impediment remains unchanged from just a few weeks ago. It's not about safety measures. It's not about vaccines. Not about border issues. Or even the amount of games even feasible on a shortened docket in 2021.

No, of course not.

As David Byrne famously puts it: "Same as it ever was."

It once again is coming down to money, with the owners' attempt to extract even more fiscal concessions from its players potentially putting this whole season in jeopardy before it can even get started.



Despite the agreed-upon terms of an escrow cap and salary deferment, the horrid financial outlook on the horizon this season (which seemed rather evident months ago) now has owners asking for even more of a bailout in order to assuage what is going to be a year of hurting for just about every sporting franchise across North America.

Given how much the NHL is reliant on gate revenue — along with the number of ownership groups whose primary business revolves around industries shuttered by the ongoing pandemic (food service and hospitality firm Delaware North among them) — it should have been a given that numerous franchises were going to find themselves on the ropes this season.

But rather than taking one on the chin (or properly planning for such economic turmoil in the year(s) ahead), the owners instead are looking to amend a CBA that they signed just FOUR MONTHS ago — squeezing even more out of a pool of players that were already in line to cough up a significant portion of their total salary in 2020-21 due to escrow/deferment.

According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the league is now asking for an additional 16 percent deferral and another 5 percent added to the escrow cap ON TOP of the already agreed to 10/20 percent concessions made in terms of salary/escrow in the current CBA. Sheesh.

Now, an article in the new CBA did open the door for the owners to break out a bottle of Wite-Out and alter some terms,  noting that: "The parties also agree to continue discussions regarding the possibility of allowing Players and Clubs to negotiate additional deferrals on a case-by-case basis.” The CBA does rule out the prorating of salaries, however.

So even if the NHL miiiiiight be able to ask for additional money back from its players, it's not operating with a whole lot of good faith here — with the players understandably steamed about having to relinquish even more of their paychecks after thinking they reached labor peace earlier this summer. All things considered, the players could opt to just not negotiate under these new terms, which were not part of any of the discussions back in June and July.

So for now, we all wait — with the NHL and NHLPA looking to see who blinks first as precious, precious time continues to slip away.

Perhaps the owners — whether it be after signing that CBA in the summer or perhaps as late as October when that Jan. 1 date was set down — were viewing the turn of the new year with rose-colored glasses, with vaccines or other protocols ensuring that at least a couple thousand fans would be able to safely watch games in person by January.

But projecting such a sunny scenario was a foolhardy measure if the league based its financial outlook on something similar actually playing out. Some additional details from Kevin McGran's latest column in the Toronto Star are even more damning for the owners — as the league's board of governors reportedly "unanimously endorsed" the MOU presented by Gary Bettman back in July. According to McGran, some of those votes were "merely on Bettman's recommendation", with a subsequent review of the terms of the new CBA drawing the ire of owners and teams that had already dotted the i's and crossed the t's on the new agreement.

So now, the NHL and owners are looking to take even more from the players in order to absolve themselves from their own poor planning and lax review of the CBA terms in place?

Of course, we could reach the doomsday scenario in which many cash-strapped owners simply opt to sit out the 2020-21 season, rather than take on the financial haymaker that is playing 40+ games with little to no fans in attendance. Such a scenario might be more real than one might think, as McGran noted that it will likely cost each team close to $150 million to play a whole season without fans — with some teams noting to Bettman that they might be better off without a season at all.

Of course, that remains as the worst-case scenario here, and one that would hurt just about all involved — and that goes beyond the obvious consternation from fans and players alike.

Even if teams are going to operate at a major loss, a woeful 2020-21 season (financially, at least) is better than no season at all for the league, especially given that the NHL is looking to close out the final year of its TV and rights-holding contract with NBC in 2021 — setting the stage for a potentially lucrative new deal with other networks in 2021-22 and beyond.

Striking gold on a new TV/streaming/rights deal with another major network (or multiple entities) in 2021-22 would be just the stimulus package that the NHL is looking for, giving the league the capital it needs to bounce back in the years ahead — especially with the Seattle Kraken arriving onto the scene that same year.

But for as much as striking a deal to get the 2020-21 season rolling should make PLENTY of sense for the league's owners, finding solace in common sense can often be a draining exercise when it comes to following the war of attrition that is a labor stalemate in the NHL.

So, for now, we wait. Same as it ever was.